houck2040/artisci huggingface dataset:
iodp expedition 378: south pacific paleogene climate (image courtesy of iodp)iodp expedition 378 co-chief scientists dr debbie thomas and dr ursula röhl at the beginning of the expedition (photo courtesy of dr debbie thomas)
thomas and the ship are old friends she took her first research cruise on the ship when she was a graduate student at the university of north carolina in 2001the trip to the northern pacific ocean centered on the shatsky rise the largest dormant underwater volcano in the world that later was renamed tamu massif by former texas a&m oceanographer will sager the primary goal of the expedition was to recover sediments that recorded climate history over the past 120 million years thomas said the trip was crucial in her studies as most of her masters and doctoral research focused on a rapid global warming event that occurred 56 million years ago but she also gained new knowledge of how the oceans transport heat during extremely warm climate events overall she said the trip changed her life it is hard to imagine any other major scientific collaboration in which graduate students and early career researchers have the opportunity to work alongside and learn directly from the legends and pioneers of our science she said i cant begin to describe the brilliant minds and amazing people with whom i got to spend two months i am also exceedingly proud that my service on leg 198 connected me with the college of geosciences at texas a&m will sager encouraged me to apply for a position and i ultimately earned the job since joining the faculty here two of my own phd students have had the chance to sail on iodp expeditions and all of my students have used samples recovered from the joides for their research it is hard thomas said for me not to get emotional when i think of how privileged i am as the dean of the college of geosciences to help contribute to the leadership and success of iodp after all that the program has done for me and my career you can follow the teams daily progress on the research cruise expedition site thomas also is posting regular updates to her personal expedition blog by keith randall texas a&m division of marketing and communications
corals at the east bank reef in the flower garden banks national marine sanctuary show a distinct mortality line with dead white coral below and living brown coral above (noaa flower garden banks national marine sanctuary)a dead sea urchin in the area of mortality on the east bank coral reef of the flower garden banks national marine sanctuary (noaa flower garden banks national marine sanctuary)
a view of the frozen hudson river on jan 5 2018 in dobbs ferry new york (getty images)dr george allen
in what is believed to be the most comprehensive study of its kind a team of researchers that includes a texas a&m university geographer has found the amount of ice in the earths rivers has rapidly declined over the past three decades and the trend is likely to continue dr george allen assistant professor in the department of geography at texas a&m university is part of the study led by researchers at the university of north carolina that is published in the current issue of nature magazine more than a third of the earths land mass is drained by rivers that seasonably freeze over forming river ice examining more than 400 000 satellite images over the past 34 years the team found that the overall amount of river ice has been declining and will almost certainly continue to do so as global temperatures continue to rise the researchers found that for every degree of increase in global temperature there will be about 6 days less of ice per year on rivers that freeze we found that 56 percent of earths rivers are seasonally affected by river ice which amounts to a much greater proportion of rivers than previously thought allen said we found that almost all the river ice is located in the northern hemisphere with only rivers in southernmost portions of new zealand patagonia and australia it is important to note that we only observed rivers with widths over 300 feet so it is likely that there a lot of smaller rivers and streams that also freeze but we did not detect them allen said that rivers are natural hotspots for greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere and these emissions typically slow down or completely stop when rivers freeze the teams findings that the occurrence of river ice is declining suggests that the global river network is contributing more and more to the atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions the anticipated acceleration in the decline of river ice is not evenly distributed around the world allen said in the united states river ice is expected to decline most rapidly in the rocky mountains and in the northeast if youve lived in texas for a long time you probably havent thought that much about the importance of river ice allen said however in many parts of the world river ice plays important roles in transportation and in ecosystems for example during the winter many remote arctic civilizations rely on frozen rivers as ice roads in the spring during river ice breakup ice jams can cause unpredictable and hugely disruptive floods but these floods actually benefit ecosystems by distributing nutrients across floodplains allen said the study is made possible by two recent technological developments one is the first global map of river location and width from optical satellite images and the second is cloud- based data provided by google earth engine that makes processing hundreds of thousands of satellite images relatively easy the study was funded by the nasa/cnes surface water and ocean topography (swot) satellite mission which is planned for launch in september 2021 and is expected to provide unprecedented observations of earths rivers and lakes by keith randall texas a&m marketing & communications
