Are you a newcomer interested in a Portal 101 session or a returning user who could use a refresher course? Then this webinar is for you!
Join us Tuesday, June 29, from 11 a.m. to noon for a #HowTu lesson on our data, tools and features. Come with your list of questions and learn how to map the Mid-Atlantic in this interactive session.
This webinar is free and open to the public. The lesson will be provided via Zoom by Portal team member Karl Vilacoba of Monmouth University’s Urban Coast Institute. To register, please click here.
Marine debris is a growing global problem with wide-ranging impacts. Although much remarkable work to prevent and remove marine debris has been done, marine debris, particularly plastics, continues to accumulate in our ocean. This poses problems, often with deadly consequences, for marine wildlife as well as impacts to navigation, possibly our human health and our coastal economies.
Please join us on July 20-22 for a virtual Mid-Atlantic Marine Debris Regional Summit. Each of the three half day sessions will inspire collaboration and empower partners to work on solutions to marine debris. Attendees will represent state and federal agencies, tribes, NGOs, academia, and other groups tackling marine debris in the five Mid-Atlantic coastal states (New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia) and Washington, DC. The public also is encouraged to participate.
You are invited to The Causes and Consequences of a Warming Ocean on Thursday, July 29 — the third in a series on climate-induced ocean changes. Our speakers include:
- Dr. Hillary Scannell, a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, on “Drivers and mechanisms of marine heatwaves in the Northwest Atlantic“
- Dr. Andrew Pershing, Director of Climate Science at Climate Central, on “Impacts of ocean temperature extremes on northeast ecosystems and economic”
Join us on July 29th at 9:30 am as we continue to explore how a changing climate is impacting the ocean water of the North Atlantic. “Scientists estimate that the oceans have absorbed more than 90 percent of the heat trapped by excess greenhouse gases since mid-century . . . This excess heat is increasing not only baseline ocean temperatures but also the frequency and duration of marine heat waves,” (New York Times, March 4, 2019).
Please register in advance of the webinar at https://register.gotowebinar.com/rt/3380567658244280336. This webinar series is being co-sponsored by NOAA’s Eastern Region Climate Team, the Mid-Atlantic Committee on the Ocean (MACO) and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association of Coastal and Ocean Observing Systems (MARACOOS).
Join BOEM online as industry subject matter experts discuss updates to offshore wind and maritime activities that have occurred since the 2018 Offshore Wind and Maritime Industry Knowledge Exchange, share how past recommendations and approaches were incorporated in offshore wind and marine transportation co-existence, and continue discussing measures to minimize risk to safety and disruptions to maritime transportation operations while supporting the development of domestic renewable energy.
REGISTER for the upcoming webinar – August 19 – Marine Spatial Planning for the Maritime Sector
Supporting OA Action Planning and Implementation in the Mid-Atlantic
Mid Atlantic Coastal Acidification Network (MACAN) and OA Alliance Virtual Workshop
October 26
1:00 PM – 4:30 PM EST
(3.5 hours in duration)
The majority of the Mid-Atlantic coastal states are pursuing OA Action Planning either as stand-alone efforts or as part of broader coastal/ocean planning efforts. This workshop seeks to connect researchers, state agencies, and/or representatives from state legislatures from across the Mid-Atlantic region to help inform OA Action planning with an emphasis on identifying associated data/ information needs for management and coordinating monitoring where appropriate.
AGENDA
REGISTER
https://bit.ly/3mkR5Le
In person at the Westin Annapolis (100 Westgate Circle Annapolis, MD 21401) and online via Webex webinar.
This meeting will be conducted as a hybrid meeting. Council members, other meeting participants, and members of the public will have the option to participate in person at the Westin Annapolis or virtually via Webex webinar. Both virtual attendees and those attending the meeting in person will use the “raise hand” function in Webex to comment, ask questions, make motions, and vote. We are recommending that all in-person attendees either be vaccinated or receive a negative COVID test prior to meeting attendance. We are also encouraging attendees to wear a mask when moving around the hotel and meeting space.
Webinar Information
The virtual portion of the meeting will be conducted via Webex webinar. No pre-registration is required. The webinar link will be the same for all four meeting days.
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Click here to join the webinar (if prompted, enter meeting number: 2330 933 4966; Meeting password: ncKMj56xX6p)
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Join by phone: For those who will not be joining the webinar but would like to listen in to the audio portion only, dial 1-415-655-0001 and enter access code: 2330 933 4966#). When asked for your attendee ID, enter #. Participants connected by phone only will need to enter *6 on their keypad to unmute/mute themselves and *3 to raise/lower their hands.
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Need Help? If you need technical assistance, please check the Webex Participant Guide. For further assistance, contact Mary Sabo at msabo@mafmc.org or 302-518-1143 (call or text).
We will also be live streaming the meeting to our YouTube channel.
