SBCLTER News

ME students developing wave presssure sensor

UCSB Mechanical Engineering majors are developing a low-cost programmable pressure instrument as an alternative to commercially available devices. The specialized device is designed to be mounted to the ocean floor at a depth of approximately 30 meters for up to six months. It uses a pressure transducer to measure pressure variations due to the change in water column height, and can be enhanced to measure temperature if needed. Data is collected, processed and stored on a Standard Digital (SD) Card. Wave measurement parameters are programmed using a Graphical User Interface (GUI). For more information on the project, contact Libe Washburn.

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.

SBC-Students and Postdocs to participate in 1st UC-LTER symposium at Scripps

Six SBC students and postdocs will participate in the 1st UC-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 Ryan Rykaczewski for more information.

SBC Publications DB makes use of XQuery.

All citations in SBC's publications database have been added to the eXist database and can be queried using XQuery, a specification approved by the W3C in 2007. It is expected to be available on the public website by the end of February. See dev version at: http://sbc.lternet.edu:8080/exist/xquery/sbc_biblio.xml.

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.

SBC Investigator John Melack named AAAS Fellow.

SBC Investigator John Melack was awarded the distinction of Fellow by AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) in recognition of his research on the inherently interdisciplinary topics of limnology and watershed-level biogeochemical cycles in high mountains, saline lakes and Amazon wetlands. John will receive the award at the Fellow Forum during the 2008 AAAS annual meeting in Boston, MA.

SBC News is syndicated.

News items submitted to SBC are stored in RSS format making them available for syndication. To submit stories, contact Jenny Dugan, or Margaret O'Brien. SBC news is delivered with "blogging" software, and RSS feeds on individual pages are powered by software from feed2js.org. Both products are open source. Contact Margaret for more information.

Former SBC graduate student, Stu Levenbach, accepts position with Federal OMB

In November 2007 former SBC LTER graduate student Stu Levenbach started a position as a Program Examiner for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB). As an examiner for NOAA, Stu reviews the agency's annual budget request and helps recommend the level of funding referred to Congress as part of the President's budget. In addition to budgetary responsibilities, the examiner performs in-depth program evaluations, reviews proposed regulations, approves agency testimony, and analyzes pending legislation. The examiner is often called upon to provide analysis for the Executive Office of the President. Stu served as the SBC LTER Graduate Student Representative until 2006 and he represented California as a Sea Grant John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow placed with staff of the Senate's Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Stu completed his PhD in June 2007. His dissertation research focused on community-wide ramifications of an associational refuge on shallow rocky reefs.

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/). 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, rocky intertidal and sandy beach monitoring activities at Campus Point. The day's activities were 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, the SEEDS program received the 2006 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Seven SBC graduate students graduated in 2007

Complete citations for their Theses or Dissertations are in our publications database.
Clarissa Anderson: Environmental Controls of phytoplankton community structure in the Santa Barbara Channel: application to the dynamics and detection of harmful diatom blooms. PhD., Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Marine Science University of California Santa Barbara.
Jeff Brinkman: Influences of human disturbance and natural physical and chemical variables on biological community structure in streams of southern coastal Santa Barbara County, California, and an index of biological integrity. M.A., Dept. of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Brian Kinlan: Quantitative spatial ecology of benthic ecosystems in temperate coastal upwelling zones. PhD. Dept. of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Kristi Klose: Complex effects of an invasive consumer Procambarus clarkii on temperate and tropical stream benthic communities PhD. Dept. of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Sarah Lester: Marine macroecology: the effects of dispersal and reproductive output on species' geographic distributions. PhD. Dept. of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology University of California, Santa Barbara.
Stu Levenbach: Community-wide ramifications of an associational defense on shallow temperate reefs PhD. Dissertation. Dept. of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Michael Rossiter, Maya Dehner, Ruyan Siew, Christina Ciarametaro and Drew Beckwith: Evaluation of rainfall-runoff relationships to inform development of an incentive program for stormwater pollution reduction in South Coast watersheds. Group project as part of the Masters of Environmental Science and Management professional degree program at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Remote assessment of kelp dynamics

PIs Siegel, Gaines, Kyriakidas, Zimmerman (ODU) and Hill (ODU) received new funding from NASA to develop a predictive understanding of kelp canopy cover, biomass, productivity and canopy condition using SPOT imagery along with metapopulation and bio-optical modeling. They will integrate their results with measures of disturbance and other evnvironmental factors to develop a unified remote assessment of kelp dynamics for the nearshore waters off California.

