SBC LTER News

Events and Meetings

7th SBC Annual All Science Meeting

Wednesday, June 4, 2008 1-5 pm
Marine Science Institute Auditorium and Courtyard
The agenda for this year's meeting includes an overview of SBC's activities by our lead PI, Dan Reed, reports from ongoing SBC research campaigns and collaborative studies, the ever popular interactive "poster" session, ample discussion time and great refreshments.
If you wish to present an interactive poster, please submit your title to Jenny by May 23rd. For more information on the meeting, please contact Jenny.

Welcome

New Collaborators:
  • Filipe Alberto (Kelp Genetics)
  • Cristina Tague (Hydrology)
New Post Docs:
  • Melanie Fewings (Physical Oceanography)
  • Brian Kinlan (Community Structure)
New and Incoming Graduate Students:
  • Elisa Wallner- Advisor Craig Carlson
  • Helene Finger- Advisor Sally MacIntyre
  • Kristin Landgren- Advisor Dave Siegel
  • Jono Wilson- Advisor Hunter Lenihan
  • Laura Carney- Advisor Matthew Edwards (SDSU)
  • Annaliese Hettinger- Advisor Brian Gaylord
  • Kerry Nickols- Advisor Brian Gaylord

SBC and the Network

SBC members are active on several LTER network committees:
Lead PI Dan Reed in a member of the LTER Executive Board (term expires Sept 2009). The Executive Board is the governing body of the LTER Network. Dan is also a member of the LTER Publications Committee.
PI Libe Washburn was elected to the LTER Network Information Systems Advisory Committee (NISAC) for a three year term starting in September 2006. This committee of PIs, site information managers and LNO personnel is charged with the planning, evaluation and approval all Network data projects.
Margaret O'Brien (SBC's information manager) is a member of the Information Management Executive Committee (term expires Sept 2008). This group plans implementation of the Network Information System goals by the larger IM Committee (which includes representatives from all 26 sites).
Graduate student Andy Rassweiler is SBC's representative on the Graduate Student Committee. Andy serves as the SBC students' contact for Network activities, news and opportunities.

Project News

SBC-Students and Postdocs to participate in 1st UC-LTER symposium at Scripps. Six SBC students and postdocs will participate in the 1st University of California-LTER Graduate Student/Postdoc symposium hosted by the California Current Ecosystem-LTER at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography on Thursday May 29th. A goal of this event is to stimulate cross site exchange and collaboration among the UC-based LTERs. The symposium is a one day event featuring short AGU-style talks, poster sessions and socializing. Please contact Jenny or Ryan Rykaczewski for more information.

SBC Wildlife: Sea otters and gray whales. A group of 20-30 sea otters are using the kelp beds just west of the University of California campus this spring. Although otters have been sighted regularly in the western end of the channel since 1998, this is the largest group to linger this far east into the Santa Barbara Channel for many decades.   This is also a great time of year to watch California gray whales, including females with young calves, just off the coast and diving in the kelp beds as they migrate through the channel to their summer feeding grounds in the Bering Sea.

International supplement from NSF facilitates research collaboration in kelp genetics. SBC LTER was awarded supplemental funding from NSF's International Office of Science and Education to continue its collaboration on kelp genetics with researchers from the Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CMER) at the Universidade do Algarve, Portugal. Molecular microsatellites for the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera are being developed in the laboratory of Drs. Filipe Alberto and Ester Serrao from samples collected at SBC LTER's long-term study sites and being used to investigate levels of population connectivity and self-fertilization in giant kelp forests in the Santa Barbara region. Supplemental funds are being used to support the travel of SBC LTER researchers and graduate students to CMER to learn these newly developed protocols. In summer 2007 Drs. Alberto and Serrao hosted SBC LTER PhD student Laura Carney for a three month visit during which time she refined the molecular protocols for use in her studies of delayed development in the gametophyte stage of Macrocystis.

Outreach News

SBC LTER hosts SEEDS field trip. SBC LTER hosted the fall 2007 Ecological Society of America SEEDS field trip for underrepresented undergraduate students in October 2007. ESA’s SEEDS (Strategies for Ecology, Education, Development and Sustainability) program mission is to diversify and advance the profession of ecology through opportunities that stimulate and nurture the interest and involvement of underrepresented students (http://www.esa.org/seeds).

SEEDs students
SEEDS students aboard the R/V Cormorant
The first day of the field trip featured a visit to the kelp forest and research divers at Mohawk Reef aboard the R/V Cormorant, a guided tour of Santa Barbara’s working harbor led by California Sea Grant Extension Advisor, Carrie Culver, meeting with Roberta Cordero, a Chumash Elder at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, a visit to UCSB’s Reef Education Experience Facility, and rocky intertidal and sandy beach monitoring activities at Campus Point. The day’s activities culminated with dinner at the Cliff House on the UC Reserve at Coal Oil Point where SBC LTER graduate students and faculty speakers highlighted their research and opportunities for graduate studies at UCSB. Saturday’s activities began with a presentation on SBC LTER watershed research followed by a tour of local watersheds and study sites. In the afternoon, the students explored downtown Santa Barbara before returning to their lodging at Camp Whittier in the Santa Ynez Mountains. The SEEDS field trip to SBC LTER was made possible by supplemental funding from NSF and ESA.
Also of note, in November 2007, ESA’s SEEDS program received the 2006 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring sponsored by the National Science Foundation.