Category: Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems

AOML Establishes New Sites to Monitor Ocean Acidification in Gulf of Mexico

Members of AOML’s Acidification, Climate, and Coral Reef Ecosystems Team (ACCRETE) recently traveled to two remote reef locations to expand the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program’s (NCRMP) network of sentinel climate and ocean acidification monitoring sites. The newly established sites, located in the Flower Garden Banks and the Dry Tortugas, will provide researchers with additional data and insights into the ocean’s changing chemistry and the progression of ocean acidification, as well as the ecological impacts of these variables across the Caribbean basin and the Gulf of Mexico.

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Scientists Conduct Juvenile Sport Fish Surveys in Florida Bay

A team of scientists from NOAA’s AOML and Southeast Fisheries Science Center have conducted a series of surveys in Florida Bay this year as part of an ongoing project to investigate how juvenile sport fish in the bay respond to changes in water quality and habitat resulting from Everglades restoration. During the survey, scientists collected water quality and seagrass measurements and conducted otter trawls to sample the juvenile sport fish populations.

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AOML Oceanographers to Participate in New Summer Lecture Series

This summer, AOML will be diving into a new outreach initiative with the Central Caribbean Marine Institute, a coral reef research organization based in the Cayman Islands. From June through August, NOAA oceanographers from AOML will give a series of talks on various oceanographic topics to the institute’s staff and students participating in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at the institute’s Little Cayman Research Centre (LCRC).

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AOML Scientists Establish Ocean Acidification Monitoring Site at Flower Garden Banks

AOML successfully established the final of three sentinel climate and ocean acidification monitoring sites at the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico this month. Below are a few photos taken by AOML researchers of the biodiversity found on the reefs at the Flower Garden Banks. Photo credit: Lauren Valentino, NOAA

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AOML Enlists Citizen Scientists for International Ocean Sampling Day 2015

Researchers with AOML’s Environmental Microbiology Lab joined a global effort to sample the smallest members of the ocean ecosystem on June 21 during International Ocean Sampling Day. Organized and led by the European Union’s MicroB3 organization and the Ocean Sampling Day Consortium, Ocean Sampling Day (OSD) is a simultaneous sampling campaign of the world’s oceans and coastal waters. These cumulative samples, related in time, space and environmental parameters, contribute to determine a baseline of global marine biodiversity and functions on the molecular level.

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April Hydrographic Survey Conducted in the Florida Straits

AOML physical oceanographers conducted a hydrographic survey along the 27th north parallel in the Florida Straits aboard the R/V F.G. Walton Smith on April 9-10, 2015. The cruise was conducted as part of the ongoing Western Boundary Time Series project, which is designed to quantify Florida Current volume transport and water mass changes. Scientists measured full water column values of salinity, temperature, and oxygen using CTD equipment. This survey and others help to calibrate daily estimates of the Florida Current volume transport.

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AOML Marks 13th Trip Aboard Global Reef Expedition Cruise

During the months of March & April, AOML researchers participated in the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation’s Global Reef Expedition cruise which took place in the waters of the British Indian Ocean Territory. Some of the areas explored included the Maldives and the Chagos archipelago, home to the world’s largest Marine Protected Area. Aboard the R/V Golden Shadow and working under the theme “Science Without Borders,” the Global Reef Expedition team researches remote coral reef locations around the globe documenting their health to better understand which factors are crucial to reef resilience. AOML has participated in 12 Global Reef Expedition cruises since June 2012.

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Study Provides Local-scale Projections of Coral Bleaching Over the Next 100 Years

In a new study published April 1 in Global Change Biology, NOAA oceanographers and colleagues have developed a new method to produce high-resolution projections of the range and onset of severe annual coral bleaching for reefs in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean

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Numeric Nutrient Criteria Study Cruise

AOML scientists conducted a Numeric Nutrient Criteria Study cruise Wednesday and Thursday, March 18-19th in Biscayne Bay off of Broward and Miami-Dade Counties aboard the NOAA R/V Hildebrand. The study provides concurrent water column and coral reef status data for four coral assemblies off of Miami-Dade and Broward County. These results will be employed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to determine numeric nutrient criteria for the coastal waters of Southeast Florida.

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