Lab Entry #11: Ocean Sciences Episode 2!

A Special LabOratory Episode Highlighting the 2020 AGU Ocean Sciences Conference! In this episode we feature interviews with a variety of scientists who presented posters at the Conference in San Diego. We talked to a range of researchers presenting their hard work via poster and learned a lot! From hurricane studies to tiny water bugs, there are numerous projects taking place to learn more about the world's waters so we wanted to see why so many people felt it was important to study this thing called the Ocean. 

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spk_0:   0:00
Hi. I'm Renee. Hi, I'm Sam. And this is laboratory podcast. Welcome back to our second edition of our Ocean Sciences 2020 special This episode we're going to focus on the poster hall of Sandy who, Convention center, where all of the scientists get to present the research they've been working on. And here Teoh briefly introduced what the poster sessions are about. Is Lisa come? My

spk_2:   0:56
name is Lisa comes I'm on aquatic scientists at the Charles River Watershed Association. And I'm also finishing my degree at Boston College studying sediment transport. So I'm here in a dual capacity talking about cyanobacteria and sediment transport on the coasts. Are you presenting? It's with and presenting both at two posters. So I'm presenting about cyanobacteria on Wednesday and about sediment transport on Tuesday. Now I'm really unfamiliar with the whole poster set up. Okay. Explain a little bit about what that means. Sure. Uh, there's about 1000 posters here, and everybody gets Teoh. Put all their cool research on poster and people browse around and get to interact and talk with the authors, which is something that I really love about poster sessions rather than Orel sessions. Then you got to get people's kind of intimate feedback as well as hear their experiences and thoughts on your research. What are some things that you were interested in seeing it? Ocean science. So I'm interested in meeting up with a lot of old colleagues seeing what they're up to, that's a really big part of it. Also, I am trying to finish my thesis right now. And so getting feedback on, uh, on my research is really, uh would be really useful for May. Do you have any moments in science history or anyone that you've looked up to that has helped you get where you are today? Honestly, my science here was my sister. She's five years older than me, and she is a physics teacher in Brooklyn High School in Boston on, and she has always been super passionate about science, and she really kind of got me into it. When I was in high school physics class, she actually came in, was our substitute teacher for a few days on band. It's really nice toe talk with her about not only science that education and the intersection of where, like what science can do for the world. What concerns me so much? I August li listen to it. That's the problem. And what would you say to nonscientists? Uh, that's a way to enter into the world. What should we be doing? Or, well, I loathe Process of science is literally just a rational process. So if we think that being rational is the way that we want Teoh make decisions in our policy, then we should listen to scientists.

spk_1:   3:35
The's

spk_0:   3:40
Lisa states. The poster sessions are really awesome as a way to get some feedback on the work that you've been doing often in science is you tend to be working with a cohort of people, whether they are your peers, your advisers, your mentors. And it's nice to get outside of that bubble for a little bit and get advice and thoughts from people coming from different viewpoints and offering new takes and new insights on the work that you've been doing. It was a really amazing gathering. Renee. How Maney posters. Do you think we're actually at the poster sessions? I know that Lisa estimated 1000. I think it was more like 3700 or so. It was fast and there was a post recession every night from 4 to 6 p.m. Where you got to walk around, drink a beer, have a smoothie and really just interact with so many different people and was slightly overwhelming at points, very overwhelming. There were people, I mean, swarming all over the place. And then you had posters from undergraduates. Maybe I would say some high schoolers, although we didn't encounter them. But the age ranges from young to old, everyone all presenting their work that they've been working so hard on, condensed down to a single poster. And while it tends to be somewhat intimidating, giving this poster cause you don't know who is going toe, walk up to you and ask questions and give their take on it, it really is always really comforting because people are interested in learning more, and people are always happy to see what folks are producing, and you might hear it in these interviews. But even the undergraduates we were talking to always seem to nervous at first. But once they were talking about the research that they had spent, their time and effort on, their confidence would really shine through as well as their passion. It was amazing to be able to talk to all these scientists and see what was driving them towards whatever they were interested in. So on that note, let's go visit the poster hall.

spk_2:   6:10
Hello. My name is Lisa Comes um so I am studying and abandoned channel on the Yellow River Delta. It was artificially abandoned in 1996. They decided Teoh abandon it in order to grow out the delta towards the north here. So in 1996 they dredged this channel and they redirected the flow. And 20 years later, there's been about 13 kilometers of coastal retreat on. And so my study is studying what happens in the rest of this abandoned channel. So does it in fill with sediment, or is it just going to stay there and retreat back? So we do see that from cores on this mud flat that there is finer sediment on top of the flu. Viel sentiment from one this was the active channel. So that means that there must be some import from the coastal ocean. Since there is no flu viel connection here anymore, it's completely cut off. So we did a bunch of institute measurements. I focused on measurements in the title channel, but we did some work on the Bud flat as well. Julia, and so way got to really great time Siri's that are about 20 days long from two different seasons from the summer from the winter season. So what we see is, during the summer way, have this really nice mixed Sigma X title signal and a clear spring meat cycle way. Do see that there is sediment re suspension near the bed of the title channel, mostly on these big, um, bigger flooding UBS and not the smaller Fun and X. And so we actually do see Annette directed sediment transport in the title channel in the winter. The signal is mostly dominated by the storm conditions offshore, and we can see that during storms you get high velocities that are as high as the spring tide in the summer, and these are directed way didn't have. Flux is for these, but they're directed flows that are dominant here, but during the calm periods, there's really not too much happening there. Some summary suspension on the channel bed, um, always offshore is that the wave hides can get up to about three meters during the winter storms but only reached one meter of the most during summer. And we do see a lot of sediment re suspension from the abandoned ultra low right offshore. So we're fairly confident that most of the sediment that's being imported into the title channel is getting there from this re suspension on and mostly during winter storms. Now we also looked at some of the conditions on the mud flat and we see that during spring floods the mud flood is inundated upto 50 centimeters and it has velocities ranging from about 20 centimeters per second. So not not too high. So we do get settling and way to get settling on the mud flat and we do get a creation over time at the rate of approximately two centimeters per year. But at this point, basically what we're seeing is that we have this not word transport in the title channel. We have a lot of title channel reworking, title like mud flat reworking, which can introduce a lot of extra sediment into the system. But we do seem that landward transport over the mud flat, so we kind of have this dual system going on, but at the same time, we have this coastal retreat happening, and it doesn't seem at this point like way have enough in filling in order to feel that channel before we get just coast it, treating back and continuing the situation that we've seen.