Ocean acidification has subtle and complicated effects on fish because it often affects only the earliest life stages and interacts with other stressors. This project pulled together several types of data from multistressor experiments on Atlantic silversides, an abundant fish along the East Coast, to model their energy budget throughout the life cycle. Using Dynamic Energy Budget theory (DEB) we are able to incorporate different effects at each life stage to reflect the increased tolerance adults have relative to embryos and larvae. Energy budgets can help us test hypotheses about how energy is allocated to needs like homeostasis and reproduction under acidification, and ultimately estimate population-level effects.
Using Gene Silencing to Validate the Role of Perlucin Gene in Oyster Resilience to Ocean Acidification
Caroline Schwaner, Stony Brook University
We previously investigated the molecular mechanisms associated with resilience to ocean acidification in Crassostrea virginica. There were significant differences in SNP and gene expression profiles among oysters reared under normal and OA conditions. Both of these approaches showed similar results, particularly in genes related to biomineralization, including perlucin. In this study, we used RNAi or gene silencing to validate findings and confirm the protective role of perlucin associated with resilience to OA. Silenced oysters under acidification stress were the smallest, had shell abnormalities, and had significantly reduced shell mineralization, thereby indicating that perlucin does help larvae mitigate the effect of OA.
Impacts of extreme events on carbonate system variability in the York River Estuary: a numerical model study
Fei Da, Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Better understanding the carbonate system variability during extreme events will help predict future changes and provide critical information for the local shellfish aquaculture industry. In this study, a coupled hydrodynamic-biogeochemical 3-D high-resolution model is used to investigate the primary controls of the carbonate system in a small sub-estuary of the Chesapeake Bay: the York River Estuary. Net horizontal advection, air-sea CO2 flux, and net community production all play crucial roles in controlling dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and pH, while total alkalinity is relatively conservative. During extreme high discharge events, pH reductions are associated with net heterotrophy and net advection of high DIC upstream water, with increased outgassing playing a counteracting role.
Influence of water quality history on future ocean acidification tolerance in larval eastern oysters in Chesapeake Bay
Anthony Himes, Virginia Institute of Marine Science
One species of calcifying organisms that could be pushed beyond their physiological limits due to future acidification is the eastern oyster, C. virginica, which provides the basis for an expanding aquaculture industry. Previous studies have shown that oyster larvae are negatively impacted by acidification, but less is known about what level of acidification initiates a stress response and how well larvae can modulate these mechanisms. Additionally, little is known about potential differences in stress tolerance among different oyster populations. Therefore, larvae were compared between two different reefs within Chesapeake Bay to assess the hypothesis that reefs exposed to lower salinity conditions will be more tolerant to future acidification due to overlap in the cellular mechanisms responsible for osmoregulation and acid-base regulation.
Development and applications of pH glider technology in the Mid-Atlantic Bight
Liza Wright-Fairbanks, Sea Grant Knauss Fellow, NOAA OAP
Currently, productive coastal systems lack vertically-resolved high-resolution ocean carbonate system measurements on timescales relevant to organism ecology and life history. To address this issue, a newly developed deep ISFET (Ion Sensitive Field Effect Transistor)-based pH sensor system was modified and integrated into a Slocum G2 profiling glider. From Spring 2018 to Fall 2019, seasonal pH glider deployments were conducted in Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima) and Atlantic sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) commercial management zones in the Mid-Atlantic Bight. Here, we present seasonal cycles and drivers of carbonate chemistry in the Mid-Atlantic Bight based on seasonal glider deployments. Additionally, we discuss the use of glider data in conjunction with larval dispersal models to identify times and locations where shellfish stock may be at high risk of acidification.
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) contracted with Industrial Economics, Incorporated (IEc) and the RPS Group to model possible oil spill scenarios off the Delaware coast and the resulting economic impacts.
In partnership with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO) DNREC is hosting two webinars, March 24 and March 31. that will provide attendees a high-level overview of the report results and an opportunity to ask questions of the IEc and RPS staff who completed the work.
Although the results are Delaware specific DNREC and MARCO are hopeful that the results and processes used in the analysis can be used to support other states in the Mid-Atlantic to conduct their own analyses.
Integrated Oil Spill and Transport Modeling
Thursday, March 24, 2022
11 a.m. to 12 p.m.
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) contracted with Industrial Economics, Incorporated (IEc) and the RPS Group to model possible oil spill scenarios off the Delaware coast and the resulting economic impacts.
In partnership with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO) DNREC is hosting two webinars, March 24 and March 31. that will provide attendees a high-level overview of the report results and an opportunity to ask questions of the IEc and RPS staff who completed the work.
Although the results are Delaware specific DNREC and MARCO are hopeful that the results and processes used in the analysis can be used to support other states in the Mid-Atlantic to conduct their own analyses.
Economic Impacts from an Offshore Oil Spill
Thursday, March 31, 2022
11 a.m. to 12 p.m.