iodp expedition 378 co-chief scientists dr debbie thomas and dr ursula röhl at the beginning of the expedition (photo courtesy of dr debbie thomas)
when the earth endured extreme warmth in the past how were environmental conditions ocean temperatures ocean circulation and wind patterns impacted that question is actually answerable and the key lies in ancient records at the bottom of earths oceans: layers of sediments below the ocean floor expedition 378 of the international ocean discovery program (iodp) aboard the joides resolution (jr) research vessel began jan 3 from lautoka fiji and is investigating the record of cenozoic climate and oceanography in the southern pacific ocean dr debbie thomas dean of the college of geosciences at texas a&m university and dr ursula röhl from the marum - center for marine environmental sciences at the university of bremen in germany are serving as co-chief scientists of the south pacific paleogene climate expedition which will conclude feb 6 in papeete tahiti expedition 378 operations will recover the sediment sequences from a site south of new zealand critical to scientists understanding of high-latitude environmental conditions ocean circulation and wind patterns during a time in recent earth history characterized by extreme warmth thomas said iodp is funded by the national science foundation and other participating countries iodp coordinates seagoing expeditions to study the history of the earth recorded in sediments and rocks beneath the ocean floor the joides resolution science operator (jrso) operates the scientific drillship and the jrso is based in the texas a&m college of geosciences two of the three iodp ocean sediment core repositories are housed at texas a&m and the marum at the university of bremen crucial data for understanding climate dynamics during past periods of global warmth the team will be taking the drillship into the southern pacific to investigate the record of climate and oceanography over the past 66 million years expedition 378 will provide unparalleled opportunities to finally fill an information gap in the southwest pacific by re-drilling one of the first sediment sections recovered in the region providing new information in unprecedented resolution and completeness to the study of long-term cenozoic climate röhl said
iodp expedition 378: south pacific paleogene climate (image courtesy of iodp) ursula röhl co-chief scientist; lisa crowder laboratory officer; laurel childress expedition project manager/staff scientist; and debbie thomas co-chief scientist aboard the joides resolution (photo by tim fulton iodp jrso)
scientists will target sediments deposited during the very warm late paleocene and early eocene including the paleocene-eocene boundary as well as the eocene-oligocene transition to investigate how the eocene earth maintained high global temperatures and high heat transport to the polar regions despite receiving near modern levels of solar energy input due to a last-minute mechanical issue the sole operational objective of the expedition is to recover sediments at a location previously tackled in 1973 but incompletely drilled the sediments at this location likely include the cretaceous/paleogene boundary mass extinction event approximately 66 million years ago investigation of the recovered sediments also will concern the subpolar pacific climate oceanographic structure and biogeochemical cycling of much of the cenozoic the current and most recent geological era that began 66 million years ago recovered sediments will be used to characterize water masses deep and shallow ocean temperature latitudinal temperature gradients the strength of upwelling and the strength of the zonal winds to study both the atmospheric and oceanic climatic subsystems iodp expedition 378 will retrieve important sections that include crucial time intervals for the south pacific area röhl said all efforts will be made to integrate expedition data toward the age of the recovered sediments in relation to time this namely includes correlating and assigning relative ages of sediment strata by using the fossil assemblages data on polarity changes of earth´s magnetic field and cycles that describe the effects of changes in the earth's movements on its climate over thousands of years dr thomas and i are very enthusiastic that such a great group of distinguished early career through senior scientists will participate in this cruise the sediments we recover will provide critical constraints on ocean temperatures and the carbon cycle for the vast south pacific and these data will lead to big leaps in our understanding of climate dynamics during intervals of global warmth thomas said it is an immense privilege to sail with the team of world-class scholars marine technicians drillers and ships crew! collectively 12 nations are represented by the shipboard science party follow along with expedition 378: debbie thomas expedition blog joides resolution expedition blog written in collaboration with marum – the center for marine environmental sciences at the university of bremen germany