spk_4:   10:20
I'm a name is Dinitia Blair, and I'm a student from Florida State University, a grad student. And my research is looking at a modified coast modern system for a surface all transport in the Gulf of Mexico and made a the mangle is to improve the forecast of Ospel Drift by looking at the interaction between all itself. Wayne's wavin current. What is your poster expandable? Well, at this moment is just shown that we have three couple modern system, the ocean atmosphere in your ROM's, and at this point we just got the model to work together. But now we're trying to see what bones your predator bonjour scheme to use into the model. So right now I just have preliminary runs from the test is so that's what is shown that which scheme is best to use and shown that boat are not difference, but only different show up in my we have, like high convictions going on like strong storms in the area. That's recon. See a difference in the two Planetary Bond Street. But the era of interest is not a lot of difference at all. Got it? How did you get into studying this? Well, I've been wanting to do meteorology since I was in the ninth grade. I don't want it to study hurricane until, but I graduated with a physics undergraduate degree, a bachelor degree, and I was OK. I wanted to meteorology. So I got into Florida State and then licking it. Hurricanes? I was like, Well, see, I like modeling Zokol Modeling is cool, so I just got into modeling and looking at the ocean surface, and that sparks my interest. So from there I'm doing ocean surface modelling in a hurricane. If you

spk_0:   12:11
had to explain modeling to someone in high school, how

spk_4:   12:14
would you explain what it is? And why is it important? Look, is the first. I always say it's not the modeling where you could just dress up. You look pretty, but it is a muddling where he had to do, um, a bunch of coding and for like an ice cooler. It was basically like you do coding and you could give you pretty figures off like ocean temperatures. We could get wins able to get the surface current. So just showing different atmosphere variable components in the modeling system. And how does this help study the ocean? Overall, what did this modeling it really helpful lab because he could study the oh, shame based on forecasting on Also stuff the happy means previously from a like not touching the surface at also is very interested. Doing so.

spk_0:   13:05
Got it on What impact do you hope that your signed to have on the public or on science?

spk_4:   13:14
Well, the impact it had. If this work is successful who like to use this tool to help forecast Ospel, there happens in like upcoming future. So if disabled toe work that would be used these three tools to implement into weather forecasting fallen spill.

spk_0:   13:33
So we have other oil spills that happen, you'll be able to use the science and the work you've done here to say, Hey, here's where

spk_4:   13:40
it's most likely going to Rio. We grow, hopefully have some good climate response to that because this research is looking at realistic conditions, not an idealized studies. Yes, definitely. That's the gory.

spk_0:   13:55
That's a great goal like that. How has your experience at ocean science

spk_4:   14:00
has been this week? It great a lot of knowledge because me coming from a physics background, not having a lot of meteorology backgrounds of goingto does Orel session. They listen to the poster sessions and just also to Tora will help me a lot. Especially. We're getting data. So going to the data to Tora, where I was having problems getting like satellite data is and stops has helped a lot. I will definitely come back.

spk_0:   14:32
And why do you think it is important to study the ocean? Very interesting question, because I

spk_4:   14:41
was ferment well hurt itself is middle, with 70% of ocean. So without the ocean, they won't driven atmosphere and also without atmosphere, one driven ocean. So we do need to analyze the ocean itself. The understand was going around in our atmosphere. So is a must.

spk_2:   15:11
My name is finished. Ivana. I'm a PhD student at University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Eso I work with the overturning in the sub polar North Atlantic program monitoring different parts of the Atlantic, overturning circulation.

spk_5:   15:29
So my work here is looking at one of the deep

spk_2:   15:31
branches and a rapid freshening event that's happening kind of kind of trains you expect on decades happened in two years, so we wanted to figure out why and how what's causing.

spk_5:   15:41
So what we figured out was that there's this

spk_2:   15:44
process called entrainment, which was well known, but the timescales associated with it and the effects of it evidently been well documented. So we used kind of a different combination of models and observations and put together this time scale and showed that through this pathway the upper ocean can really modify the deep ocean in, like, two years to three years. So in subject Keitel times So it links kind of fast moving upper ocean, too deep ocean in a way that people don't really think about. Traditionally way we think about upper and players. So is what is mixing here. Warm waters and cold water, not what you're looking at, So that's

spk_5:   16:19
kind of the general process. What we

spk_2:   16:20
actually tracked was that this upper ocean, like the erosion, got dramatically more fresh in this area. So what we did was tracked that freshening as it got sucked into the deep ocean in kind of a process in time scale. Associate, How did you get interested in studying this particular this particular end or this in general? Well, this particular thing I showed up to do grad school like first year PhD student and I got given this data. And very first thing you see is this, like, just drop in solidity. So whenever you see, like, a drop in any kind of science record, your like something, something happened. So I was like, Let's forgot, lie and ended up

spk_5:   16:58
coming together in this really cool

spk_2:   17:00
story on. Then how did you get interested in science to study? So generally I actually started. Undergrad is a finance major. Nice. About six months. Took me to realize that was not for me, not my world.

spk_5:   17:13
I always was interested in

spk_2:   17:15
science. I was like I switched premed like half the people in Undergrad Dio. And then I threw kind of lucky contact. I got put in touch with someone doing oceanography in England and they invited me to come do this Masters program in oceanography and fell in love with doing research. And I get to go on boats and travel the world on boats. It's cool, the awesome Yeah, yeah, And what do you hope to do in the future?

spk_5:   17:38
I do really

spk_2:   17:40
love research. I hope to stay in research for a really good long time because it's fun and I like going to see and with the world going towards modelling, I think people are forgetting that we still need to observe the oceans. So I want to be one of those people that's in charge of doing ocean observations. Yet one more question. Why do you think it is important to study the ocean? I mean, it's like the whole Earth system is connected. You can't talk about climate or any kind of climate change without really understanding what's happening in the ocean. And then, like, it's integral to like all of human life, too. Find out more.

