So chapter 2 is pretty much done - yes, I am excited (understatement!). It's in my supervisor's hands right now, so I am waiting to hear back from him to make the final adjustments and tweaking required before I can send it off to be published. No doubt there'll be more iterations to go through after that (when does it ever end!!!), but for now I can move on to the next items on the ever so long to do list!! ... and that would be tackling my ecopath model for Kaloko Honokohau National park in Hawai'i. I tell you it's not an easy feat to try to find what may be the biomass of critters living in the park's marine mud and sand. Or what about how much of what a monk seal eats per year? A spinner dolphin? or what would you say the growth of different urchin species are? Gets you delving deep into the literature and the web searches always somehow take longer than you expect... and the questions to which someone must for sure have already found an answer... keep you guessing. You come across some pretty weird and interesting research along the way though, such as measuring the sinking rates of differently sized phytoplankton - we're talking MINUSCULE things here! Whoever does this over and over to calculate everything with reliable statistics is armed with far more patience than I could ever dream of harbouring!!
I want to be able to get my model going and start balancing things (i.e. get a draft model) within the next 10 days. That would mean that I could get a draft report for around mid April, with my ultimate goal being to have this next chapter done by the end of April. All this timing is pretty hecticly tight - but I really want to make it happen; and I think I can as long as I stick to a pretty healthy work ethic... mixed up with exercise of course so I don't lose the plot entirely!
Otherwise, my friend Barry has been visiting. He's on his way 'home' to Barbados from Australia, via the Solomons, Tanzania and Europe where he'll be leading his 12th turtle season. He's been keeping me entertained with his stories of turtle monitoring activities and diving in some of the most remote and at times mesmerising parts of this world. Makes me miss being in the field like crazy!!!
Tuesday 25 March 2008
Sunday 16 March 2008
not quite there .... yet!!
Right - so I've not quite managed to achieve the goal I had set for myself this week :o| Lots of unexpected tasks threw themselves at me this week, and I ended up 'having to' attend a number of seminars I only heard about at the last minute.
Somewhat frustrating - but on the upside, I am close to the end of the chapter, and I got to listen to some interesting people speak about their research.
The first speaker was Dr Ron Tanasichuk who spoke about the "Variation in euphausiid productivity along the West Coast of Vancouver Island and its implications for herring and salmon production"; in other words how variations in plankton production, an important little critter in the diet of many fishes, affects two important (ecologically and economically speaking) predators. Dr. Tanasichuk has been working with the pacific biological Station in Nanaimo since 1982 and as such has incredible first hand experience of the changes that this area has witnessed and a pretty unique data set stretching multiple years to document these changes.
The second speaker was Dr Alain Vezina, coordinator of the Ecosystem Modeling Group at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography (Dartmouth, N.S.). His talk focused on numerical modeling of variability and change in marine ecosystems in Eastern Canada. Central to his presentation was a discussion about the differences in the physical and biological properties of ocean systems and how to then link those in a model that would then accurately reproduce changes in both physical and biological properties when the whole system undergoes a number of perturbations. It was particularly neat for me as elements of their research progression mirrored some of the evolution that Ecopath and Ecosim has undergone (the modeling software I am using for my research).
Last but not least, Dr Jane Lubchenco came to the Fisheries Centre to give a presentation on ocean and society and the role of climate change. She only accepts two talks a year, and as such I feel quite fortunate to have been able to attend her presentation - not only that, but I also got to have 20 min of her time, just for me!!! But first about Dr. Lubchenco - she is a distinguished Professor at Oregon State University and currently heads PISCO (Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans), an interdisciplinary team of scientists who study the marine ecosystem off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California. She is a former president of the International Council for Science, AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science), the Ecological Society of America and was appointed by former president Bill Clinton to two terms on the National Science Board. She also founded or co-founded three organisations devoted to communicating science to policy makers and the public including the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program. Dr Lubchenco is considered as on of the most highly cited ecologists in the world and has been wildly recognised for her major contributions to science.
In other words she's achieved more than many of us can dream to achieve in two lifetimes!