julie massey honored with distinguished agent titlein recognition of her longstanding service texas sea grant extension agent julie massey has earned the prestigious title of distinguished agentjan 10 2020photo credit: texas master naturalistsphoto credit: texas sea grantlong-time extension agent with texas sea grant and texas a&m agrilife extension service julie massey has been designated a distinguished agent the new title recognizes masseys outstanding efforts and service to her community in her role as an extension agent in galveston county massey was nominated for the award by her regional leadership team at agrilife extension she was recognized for this accomplishment at the 2020 agrilife conference on jan 9 2020 the designation was developed in 2017 and is only held by a select few extension agents with at least 20 years of experience distinguished agents are selected based on their excellent programming agency leadership community engagement and peer mentoring massey advises and works closely with the galveston bay chapter of the texas master naturalists which contains over 200 volunteers and contributed over 46 000 service hours in 2019 she also organizes the national ocean sciences bowls dolphin challenge a competition to teach high school students about the oceans i am thrilled to receive this recognition massey said i am fortunate to work with master naturalist volunteers who inspire and challenge me as we address texas coastal resource issues in 2014 massey received the superior service award from agrilife extension and was a member of a team awarded the superior service award in 2012 in 2016 massey received the distinguished service award from the national association of county agricultural agents she was also a member of team at texas sea grant that received the assembly of sea grant extension program leaders superior outreach programming award for their hurricane ike response efforts this designation is a reflection of julies exemplary service over the course of her career said cynthia lyle texas sea grant senior associate director and extension leader she is truly deserving and we are proud to have her at texas sea grant by sara carney texas sea grant communications manager
long-time extension agent with texas sea grant and texas a&m agrilife extension service julie massey has been designated a distinguished agent the new title recognizes masseys outstanding efforts and service to her community in her role as an extension agent in galveston county massey was nominated for the award by her regional leadership team at agrilife extension she was recognized for this accomplishment at the 2020 agrilife conference on jan 9 2020 the designation was developed in 2017 and is only held by a select few extension agents with at least 20 years of experience distinguished agents are selected based on their excellent programming agency leadership community engagement and peer mentoring massey advises and works closely with the galveston bay chapter of the texas master naturalists which contains over 200 volunteers and contributed over 46 000 service hours in 2019 she also organizes the national ocean sciences bowls dolphin challenge a competition to teach high school students about the oceans i am thrilled to receive this recognition massey said i am fortunate to work with master naturalist volunteers who inspire and challenge me as we address texas coastal resource issues in 2014 massey received the superior service award from agrilife extension and was a member of a team awarded the superior service award in 2012 in 2016 massey received the distinguished service award from the national association of county agricultural agents she was also a member of team at texas sea grant that received the assembly of sea grant extension program leaders superior outreach programming award for their hurricane ike response efforts this designation is a reflection of julies exemplary service over the course of her career said cynthia lyle texas sea grant senior associate director and extension leader she is truly deserving and we are proud to have her at texas sea grant by sara carney texas sea grant communications manager
tacey hicks michael mccloy and kendall scarlett nominees from texas sea grant have been selected as finalists for the 2023 john a knauss marine policy fellowship program they are three of 86 finalists across the united states nominated by their respective sea grant programs since 1979 over 1 500 fellows have completed the program becoming leaders in science policy and public administration roles hicks is currently a phd student in oceanography at texas a&m university examining seawater chemistry and acidification in various oceanic ecosystems to support informed marine conservation and management decisions mccloy also a phd student at texas a&m university studies ecology and evolutionary biology scarlett is currently pursuing their phd in environmental science from baylor university in waco texas we are so proud of texas three finalists said texas sea grant director dr pamela plotkin this marine policy fellowship is the premiere educational and professional experience that places early career individuals in legislative or executive branch offices in washington dc for real-world life-changing experiences knauss finalists are chosen through a competitive process that includes several rounds of review at both the state sea grant program and national levels students that are enrolled in or have recently completed masters juris doctor (jd) and phd programs with a focus and/or interest in marine and coastal science policy or management apply to one of the 34 sea grant programs if applicants are successful at the state program level their applications are then reviewed by a national panel of experts this years class includes students and recent graduates from 