spk_6:   18:29
My name is Andrew. Minister. I'm a research scientist at Remote Sensing Systems in Santa Rosa, California s O, currently one of many projects I'm working on is how to get how salty the ocean is from space born sensor. So satellites up in the air. So one of the big satellites we work with is a satellite notice map. Solidity has a lot of important applications for people around the globe. It can tell us stuff about how water is flowing off the land, how ice is melting. So it's important to have a good solidity data. Um, and what my poster at the Ocean Sciences meeting is about is the latest and greatest version off this map data that actually gets solidity much, much closer to land than it could previously. Previously there a a lot of issues. It's kind of hard to get solidity close to the coast because this satellite in particular, sees the land is much, much warmer than the ocean, and that kind of interferes with the way that it could see the solidity. But we have done a pretty good job mitigating that in our newest version. And now way have this this ocean solidity measured from space globally on this global scale that's closer and closer to the coast. Whereas some say ship cruises that measure solidity, they only do it in a really small, limited area in like only a certain time period snap. On the other hand, this satellite in space goes and sees the globe about once every three days. It's he's the entire, so it's important for modelers, for people who wanna just look at solidity. And now we it's better for people who want to look a solidity closer to the coast.

spk_3:   20:45
Is this something that is data that is accessible to everybody is

spk_6:   20:51
absolutely yes. So I on our website, it's freely avail. Available for anyone who wants to download it. You don't pay anything. It is www dot realms dot com, and that's our e. M

spk_3:   21:05
s great. And if you're willing to answer this, how did you personally get involved in this project? And how did you get involved in science?

spk_6:   21:15
Eso. It's kind of funny eso trying to make this too long for breath for brevity. I try to make that editing easier on you guys. Um, so I I was originally really liked math and physics in high school, and I decided to go toe community college before Foreign University just to save money. And when I was at the Community College, they were like, Well, what is your major? It's like obviously it's subject to change, and they gave me the list of majors and atmospheric sciences was near the top because begins with a help of medically. It was like, Oh, that's like probably math and science and I am physics and I like that I've been interested in science, So I chose That is my major. I took all the pre requisites, uh, my community college. And then when I got to the university, I started to take, like, atmospheric, science specific courses. I kind of fell into it more so with, like, atmospheric radiation and remote sensing. So, like basically satellites that observe the weather in the ocean world around us, and I just fell in love with it, and I went to grad school and then ended up in a remote sensing systems. Rest is history. On

spk_3:   22:36
one question. We're asking pretty much all of our participants at ocean. Why is it important to study the

spk_6:   22:42
ocean? Why is it important to study the issue? That is a broad question, truly the Yeah, well, I'm in for what? They It's 70% of the area of the earth. It's we all inhabit this planet, and there's so many different connections between the land and the ocean and how the ocean circulates in turn interacts with the atmosphere and how the atmosphere then circulates and how that then affects the land, etcetera, etcetera. So there's a lot of a lot of societal implications and implications for just us as people. So the more we know about the ocean more, we're able to understand the context of us within this, like, broader picture of the entire globe. Yeah, it's all in. So,

spk_3:   23:46
first off, tell me what your name is. Nkala. All right. And where do you go to school? North Seattle College. Great. So tell me about your project and your poster here. Okay. So do you want me to tell you what are you is? Yes. Please. Okay, So this was the summer project that is for undergraduate students funded by the National Science Foundation. And so a lot of a lot of students nationwide will apply to these programs and then they're selected by It's like PhDs intense. It's a grad student. Anybody who's working at the college and is willing to kind of donate a lot of their time. So what the rial pull is is that they also get a little bit of money to fund part of their project and some free labor in the form of an undergraduate. So I was chosen for Michelle Young blues projects, and the big picture of her project is she's trying to figure out what a type of larval fish in the San Francisco estuary is eating because it's endangered and they're not really sure what's going on. And so, um, she caught the fish and caught everything that was near the fish, and she took the fish and sequenced everything that was in their guts. And a lot of those sequences didn't match anything in the national database. So my job was to take everybody who was around the fish tried to pick out what might not be in the database get and try to get sequences for it. All right, so what did you get to see with this project? Way got four actual successful results where we knew what it was, and we got a working sequence have a whole wanted poster over here of guys where we got a sequence for it. They weren't in the database, which is what we wanted, but we don't know what they are, so we can really make the contribution because, like a, we found this bug. No idea what? It is really useful. Yeah, that was the biggest thing. It looks like one of her big picture outcomes of it was one of the bugs that I sequenced is kind of taking over the estuary. It's pretty invasive and its population has really exploded, and the fish that's in danger doesn't eat it. And so that might be part of the problem is because for some reason, behavioral e, they just don't want that. And since that bug is majority within their now, they're losing their food source. Yeah, So where was your argument with locations in San Francisco State University? So there's a downtown location, but then it's also an ocean sciences one literally right on the water. And for those who don't know and are used for the summer. So you were there for about 10 weeks. Maybe if that so. This is still a

spk_0:   26:27
lot of work to be doing

spk_3:   26:28
in 10 weeks. Learning. Did you know much of this information or any techniques, Always their skill level going into your rt. You versus coming out. We'll have absolutely no relevant experience going in at all. So you basically I think they were interested that I had passed like the majors. Bio Siri's. Okay, so she probably knows what an animal is. But I think nothing was really generous of her to spend that much time teaching me. Um, but the work that I did was really time intensive, so I think it was still worth it for her to have somebody have a body doing it. Um, coming out of it, I really can't say that. Very good idea, Arthur pods. Aerial pain makes the pain. Well, if you look at this part of the poster here, this is called a codel ram. I It's It's like the pants of this bug. And about halfway down there's this tiny, little, almost invisible spike coming out Part of the species identification is that spike, like, 50% away from the body, like 55% away from the funny. And you just eyeball it like, How do you do that? Yes, my taxonomists are amazingly important. Yes. And so out of all these bugs, Michelle knew definitively what four of them were and I must have tried to sequence like 73 samples. So my men was coming. Teoh Ocean Sciences meeting heart of the agreement with your argue. Or was this because you followed up on it or you expressed interest in coming here? So it's not part of the Are you in general? But NSF has an additional grant that is available toe one student from every college that participates in the air. You. So that's relative to like San Francisco State. The 13 Ari is that were there. One of them could come to eight conference and they fund it. And so, um, I just followed up where I applied. I think I might have been the only one who applied for grants. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So, overall questions, how have you been enjoying Ocean Sciences meeting? Have you learned anything? There's lots going on. There's, like my posters Position 3693. That's like more people than go to my college. So I just don't even, you know, that might be inaccurate, But it feels accurate to me right now. It's massive in a little overwhelming, but, um, I would say that I have learns more than I expected. Dio and I want to attribute most event to this new poster format. Actually, it's fairly new, and main focus is that you put the take away message in easy to understand words right in the dead center of it, so that you can just be walking by and know what every poster is about, whether you want to talk to that person and I've noticed it like probably maybe 25% of the posters follow that new format. So I'm hoping that it catches on work. It's easier to look at. Uhm, one question we're asking everybody is why do you think it is important to study the ocean? Okay, it's a big question. Um, can I get cheesy with everybody connect the whole world? All right, we'll go with that. It's like of the ocean fall supplier. We're all pretty screwed, So probably should know What do you have a special affinity that drew you towards this study of the ocean or studying science in general? I'm gonna be honest with you. I wanted to put an internship on my resume pretty much implied for everything. I accepted anything that I got, but I was really lucky because, um, I suppose this is an ocean related. But what I really wanted what my old dream waas was Oh, I want to run around in the jungle and find bugs again identified. And now you're running around the ocean farming yes, and identify scattered jungle.