Her talk was really interesting - the first part of it focused on the role (well mandate really) scientists have in informing society, and doing so properly. The second part of her talk detailed the disastrous events that she has been witnessing along the Oregon coast over the last 6 years: periods of low oxygen waters that result in massive kills of crab and other invertebrates. The pictures she showed from beaches as well as the sea floor were truly horrific, just littered with dead sea life. The first of these events occurred in 2002 with the most severe recorded in 2006. Analysis of oceanographic data for this area of the coast over the last 50 years have confirmed that prior to 2002 these events were indeed unprecedented. Dr Lubchenco further explained that these events are likely to be due to changing wind patterns which in turn affect the ocean conditions - typically the Oregon coast is characterised by periods of upwelling and downwelling, now they only observe periods of strong upwelling alternating with weeks of weak upwelling.
During my 20 minute meeting with her I had a chance to enquire about the outreach activities her research group has engaged in as a result of these events - as you can imagine the public has expressed serious concern and various groups have been keen to get detailed information as to what is happening. I suggested to her that she should write a sort of lessons learned paper of these interactions, detailing what activities have been particular useful/successful, so as to provide guidance as it were, to scientists when interacting with the press, as well as the public at large in such times of environmental crisis. I also got to briefly introduce her to my research, and ask her about the skills she'd recommend young scientists hone to make themselves more palatable!
Right -- well I better get on with that second chapter, it's getting late in the day
:o)
Somewhat frustrating - but on the upside, I am close to the end of the chapter, and I got to listen to some interesting people speak about their research.
The first speaker was Dr Ron Tanasichuk who spoke about the "Variation in euphausiid productivity along the West Coast of Vancouver Island and its implications for herring and salmon production"; in other words how variations in plankton production, an important little critter in the diet of many fishes, affects two important (ecologically and economically speaking) predators. Dr. Tanasichuk has been working with the pacific biological Station in Nanaimo since 1982 and as such has incredible first hand experience of the changes that this area has witnessed and a pretty unique data set stretching multiple years to document these changes.
The second speaker was Dr Alain Vezina, coordinator of the Ecosystem Modeling Group at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography (Dartmouth, N.S.). His talk focused on numerical modeling of variability and change in marine ecosystems in Eastern Canada. Central to his presentation was a discussion about the differences in the physical and biological properties of ocean systems and how to then link those in a model that would then accurately reproduce changes in both physical and biological properties when the whole system undergoes a number of perturbations. It was particularly neat for me as elements of their research progression mirrored some of the evolution that Ecopath and Ecosim has undergone (the modeling software I am using for my research).
Last but not least, Dr Jane Lubchenco came to the Fisheries Centre to give a presentation on ocean and society and the role of climate change. She only accepts two talks a year, and as such I feel quite fortunate to have been able to attend her presentation - not only that, but I also got to have 20 min of her time, just for me!!! But first about Dr. Lubchenco - she is a distinguished Professor at Oregon State University and currently heads PISCO (Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans), an interdisciplinary team of scientists who study the marine ecosystem off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California. She is a former president of the International Council for Science, AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science), the Ecological Society of America and was appointed by former president Bill Clinton to two terms on the National Science Board. She also founded or co-founded three organisations devoted to communicating science to policy makers and the public including the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program. Dr Lubchenco is considered as on of the most highly cited ecologists in the world and has been wildly recognised for her major contributions to science.
In other words she's achieved more than many of us can dream to achieve in two lifetimes!
Her talk was really interesting - the first part of it focused on the role (well mandate really) scientists have in informing society, and doing so properly. The second part of her talk detailed the disastrous events that she has been witnessing along the Oregon coast over the last 6 years: periods of low oxygen waters that result in massive kills of crab and other invertebrates. The pictures she showed from beaches as well as the sea floor were truly horrific, just littered with dead sea life. The first of these events occurred in 2002 with the most severe recorded in 2006. Analysis of oceanographic data for this area of the coast over the last 50 years have confirmed that prior to 2002 these events were indeed unprecedented. Dr Lubchenco further explained that these events are likely to be due to changing wind patterns which in turn affect the ocean conditions - typically the Oregon coast is characterised by periods of upwelling and downwelling, now they only observe periods of strong upwelling alternating with weeks of weak upwelling.
