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News Release 18-008

Scientists present new long-term ecological research results at annual ocean sciences conference

Highlights include the health of U.S. East Coast salt marshes; influence of sea ice patterns on penguins; diet of blue whales in the California Current

Pacific sardine

The Pacific sardine is an important species in NSF's California Current Ecosystem LTER Site.


January 31, 2018

This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.

Are the U.S. East Coast's salt marshes healthy? How do sea ice patterns affect penguin populations in Antarctica? What diet do blue whales off California specialize in? Is every El Niño the same?

As the oceans continue to change in unprecedented ways, the annual Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM) has become an important venue for exchanging new insights into these and other questions about marine ecosystems.

Co-sponsored by the American Geophysical Union, the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography and The Oceanography Society, the 2018 OSM will be held Feb. 11-16 in Portland, Oregon.

Researchers affiliated with National Science Foundation (NSF) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites will give presentations on coastal and ocean ecosystems, including penguins in Western Antarctica; biogeochemical cycling in the oceans; microbial community structure in the sea; phytoplankton productivity; and salt marsh resilience.

Highlights of NSF LTER research include:

  • New approaches to monitoring phytoplankton and zooplankton communities.
  • Biogeochemical cycling in the California Current, Western Antarctic Peninsula and other regions.
  • Nutrient cycling, ecosystem metabolism and resilience in U.S. East Coast salt marshes.
  • Use of LTER data to study the influence of sea ice patterns on penguin and krill populations in Western Antarctica (special K-12 poster session).

Selected NSF LTER talks and posters are listed below; talks are listed in bold. All times are in Pacific Standard Time.

For more NSF LTER research results, please see the NSF LTER Discovery Article Series.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2018

PO11A-01: Multi-Decadal Changes in Plastic Particle Deposition in the Santa Barbara Basin (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
8:00-8:15 a.m. -- Oregon Convention Center -- A107-A109

ED11B-05: Lessons learned when using video teleconferences (VTC) in the classroom (Palmer Station LTER)
9:00-9:15 a.m. -- Oregon Convention Center -- D139-D140

IS12A-04: Long-Term Ecological Research at MVCO and beyond: New insights from high temporal and taxonomic resolution plankton observations (Northeast U.S. Shelf LTER)
11:15-11:30 a.m. Oregon Convention Center -- E145-E146

BN14D-1065 Biogeochemical and Ecosystem Impacts of Sea Ice Heterogeneity Along the Western Antarctic Peninsula (Palmer Station LTER)
4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

BN14D-1059: Depth and Temporal Variation of Aggregate Export from the Biological Carbon Pump in Upwelling California Coastal Waters (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

BN14D-1069: Carbon Export in California Coastal Waters Is Strongly Underestimated (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

CT14A-1268: Photochemical Degradation of Copper Ligands in the California Current (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2018

BN21B-01: Global in situ imaging of large plankton and particles by the Underwater Vision Profiler in the upper kilometer of all oceans (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
08:00-08:15 a.m. Oregon Convention Center -- D137-D138

EP24C-0799: Is Every El Niño the Same? ENSO-related Zooplankton Community Shifts in the Southern California Current System (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall
4:02 - 4:03 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall Lightning Area

BN24D-1125: Combining High Resolution Organic Matter Characterization and Analysis of Microbial Community Structure to Assess the Effects of Nutrient Loading on Salt Marsh Carbon Sequestration (Plum Island Ecosystems LTER)
4:00-6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

AI24A-1597: Characterization of and controls on phytoplankton productivity along the Western Antarctic Peninsula (Palmer Station LTER)
4:00-6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

IS24A-2582: Dietary Specialization of Blue Whales in the Southern Sector of the California Current System (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
4:00-6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2018

OM31A-05: A Composite Physical-Biological El Nino in the California Current System (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
09:00-09:15 a.m. Oregon Convention Center -- B110-B112