spk_2:   30:39
So my p. A. Is a chemist by trade. So for throughout his undergrad and his PhD, and then like his early career, he was going toe chemistry conferences. But he also is like branches out into, like earth science and ocean science. And so one time he was at a chemistry conference where everybody was like dressed in suits and look super proper and super formal for scientists. And and then he has a friend who tells him, Hey, well, we have the oceanography. People are having like this conference down a couple blocks away. If you're not doing anything, you want to come. He's like, sure goes over there, fully dressed in a suit. Everybody's wearing T shirts and khaki. Yeah,

spk_3:   31:14
this is why I'm called Ocean Sciences. When she was one man with what do I

spk_2:   31:18
wear to this conference, our day of your perfect our day and presentation, maybe Look a little nice. But like, other than that, wear whatever you want your accepted. Alright, Like this have outfits, nicer outfits for all the conference I've been to. I let go to Earth science and ocean signs conferences, and I'm already on, like, the size. It's like a nicer end of the spectrum because everybody just wears a variety of things that's accurate. I've seen the whole gamut that I love it. All right, So tell us your name. I am Rachel. Rachel. So and where do you go to college? I go to I'm a senior at Northwestern University without your poster year. Um, this research was from an arty you. Actually, it was with the Hollings program with Noah Hollings. Program is eso Every year, they admit sophomores from undergrads who are interested in doing nowhere related research. And it's a two year program. And what during one of those years, you do a summer research internship with at one of the Noah Laboratories. So this was a time weekender. Shame I did over summer. Awesome. And have you continued this work past that summer? I have not. This was, uh, this research that I'm presenting here is solely restricted to that summer. It's completely separate from the research I've been doing at my undergraduate university. But it was great because I wanted to explore this field, and I wouldn't have the hat chance to explore it if I didn't get the college internship. Great. So tell us about this poster. Give us your little spiel that you give, folks. Okay. So for my project, I was working on vital plankton quantification. So I don't know how much you guys know about vital Lincoln, but nothing. Okay, Just nothing. I know a good amount of your average hell Hirshson. Okay. Vital plankton. Are these floating things in aquatic ecosystems there basically the bottom of the Marine and any aquatic ecosystem Food web, and so quantifying them tell it can tell us a lot about ecosystem health and productivity. And so my lab was studying. Have About way has two methods that they used to quantify Final clinton. So to quantify fighter plankton. One of the ways you could do that is by measuring chlorophyll a concentrations using chlorophyll, fluorescence, chlorophyll, inflorescence. So the more fluorescence you have, odds are the more vital plankton you have. So the two methods, my lad, was using oneness, filtration extraction, where we filter out vital plankton from the water and we measured the fluorescence of the filters. The other is measuring enviable fluorescence, where we have Submersible fluorescence probes that we can put directly in the water, and it just measures the total threatens of the water. But both of these methods at the lab was using how have maybe not minor problems. So that was my project. My problem product was to work on these problems. The first problem, The problem with filtration is not with a method itself, but with what happened to the filters. Filters that lab obtained were usually left in storage for a period of time before they were analysed. But when filters are left in storage, they may undergo Orfalea degradation. So by the time you analyze them, you have less core filet than what you started with originally and with enviable fluorescence. Odds are natural. Sources of water have non chlorophyll, a fluorescent sources. One of them is colored dissolved organic matter or see dob for short, and that interferes with you're a correlate measurements because you're assuming all those fluorescent you're measuring is from quarterly when it's not so for to answer the filtration question way took a lab grown final point in culture, and we've mass filtered it. We made, like 200 filters, and we stored the half the filters at two different temperatures. So an over a duration of two weeks, we took the filters out of storage and measured their fluorescence and calculated Corbally concentrations. And you can see that the longer we left the filters in storage, the lower the core filet concentrations became indicated, which is indicative of four fillet degradation. And there was more degradation for the samples stored at a higher temperature than the same will store the lower temperature, which isn't all that surprising. To be honest and with the enviable fluorescence measurement problem way made a bunch of artificial mixtures in the lab of Saddam and quarterly. So we use black to simulate See Tom, and it's actually not. It's actually not that unusual. It sounds weird, but interest. Yeah, I would have never thought so. We made a Blackie delusion. Siri's we used looked. It looked elected. Yes, way just literally might restore. You did bought a box of Lipton tea so that we could do our experiment way used another lab grown culture as our corporal. A source paid a delusion. Siri's. And then we made a series of mixtures of both black tea and culture, and we tried to calculate the chlorophyll, a concentrations using the mixtures fluorescents So way made calibration functions using the black devolution Siri's This calibration functions essentially lets us remove or calculate how much fluorescence is coming from a certain quantity of Saddam. So, using the calibrations, we determine about how much fluorescence is coming for the Saddam in our mixtures, and then we subtracted from the total. So theoretically, what is left is fluorescence from the carefully. And here you can see our core filet concentration calculations made using both the corrected and uncorrected fluorescent values. And you can see that concentrations calculated from the corrective fluorescents, matched a lot better with what was expected. The uncorrected values that's comforting. So you know the justice of the experiment is that it is possible to remove Saddam fluorescence interference in samples containing both see Dominic lawfully. Though this was very much exploratory. We didn't work with any field samples, so that would really be the next step because saying that you can do something with our faith. The's art officials mixtures made the lab is one thing. But saying you can do it for Riel is a very different, very different. So I will be there to continue it. But someone But he said in the ground, work for somebody else to take control of that great building off each other. That's that science science. All right, So he said that you didn't do any ocean work O r geosciences Earth scientists were until this project outside. Specifically, I am a technique. I am Earth times by trade. OK, so then what? Got you interested in studying this so ice whenever started off science, I have a very wide range of interests. My my major, my primary major was environmental science, and I was really I can list also things that I was interested plant science. I wasn't interested in Earth science. I was interested in ecology. I was interested in the planetary sciences like I liked all of these things and I really wanted Teoh like, basically my foot once at least for all of them. And so when I got into undergrad. I got into a bio geochemistry lab, but I was I was doing a lot of chemistry stuff and a lot of an organic stuff. But I really wanted Teoh try once to go into biology or ecology at least once. So when I got the Hollings, I was looking for an internship that would let me do just that. And so I found this, and I got to work with vital plankton. And I realized that, you know, I have a lot of fun doing biology and ecology research, but it made I don't think I would, you know, wanna study fighter plane for the rest my life? What? You know what? Realizing that you do a project. Oh, that's not What I want to do with my life is a great way to start crossing off that list of all the things you can be interested in and can go study. I have the same issue. Still, I'm still like, Oh, I have so many things I like to study and I was similar. Teoh still like that. I was like, Well, and that's not a bad thing. And that's a very human thing. Everybody tells

