Ocean Climate Lab

Oceans have always done us a favor, absorbing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But now rising greenhouse gases are warming the ocean and changing its chemistry. All of this is putting marine species and ecosystems at risk, threatening food security and the livelihoods of people along its shores. In this episode of Unfold, we’ll take a deep dive into the ocean to examine the effects of climate change. In this episode: Priya Shukla, Ph.D. student at Bodega Marine Laboratory, D...epartment of Environmental Science and Policy Tessa Hill, professor and oceanographer, Bodega Marine Laboratory. https://www.ucdavis.edu/unfold/

Just in time for Halloween, a new paper with colleagues about how ocean acidification has been 'haunting' all of our experiments at marine labs... for decades. [spooooky] https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/711242

Red abalone mothers from California’s North Coast give their offspring an energy boost when they’re born that helps them better withstand ocean acidification compared to their captive, farmed counterparts, according to a study from the Bodega Marine Laboratory at the University of California, Davis. https://www.ucdavis.edu//red-abalone-resisting-ocean-acid/

Thinking cool thoughts

This week we got to hear Ashtyn Isaak present her summer research project as part of the CSU Sally Casanova program. We have loved supporting Ashtyn’s research and especially loved that she asked audience members to make sure to VOTE as part of her talk!

Missing this place. You can gaze at the ocean with me if you'd like... https://marinescience.ucdavis.edu/bml/webcam

Back at BML this week to prep for (online) summer class. Missing the arrival of summer students this year. Doing the best we can to provide virtual access to this special place.

It may not be the celebration we all envisioned, but we are still so excited to introduce you all to DOCTOR Melissa Ward! After 5 years of schlepping a van full... of equipment (check out pic #4) up and down the California coast collecting sediment cores and deploying water chemistry sensors, Melissa recently completed her Ph.D. in Tessa Hill's lab. Her work focused on carbon cycling in seagrass meadows and salt marshes and how these habitats can mitigate climate change and ocean acidification through carbon storage. Tessa's lab put together a virtual send-off for Melissa to celebrate her Ph.D. completion, and she will begin her post-doc as a Fulbright Scholar and AAA (Australian-American Association) scholar next year (this was delayed due to COVID). In the meantime, she'll be teaching Marine Science at UC Davis and working as a research fellow for Project Drawdown, modeling ocean-based solutions to climate change. Congratulations, Melissa!

Congratulations to PhD student Carina Fish, a recipient of a recent Sigma Xi research award!