62 distinct universities including 16 finalists from nine minority-serving institutions the finalists represent 29 of the 34 sea grant programs and they completed coursework and research in a range of fields such as biology chemistry ecology engineering environmental science and management law marine and coastal sciences and policy and several disciplines of oceanography the knauss fellowship offers graduate students the invaluable opportunity to put their academic knowledge to practice in tackling marine coastal and great lakes management and policy challenges at the federal level said dr jonathan pennock national sea grant college program director we look forward to welcoming the 2023 class of knauss fellows and seeing how they will apply their unique insights to developing solutions to some of the most important challenges facing the country this fall the 2023 finalists will participate in a virtual placement week to get to know each other and interview with potential host offices following placement they will begin their fellowships in february 2023 want to learn more about the knauss fellowship the knauss blog shares stories from the 2022 knauss class on fellowship experiences and their journeys to dc learn more about this years knauss finalists from the national sea grant college program
lanning holds an expendable bathythermograph (xbt) a sensor that is thrown into the ocean and measures temperature which is then used to calibrate sound velocity for our acoustic multibeam sensor image courtesy of jess davisa trace metal ctd rosette going into the water image courtesy of nathan lanning
to study the impact of diffuse warm-temperature hydrothermal vents texas a&m graduate student nathan lanning spent an exceptional 51 days at sea collecting and filtering water column samples lanning is part of associate professor dr jessica fitzsimmons lab in texas a&ms department of oceanography and they are specifically studying the release of iron and other metals from vents with different temperature fluids this national science foundation (nsf)-funded expedition sailed from sept 18 through nov 6 2021 aboard the r/v roger revelle and was led by chief scientist dr joseph resing from the university of washington other collaborators included scientists from woods hole oceanographic institute old dominion university the university of south carolina and the national oceanic and atmospheric administrations pacific marine environmental laboratory (noaa/pmel) it was an exciting opportunity and im grateful that i was able to take part in it lanning said i was given leadership opportunities and was responsible for tackling complex scientific problems at sea fitzsimmons added i was very glad that nate was able to participate in the plume raiders cruise because it builds upon previous research my group has done to study southern east pacific rise hydrothermal venting which is home to the longest hydrothermal plume known in the global ocean it will also connect well to our upcoming nsf-funded expedition to study metal transport from northeast pacific hydrothermal vents fitzsimmons previous expedition to the southern east pacific rise studied high-temperature black smoker hydrothermal vents and found material from the plumes travelled about 4300 km away from the source
a trace metal ctd rosette in the water image courtesy of nathan lanningautonomous underwater vehicle sentry deployment image courtesy of nathan lanning
the diffuse-flow vent fluids focused on during the plume raiders cruise are significantly cooler and contain fewer metals like iron but they are expelled at much higher volumes thus the researchers believe they may be equally or even more important contributors to the hydrothermally-derived metals in the region lanning primarily sampled from a trace metal clean rosette and then ultrafiltered the samples in a positive-pressure clean bubble set up on the ship so those black smokers are very high temperature vents that reach 300-400 degrees celsius but what were looking at is much cooler below 100 degrees celsius lanning said the diffuse flow vents have clear water released not that black smoke-like water we typically think of the lower temperature of these diffuse-flow fluids and lack of color difference from the surrounding seawater makes diffuse-flow fluids harder to find and thus they are historically less well-studied over the history of hydrothermal vent research because iron is a biologically essential micronutrient required for phytoplankton respiration photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation fitzsimmons and her lab are interested in seeing how far the colloidal nanoparticles of iron and other metals can travel from their source fitzsimmons group is measuring the size and chemical composition of iron in the seawater samples collected from plume raiders in order to understand what controls the amount of iron that is preserved in hydrothermal plumes one of the big questions we have in chemical oceanography is how much of this iron released from hydrothermal vents travels away from its source thousands of kilometers away and makes it to the surface to fertilize the phytoplankton lanning said multiple projects worked in tandem on this cruise to address the overall question of diffuse vent impacts in the region the multiple projects used three different ctd rosette systems for seawater collection multibeam mapping of the ridge crest and surveys of the local bathymetry using whois autonomous underwater vehicle sentry according to lanning to see more about the plume raiders cruise see their twitter feed by justin agan ‘18