spk_3:   39:33
you all you need to narrow down

spk_2:   39:34
when you're interested. And I'm like, No, I don't know yet. But one day, maybe, but I'll keep pursuing things that interest me until I find something that doesn't and I won't do that again. Yeah. All right. So why do you think it is important for us to study the ocean? Well, this is I'm not gonna try and avoid any cliches. And I mean, we've got every cliche so far. So I will say, You know, the big thing is, a lot of human researchers come from the ocean. Fish, fish, You know, things like fishing is a big industry. Shellfish. Aquaculture is a big industry. We a lot of our perhaps not here in the United States. But there are a lot of other nations around the world, island nations, coastal nations who rely on the ocean for basically the majority of their livelihood. And so, studying the oceans not only is one way to tell us give up more information about thes resource. Is that support us? But beyond that, you know, here I am doing final point. The research people wouldn't think much about this, but it is literally the bottom of the food chain and food web. You don't have you. I don't understand Final plankton. You don't have vital plankton. Things collapse. And that's not good for us. Yeah, but you know, there's also then here in human curiosity way. Yeah, The thing is, the funny thing is, we know more about outer space and we know about the bottom of the ocean. And there's still a lot of stuff we don't know about the ocean, which is on this planet that we live on. And I think we should really we really should remedy that. How can we not know Maura about our own planet? Yeah, I agree. That's why I love the ocean. Because I think it's fascinating that we know less about it than out of space. That's on the biggest. So the biggest creatures in the world are living in the oceans. So cool.

spk_3:   41:24
Well, awesome. Anything else? Um,

spk_2:   41:26
where do you see yourself going next? I am hoping to get I am hoping to do a PhD program. PhD in the earth Sciences. I'm looking to go into paleo climatology, having applying to programs, waiting to your back right now. Yes. How great. Do this while you're waiting. Waiting to hear

spk_4:   42:07
my name is to give false happen. I'm from Ah, Hokkaido University in Japan. I'm original from Indonesia. So I'm now Doctor, a student in Okay, Joe and I'm working on the air Sea interaction in the tropical maritime continent. So I studied about how the climate Moz in the tropical Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean related to precipitation in the Indonesian region. And what have you found? So I found that s o this our men results off our research during canonical any new so in conical Alina influenced the precipitation in the central and eastern part off Indonesia during the dry season from July to September. And it is moving for northward in the north and Indonesia from November to April. A similar case also is found during El ino McGaughey event. So in a model, key influenced the precipitation in the central and eastern Indonesia during dry season and north and Indonesia in the wet season. And also Eleanor McGaughey Coast, the increased precipitation in the western Indonesia during the wet season and a different, uh, it's found during in Indian. Or send Gopal so Indian ocean die poor caused the decrease precipitation in the southwestern Indonesia during the dry season. And overall, is this, uh, precipitation Anomalies can be explained by the are normalised diaper dances in the maritime continent. Yeah, All right, so so do you have any questions about it?

spk_0:   44:00
I have so many questions. I'm a non scientists and I'm a sound designer by trade. But my partner Rene is the scientist, um and is able thio more eloquent questions? Maybe not. I would ask why

spk_4:   44:14
is this research important? So let's take a look in the introduction. So So I mainly work on the regional climate. So I choose Indonesia in the research area. Yes. You know, Indonesia has a complex topography, and Lanois and distribution is very complex. So we need to focus on how their large skill climate Moz in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean influenced the regional Indonesian region On how, as this anomalous can be explained by a simple role by looking at the comprehensive zones like this Easy and Spc. And then how will this research benefit you moving forward? What? Our next steps. So next time, I really use model to convince this findings

spk_0:   45:11
And how has your experience here in

spk_4:   45:17
ocean Sciences? Is this science meeting? Yeah, I I'm too excited because there are many good scientists, especially in this off research field. And I hope that during my most representation letter, they can give me inside. And what can I do for the next step in our research? Yes, yes.

spk_0:   45:42
Um, have you always wanted to study this being from Indonesia and wanted to study Earth and the climate? Or how did you get

spk_4:   45:53
interested in this? Yes, In the future. I'm I'm planning to. So is this just original in Indonesia And then for a feature, I will extend my research for your maybe around the Southeast Asia. Okay.

spk_0:   46:07
And how did you get involved in research or science? Were you always interested growing

spk_4:   46:12
up or well, Im found yourself here magically. I'll No, actually, I I was interested in science when I was in undergraduate school at the time. I want to built make us a scientist in the future.

spk_0:   46:32
Great Onda. Why overall Big question we're asking everybody is why

spk_4:   46:38
is it important to study the oceans? Because eso my background is majority mainly in the atmosphere. So ocean has Teoh substantial influence to the atmosphere. So we need to study ocean how the ocean can influence their circulation over the atmosphere. So that's why I want to study the ocean. That's awesome. That's

spk_0:   47:04
great. Well, yeah, I'm learning so much. I'm a biologist. I know e. I've been loving the conference because I feel like I can come learn about so many other

spk_4:   47:15
different, interconnected and really concealed that affect one this that we don't often think about. Yeah, Scoring. Yeah, I'm just taking it all in, just as someone who doesn't study any of the things. It's been very important, I think, to have these researchers explain their work and get together so we can understand the whole thing is a yes.