BN13B-02: Observation and Calibration of Carbon Sedimentation following a Dynamic, Chlorophyll-Rich Filament in California Coastal Waters, June 2017 (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
2:15-2:30 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- D137-D138

CD33A-02: The impact of offshore waves and vegetation on the sediment budget in the Virginia Coast Reserve (Virginia Coast Reserve LTER)
2:15-2:30 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Oregon Ballroom 202

BN34A-1140: Unravelling the Contribution of Large Phaeodaria (Rhizaria) to Silicon Fluxes: Insights from the California Current Ecosystem Long Term Ecological Research Site (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
4:00-6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

EP34A-0839: Seagrass Ecosystem Metabolism and Resilience Measured by Eddy Covariance (Virginia Coast Reserve LTER)
4:00-6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

EP34B-0844: Spatial and Temporal Patterns in the Frequency of Sea-Surface Fronts in the California Current System (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
4:00-6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

EP34B-0849: Ecosystem response of the California Current System: from mesoscale to submesoscale (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
4:00-6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

EP34C-0856: Plankton diversity response at mesoscale in the California Current System (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
4:00-6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

EP34C-0858: Implications of Zooglider-detected thin layers for zooplankton predator-prey interactions (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
4:00-6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

EP34C-0859: Detecting Ocean Fronts in the California Current Ecosystem: A Comparison of the Free-fall Moving Vessel Profiler and Underwater Vision Profiler (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
4:00-6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

EP34C-0863: Does Submesoscale Patchiness Enhance Ecosystem Diversity? (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
4:00-6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

ED34B-2412: How Do Long-Term Trends in Sea Ice Extent and Duration Influence Penguin and Krill Populations on the Western Antarctic Peninsula? (Palmer Station LTER)
4:00-6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

MM34B-1502: A Sequential Look at Viral Mortality in an Upwelling Filament Within the California Current Ecosystem (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
4:00-6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2018

ME43A-01: Active Flux by Diel Vertically Migrating Zooplankton Along the Western Antarctic Peninsula (Palmer Station LTER)
2:00-2:15 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- E141-E142

MG44B-0354: The Role of Wind in Controlling Sediment Delivery to Intertidal Salt Marshes (Plum Island Ecosystems, Virginia Coast Reserve, and Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTERs)
4:00-6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

BN44A-1185: Impacts of Phytoplankton Dynamics on Biogeochemistry along the Western Antarctic Peninsula (Palmer Station LTER)
4:00-6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

CT44A-1358: Investigating the Cycling of Dissolved Organic Carbon and Nitrogen along the West Antarctic Peninsula (Palmer Station LTER)
4:00-6:00 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- Poster Hall

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2018

CT51A-03: Molecular Imaging of the Community Metabolome of a Phytoplankton Bloom in the California Current Ecosystem (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
08:30-08:45 a.m. Oregon Convention Center -- D135-D136

MM51A-04: Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Synechococcus Strains off the Southern California Coast (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
08:45-09:00 a.m. Oregon Convention Center -- F151

OD53A-07: One Size Fits All? Determining the Impact of Image Size on Deep Learning Classifications of Marine Zooplankton (California Current Ecosystem LTER)
3:30-3:45 p.m. Oregon Convention Center -- F150

-NSF-

Media Contacts
Cheryl Dybas, NSF, (703) 292-7734, email: cdybas@nsf.gov
Peter West, NSF Polar Programs, (703) 292-7530, email: pwest@nsf.gov
Kristen Weiss, LTER Network Office, (805) 843-2794, email: weiss@nceas.ucsb.edu

The U.S. National Science Foundation propels the nation forward by advancing fundamental research in all fields of science and engineering. NSF supports research and people by providing facilities, instruments and funding to support their ingenuity and sustain the U.S. as a global leader in research and innovation. With a fiscal year 2023 budget of $9.5 billion, NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 40,000 competitive proposals and makes about 11,000 new awards. Those awards include support for cooperative research with industry, Arctic and Antarctic research and operations, and U.S. participation in international scientific efforts.

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