During my 20 minute meeting with her I had a chance to enquire about the outreach activities her research group has engaged in as a result of these events - as you can imagine the public has expressed serious concern and various groups have been keen to get detailed information as to what is happening. I suggested to her that she should write a sort of lessons learned paper of these interactions, detailing what activities have been particular useful/successful, so as to provide guidance as it were, to scientists when interacting with the press, as well as the public at large in such times of environmental crisis. I also got to briefly introduce her to my research, and ask her about the skills she'd recommend young scientists hone to make themselves more palatable!
Right -- well I better get on with that second chapter, it's getting late in the day
:o)
Tuesday 11 March 2008
wave powered boats
in the age of energy efficient cars -- how 'bout this for a feat in the 'vehicle' industry? a boat powered by nothing else that the waves it is sailing on!
"The Mermaid propulsion mechanism is mounted under the bow and not the stern, and it is designed to pull the boat, rather than push it forward, regardless of weather, wave height or direction."
This is really neat ... and makes for some good news in the usual doom and gloom of environmental news.
This week is a big one for me - I want to finish my second chapter, so that I can with assurance turn the page as it were and get to the data analysis of my fourth chapter: an ecopath model for Hawaii.
Fun and games :o)
"The Mermaid propulsion mechanism is mounted under the bow and not the stern, and it is designed to pull the boat, rather than push it forward, regardless of weather, wave height or direction."
This is really neat ... and makes for some good news in the usual doom and gloom of environmental news.
This week is a big one for me - I want to finish my second chapter, so that I can with assurance turn the page as it were and get to the data analysis of my fourth chapter: an ecopath model for Hawaii.
Fun and games :o)
Tuesday 4 March 2008
Of bionic turtles and more
It's time i kept up with my blog more regularly - always lots of thoughts and things to share, so will make a more conscious effort to log them here :o)
In Seattle right now - sitting in my friend savas' home office, in front of a 24in screen -- I tell you my Ecosim trajectories look a lot better on this!!!
The change of setting has been good - managed to finish a draft of my Caribbean model report. Hopefully the final final version is not very far away; then i get to write it up as a paper. First though I think I'll have to rejig a few things around - like disaggregate my fish groups and re aggregate them so that these species truly either resident in seagrass beds or dependent on seagrass are their stand alone functional groups. I also want to draw up a table with information on epiphytic algae and who consumes it. Potentially also look at what fisheries in the Caribbean in the 80s looked like so that I can at least come up with some reasonable projections.
So - enough to keep me busy on that front for a while!!!
Before I came out here, we had a really interesting lecture + workshop with Nancy Baron, the Ocean Science Outreach Director for SeaWeb and COMPASS (Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea). Trained as a scientist she now works with environmental scientists to help them communicate their research more effectively to journalists, policymakers and the public. Key to doing so effectively: keep your message clear and simple and answer the question "so what?"!
...and to end with a surprising story - how about this for strange things that happen in the turtle wold: caregivers seek prosthetic flipper for injured turtle. A little extreme if you ask me....
In Seattle right now - sitting in my friend savas' home office, in front of a 24in screen -- I tell you my Ecosim trajectories look a lot better on this!!!
The change of setting has been good - managed to finish a draft of my Caribbean model report. Hopefully the final final version is not very far away; then i get to write it up as a paper. First though I think I'll have to rejig a few things around - like disaggregate my fish groups and re aggregate them so that these species truly either resident in seagrass beds or dependent on seagrass are their stand alone functional groups. I also want to draw up a table with information on epiphytic algae and who consumes it. Potentially also look at what fisheries in the Caribbean in the 80s looked like so that I can at least come up with some reasonable projections.
So - enough to keep me busy on that front for a while!!!
Before I came out here, we had a really interesting lecture + workshop with Nancy Baron, the Ocean Science Outreach Director for SeaWeb and COMPASS (Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea). Trained as a scientist she now works with environmental scientists to help them communicate their research more effectively to journalists, policymakers and the public. Key to doing so effectively: keep your message clear and simple and answer the question "so what?"!
...and to end with a surprising story - how about this for strange things that happen in the turtle wold: caregivers seek prosthetic flipper for injured turtle. A little extreme if you ask me....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)