spk_7:   47:48
My name is own Silveira. I gotta Florida Atlantic University at the hair It l looks honors college. And I'm here the Ocean Sciences meeting 2020 to present my research I conducted last summer at my are you program at Mote Marine Laboratory. And what I studied there was an ocean acidification. Uh, it was a pretty novel study using testing whether or not seagrass was ah local was it was a local area of car for carbonate chemistry. Refuge it for certain model organisms such as quality lamps. And what did you find? We found it was a preliminary study and we ended up finding, actually, was that it wasn't. However, it was a 10 week are you program and we found we handle it. We found that there was a lot of holes and our methodology, and that was just things that we that it was. It was meant toe be preliminary studies that we could go back and conducting further So for further analysis and maybe find more sound results. So we're currently in the process of re running the experiment just whether solidified that data that we found or like or approve it. Men. Maybe, Maybe they do. Maybe seagrass is not the best best place.

spk_0:   48:49
And as an undergraduate of your college, do you do research during the semester or it was this your first time doing research? This are you program that you are part of? Yes.

spk_7:   48:59
So I have them. I've been pretty connected with research. My whole my whole undergraduate career. I've, um I started with the research and the research field really doing a lot of analysis of identification. And that was I did a pesticide study my freshman year analysing recruitment, calcium carbonate tiles and oyster shell. Ah, based on what? Based on the presence of pesticides, that I was kind of like a traffic study. And I said Wade into, ah, oyster reefs and living shoreline work where we try to combat erosion using sediment elevation tables in the Indian River Lagoon. Um, what we did with that really was checking size and structure and the amount of a creation using the sediment elevation tables both adjacent and behind the reefs on Ben. After that, I kind of got involved with the Water Quality Treatment Lab where we did a lot of water monitoring. And from there I went on some Are you program why I stayed ocean acidification and calcium and carbonate chemistry. And then now, currently, I'm in my last going into my last year. I'm a junior now, going to my senior year, and I'm applied on my interested in the deep sea. So this summer I have applied for some deep sea chemistry programs. That's what I want to do with my career. But hopefully, uh, but right now, as we wouldn't equipment conducting right now is Ah Yue traffic study again, but this time analyzing the herbicide roundup and glyphosate and its effect on non target effects on sea grass. And they didn't really good.

spk_0:   50:16
Have you had time for, like, classes amongst all this research? And

spk_7:   50:20
then I feel like I'm a pretty smart dude and I could I could get a four point. Oh, but unfortunately, my my GP is like 3.6, and that's not that's been

spk_0:   50:30
still pretty good.

spk_7:   50:31
That's been that's been it's been targeted just cause I put in a lot of time outside.

spk_0:   50:34
You have so much experience. That's amazing. I didn't do much undergrad research myself. I did a lot once I did my masters and afterwards does amazing. You've had so much experience.

spk_7:   50:46
I mean, I'm really passionate about it. I've I've really I I'm like I said, I'm trying to break into my field right now. Really? What Deep sea I I want to get a hydrothermal vent chemical ecology, and I've always known really what I wanted to do, and I really want to test that out this summer. But it was always more been about EXP GUINEA EXPERIENCE and just outside knowledge. Let it can bring that to my field.

spk_0:   51:06
What do you to deep sea research?

spk_7:   51:08
Uh, really. I've always known I won't spare Marine scientists, but I took I took a kind of laid back approach to it, kind of just figuring that the peace of the fall will fall into each other as I go along. And that's kind of what happened. So I my new since I could kid Marine Sciences. My thing was born in the Bahamas, some payment behaviour and Jamaican island boy. Um, but yeah. So when I came to the States in high school, I realized that in the class that I like these deep sea environments. It was like the foreignness of it. Like people. I kind of I mean, there was like, this. Is that the statistic that we've only only five or 10% of the ocean? I mean, to what extent whether or not that's your whatever, whatever, But, um, I I knew that I knew that I'd like the deep sea because it was like I felt like there were aliens down there. And then as I got into college, I realized where my interest lied and through, like my ecology work with the recruitment and and various things I've done with the pesticide work. I realized that I liked ecology and also that I like chemistry. So that's why that's where I got chemical ecology because I just and them that's what I'm kind of trying. I was trying to combine my interests on a broad scale and bring them to narrow it down that way.

spk_0:   52:09
You know, more than most juniors in college, two more than most people say, E um, I have an interesting question. Can again feel free from your expectations of what you wanted to study before school and now going to school. Has anything changed or shifted or like you're like, Oh, I didn't know that when I was like looking at going to school or has it all been pretty much wrote and just like, yeah, I expected all of this.

spk_7:   52:36
Not really. I mean, I that's the thing. Like, I kind of I kind of overthink a lot, I would say. And so I mean, there's, like, little things that problem ahead from every once in a while, like so little. But I really can't like, describe like in particular. But like I said, I've like, I've always tried to take a rational, more rational approach, and it's really that helped me out a lot because, like, I like the laid, rational, laid back approach because I figured as I went along, I got some point out. Figure it out. I mean, I try to take what people have told me, like, I know that like that. Like my path can trains drastically even now you. And even though I feel like I know so much about what I want to do, so I'm kind of just like I'm kind of. That's why I want to get into research in that field now because I didn't know that I could get do without research and find out that I hate it because and I'm not. I want I want to be like I wouldn't like the be like, hurt by I would have more. So look for the my next path from there. So rather than rather than having like, like any expectations more so I just more so. I have a feeling and I'm just going off feeling,

spk_0:   53:30
Yeah, that's good. How has your

spk_7:   53:32
experience been out Ocean Sciences this week. It's been amazing. I am. I've I've always had a dream to kind of put myself in position. I don't really come from much. Was Bahamian low income family all of this stuff. And, you know, I've really like coming to the Ocean Sciences meeting has been crazy. I'm here presenting through the as low multicultural program. And so I was fully funded to come out here and then present my research and I've gotten I've gotten the opportunity to meet like a lot of famous scientists and people who have, like whose research I've been like looking into for a very long time, whether or not meet them but just, like, kind of hear from them or kind of get a face, put a face to a name or so and be in the

spk_0:   54:11
same room. Is them talking about the same subjects?