Stu Levenbach receives John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship

California Sea Grant announced that Stu Levenbach, an SBC graduate student, is one of two new Knauss Fellows from California and will join 42 other winners in Washington, D.C. for a yearlong mentoring program in federal marine policy. Stu has been placed with republican staff on the Senate's Commerce Committee, which includes Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Ted Stevens (Alaska). "I have always been interested in policy," Levenbach said. "But I wanted to earn my stripes as a scientist before I ventured into policy. The fellowship allowed me to enter into the world of policy from a science background. ... I think there will be a lot of fisheries and aquaculture issues, as well as climate issues." More information on Sea Grant and the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships can be found at http://www.csgc.ucsd.edu (under "Education").

High resolution imagery from SPOT available

In June 2005, UCSB and TerraImage USA joined efforts to establish a unique collaboration allowing UCSB researchers unprecedented and nearly unfettered access to SPOT data and targeting opportunities for North America. In November 2006 the UCSB SPOT Center signed a contract allowing it to offer North American SPOT imagery to other U.S. academic institutions. To date, 35,000 scenes are available and it is expected that this database will grow at a rate of 8,000 scenes per month for the next year.

2006 LTER All Scientists Meeting

SBC-LTER was represented by ~20 participants at the LTER All Scientists Meeting in September of 2006 in Estes Park, Colorado. For more information on the meeting and program visit http://www.lternet.edu/ASM. Santa Barbara Coastal's posters and Powerpoint presentations can be found on our internal data server.

7th International Temperate Reefs Symposium

The 7th International Temperate Reefs Symposium was held at UC Santa Barbara June 26-July 1, 2006. More information on the symposium, sessions and speakers is available at http://sbc.lternet.edu/ITRS_2006.

SBC at 2006 Science Fairs

Local high school students, Kristin Hempy and Angie Afman, mentored by Jenny Dugan, completed a science project comparing kelp wrack consumption by beachhoppers on groomed and ungroomed sandy beaches and competed in the Santa Barbara County Science Fair in April 2006. Their project entitled "Beach Grooming: Does it banish the beachhoppers?" was one of the three finalists for the Life Science division, which made them eligible to compete in the California State Science Fair in May. At the state science fair the students earned state honorable mention in the senior enviromental science category. They were also awarded $500 by American Shore and Beach Society for this project on coastal ecology.

SBC LTER renewal proposal successful

The recently announced success of our renewal proposal means our project looks forward to the 6 more years of exciting research. Full text of the renewal proposal is available (SBC-LTER Proposals).

Arroyo Burro Watershed Virtual Tour released

The SBC Schoolyard project has developed a "virtual tour" of a local creek watershed, Arroyo Burro, on CD. Included are a flyover of the watershed, an interactive rain and runoff animation activity, plus chapters describing natural history and lesson plans. An abbreviated web version of the module can be accessed from our "Resources for Teachers" web page, and a copy of the CD requested from sbc_outreach@msi.ucsb.edu. The virtual tour was demonstrated at the Kid's Creek Festival sponsored by the Community Environmental Council on June 25, 2006 at the Watershed Resource Center at Arroyo Burro Beach. For more information on the Watershed Resources Center visit their website or call 963-0583.

SBC Bibliography - Phase I launched

The first phase of SBC's bibliography database has been launched at http://sbc.lternet.edu/publications. Citations and presentations since the start of the project can be searched by author, and are also linked from names on SBC's People page. The database is being developed using EML and Metacat, and the next version will employ searches based on author, citation type, year and keyword.