spk_7:   54:14
Yeah, that's great at my school, and one thing I'd like to add is like I'm at school like I'm kind of like alone in my drive for marine sciences. I go to like a fuss, a liberal arts college of like 500 people. It's Ah Tatchell major university. But we have a separate campus and there's only like a handful of marine science majors, and you know, it's like it. So I think there's not much like outside forces other than my mentors who have, like, push me to be where I am today. So we're being around like a bunch of like, like minded people, and I'm not. I'm not, like, a lot on, like look at that with any type of, like, negative view. It's just to a certain extent. I do wanna be attached to these like like minded individuals so we can grow together. When

spk_0:   54:48
you're in an event with being surrounded by people, it's It must be so just relieving again. It is fresh air.

spk_7:   54:54
It shows me. It shows me where I need to improve. Like I look I'm like, one of things I need improve on it, like modeling and stuff like this is a more specific Now I know this is a podcast or whatever, but a guy like I didn't know, like I didn't know what programs that people are using that coming to events, and that's like a really specific example. But like coming here shows me like we're like exactly where I need to improve. And that's something that hasn't hasn't undergraduate like I can. I can prepare myself for graduate school and put Muscly, Do

spk_0:   55:18
you have any advice for other other students that maybe also in your position, looking to maybe get here that haven't yet?

spk_7:   55:24
I say just, like, try everything like do everything and, like, it'll fall together, fall in line like I mean, like, there's everything falls in line. I feel, I mean, like people there so many people in the world that likes to stress out and, like worry along the way for binary answers like yes or no's like, You know, it's like whether or not you applied to a program and you're worrying about getting in, you know, just like go for if you don't get in this. I mean, I don't know if there's some larger plan, but you know that the sad that something will happen and you know, usually most of stories you hear from people is that and like they kind of the first thing didn't work and they went to the second thing and they're perfectly happy with their life, and that's something that I've always taken a heart That's

spk_0:   55:59
true. Why is it important

spk_7:   56:03
to study the ocean? Why is it important to study the ocean? Is because, like, I was kind of like, I was kind of like, Not mad, but I was like I had never understood why we put so much effort in space when, like, Mass like, let's go back the whole alien aliens in the deep thing. And I think so. I think it's important. Understand the ocean because it's part of our own environment and, like we get 80% of our oxygen from the ocean. And that's not even what I'm into the oxygen production or vital plankton or whatever. But, you know, like the ocean that we were everything we get everything from the ocean, really. So it's important that

spk_5:   56:51
Robert Sligo on Where Do You Work? I worked at Woods Hole at the moments, and I'm paid by a group called the Ocean Frontier Institute that's based in Dollhouse E in Nova Scotia. What is your position? I'm a postdoctoral fellow,

spk_2:   57:07
okay? And you're here in ocean sciences? What are you presented?

spk_5:   57:12
I'm presenting some work that I've been working on in dollhouses for a year, where we try to show what the air and the scene looked like on average during marine heat waves. What isn't a marine heat wave is when the ocean gets very, very hot for a period of time, specifically when the ocean is in the top. 10% of temperatures ever recorded there for at least five days, and it's increasing.

spk_3:   57:45
So do you want to give us out your two minute spiel of your poster you got

spk_5:   57:49
here? So in order to see what the ocean looks like on average rights during hundreds of marine heatwaves, because we look back in time 30 years and whenever the ocean gets in that top 10% for a few days way take a snapshot of what does the air in the sea look like? And then we use a machine learning technique called a self organizing map to then cluster these 300 different air and see pictures into the 12 most common pictures. And that's what's on the poster,

spk_3:   58:20
all right, And what showing?

spk_5:   58:24
Well, the most extreme events are caused by sort of dog days of summer, when the weather over summer usually just sort of sits on you. You get those long human days. There's no wind. The ocean likes that as less as we do

spk_3:   58:44
hates it as much as we

spk_5:   58:46
wait, and then you get some smaller ones. Like the one I put on this poster is Here is your classic nor Easter. You guys are from around here, then you familiar with this and this does cause marine heat waves, but they're small ones. Ah, really big heat wave is about cumulative intensity. All of the heat anomaly added up. About 200. That's a big one. These bad boys, about 30 on average, just little.

spk_3:   59:15
And why is it important to study these wide? Does this

spk_5:   59:19
right? So, as one might imagine, you can't stop the ocean if it's going to get warm, it's going to get one. But why? It's important to study these is because marine heatwaves provide a snapshot into the near future. They get was warm now, as the ocean will be 20 5100 years from now. So the effects that these heat waves have on our fisheries and our beaches and on ourselves, that's what the future of the oceans one look so understanding these things better now will help us be more prepared for the future. Ocean. What?

spk_3:   59:51
Our next steps then you were taking present. This

spk_5:   59:57
moved to Florida. No way. No move. The Arctic. That's, uh, next step is to actually try to come up with a even Mawr direct way to do the same thing because this result is nice because it gives us pictures. But we actually also want some numbers. This is very qualitative.

spk_3:   1:0:19
Got it? And so you're

spk_5:   1:0:24
That's what they tell me.

spk_3:   1:0:25
All right, So how did you get into science? Was this something you always wanted to study or what was your path to getting

spk_5:   1:0:35
here? Well, um, I did a bachelor's degree because I was told that that was something I needed to do with my life. And I thought cool, great, done with academia went off and started teaching English and Korea. Fine. Did that for a while, then became a diving instructor because that seemed like a reasonable thing to do, right? Why not did that for several years. And then I was foolish enough to fall in love with somebody which happens to most of us on. She lived in South Africa. So I moved to South Africa. But it's very hard to get a work visa there, but it's very easy to get a study visa. So I thought, Well, I've been working in the ocean for five years. Let's do a master's and ocean stuff And I did that and then with a master's degree, also couldn't get a job. But a PhD pays money on study visas are used to get. So then I did a PhD, and then I did a good enough job, but that apparently, that these people hired me. And so now we

spk_2:   1:1:33
Okay, great story.

spk_5:   1:1:34
My partner still in Canada, which is like, a thing far because she doesn't want to come to the States because of the whole of the podcast. With whole xenophobia thing of being African and rather staying in Canada,

spk_3:   1:1:48
I get it. All right.

spk_5:   1:1:51
Surprise story there. That's someone else walked up to me. This is the guy that does the website. So you weren't in academia for a while, then. How did you guess?

spk_3:   1:2:00
Yeah, Yeah. Okay. Is this your first conference here?

spk_5:   1:2:09
I was actually at the one in Oregon that was right at the end of my PhD, but I was only at it because my family hadn't seen me for a long time, and they paid for me to fly to the States. But all of my colleagues and Cape Town couldn't afford. I think I've seen one person that works in South Africa here. There might be more, but there's not a lot. That's a whole different story. But that's an important story. Not a lot of people tell you should I

spk_3:   1:2:40
believe you're planning so many ideas. Why

spk_5:   1:2:49
it's important started tell, because science is a global industry and it should be something that everyone can participate in equally, you feel like it's because of barriers of cost.

spk_3:   1:3:02
Yes, it costs a lot of money to travel, please.

spk_5:   1:3:06
Tuesday, housing to register for conferences. There's a get a visa.

spk_2:   1:3:12
Yeah, so that can easily Adam Teoh thousands and thousands of dollars for a one week conference that could be very transformative for the work that you dio

spk_3:   1:3:23
and for being able to make the collaborations trying to see what the full

spk_5:   1:3:30
range of racial justice and all that. But I'm not really the I'm not gonna soapbox to you because that's like rather support other people. To do that, That might have more personal reason.

spk_3:   1:3:49
Why is it important to study the ocean?

spk_5:   1:3:56
Well, yeah, right, I'm unfortunately, I don't have this, like, exciting story of how my my dad or my mom raised me breathing in the sea water. I grew up in Seattle, Washington on the coast, a lot of salt water in my life. But it's important to study the ocean because it's important to study the planet. The biosphere and the ocean is the majority of that land is also important. I find the ocean more interesting simply because of the the depth mystery that comes with the depth of the ocean. It's sort of more alluring in a frightening way. Land. It's like, Oh, yeah, I looked. It's nice oceans like what's down there on working as a diet Once this is a jacket Stoke quote. I don't remember my head. It's Theo Ocean. Once she has you in her grasp, will have you forever something. And it's true. As soon as you breathe your first bubbles on the water, it's like never go back.

spk_0:   1:4:58
I am so Sam. Now that you attended your first post recession. What did you think about it? My key takeaways were This was big. There is a lot of research going on. People are really interested in the ocean and progressing their studies of it from the smallest minute areas to the largest spans of the ocean. And there was ah lot I did not understand. But fortunately, people took the time to explain it as best they could do me. E would agree with that 10 out of 10 would do again. Oh, good. I I always enjoy the moment when folks are explaining their research to you, and you could tell that they are a little hesitant because they don't know your background. They don't know your knowledge level, but the moment that they see it clicks in your mind and you can repeat it back to them of Oh, so by that you mean this this and this and they get so excited of, Yes, that's exactly what I'm going for. That's exactly what I'm trying to do. And you can see the fact that that is what they do this work for, for people to understand, for people to grasp the concepts and realized the implications beyond just the act of doing the research. I think it was also really heartening to hear about the trajectories that people had of Oh, I may not have known a lot about this thing that I'm studying. I wanted to learn more and maybe see if this was something I was cut out for. Oh, it's not. Now I know what I'm going to do in the future. But it was it was cool to see the I don't know people like we're trying new things and learning and exploring things. That was just something I had not been aware of, I guess. But it makes sense. Yeah, often, when you're younger researcher and a younger scientist, you don't know what you like to dio until you try it. And there's great ways to do that, such as the summer programs or a semester long project, something that might not take up a ton of time and night might not be large in the scheme of your life's research, but it's large in the sense of the impact that it has on you and what path you'd end up deciding to take in your life. Yes, thank you to all who are willing to share their story with us. I also loved all of the stories when we ask how they got into science and research and if they always wanted to do this. And I loved how most of the answer started with Well, I know that this is not typical, but I started out doing something completely different, and I think that that was, oddly enough, the most typical response we had. Truly. Yeah, you're all in the same boat. A typical. But Renee, why do you think that it is important to study the ocean? I think it's important to study the ocean because it is such a vital part of the earth, and therefore it is so interconnected to how we live when people don't even realize it sometimes. So my immediate go to is what a lot of people said is that we know more about space than we do the ocean, which is mind boggling to may. We live on the same planet that the ocean is, and there's so much life and all that life really contributes to how are carbon a cycle to the formation of cloud to the atmosphere and it, Really? The ocean really shows you how interconnected everything is on Earth and how you really can't just separate one box from another and say I have no relation to this person or to this environment. And what I do on Lee affects me and the ocean really shows you how interconnected everybody is. All the animals are all of the a biotic and biotic factors living non living factors are to the sustainability and the growth of this planet. So if we don't know about the ocean, then we really don't know much at all about where we are making our life. That's a good answer. Why do you study the ocean, Sam? It's cool. I mean, come on, that too. Plus, it's fun. Go swimming, going bodes. There's whales. I only know there's wealth because of science. Thank you. Science on and thank you to age EU for hosting this amazing ocean conference. So we're going to cap this off on the Jacque Cousteau quote that Robert eloquently tried to remember which is the sea. Once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever. It seems to be the case with all of these scientists fail. Guess what? We're still a new podcast. Still still, it's gonna be a while. We're pretty young. So with that in mind, we love to hear from you. Please reach out. If you have any ideas, thoughts, comments or concerns, and you can email us at laboratory podcast at gmail dot com, we have a Twitter at laboratory Pod. We're getting better at that. And we also have an instagram also getting better at that laboratory podcast. We also have a website, laboratory dash podcast dot com. And if you're on the Facebook, we are all so on it. Laboratory broadcast. Look at our beach. It was like I think that's also the end of the things that were on. I think so. Thanks for listening and stay tuned as we create some more scientific episodes and send them your way. I'm Sam. I'm Renee, and this has been laboratory podcast, and this has been our latest lab notebook entry hostile among Yana. Adios, things for listening and stay tuned as we continue to create some more scientific episodes for you. Like the ocean, I'll give you thousands of waves. Goodbye. What ocean has waves waving Goodbye thousands waves, waves waving, waving to everybody Giant question mark over my head. She doesn't like that one. We're doing another one.