Date/Time: November 12th (Wednesday) noon

Where: Center for Atmospheric Sciences Class Room (Phenix 123)

Speaker: Deidre Gibson

From: Hampton University

Topic:

Doliolid Blooms: What are the Driving Variables? Investigations of Trophic Interactions

  Abstract:

In August of 2009, Dr. Gibson served as the Chief Scientist on a cruise on board the Research Vessel Savannah in collaboration with the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography at the University of Georgia. Dr. Gibson is a former Ph.D. graduate student of Dr. Gustav Paffenhöfer at Skidaway. Tina Walters, the laboratory manager in Dr. Marc Frischer’s lab at Skidaway, served as the Co-Chief Scientist. Cruise participants Christy Pavel and LaGina Frazier were undergraduates at Savannah State University. Stephanie Chiang was an undergraduate at Emory University. Maryse Leandre was a Master's student at Hampton University.

 

 The scientific team on board RV Savannah in August of 2009 (Dr. Gibson is second from the right)

The long term objective of this research was to understand the ecological role and significance of doliolids (pictured below) in continental shelf pelagic ecosystems and the underlying processes that control and result in their high level of spatial and temporal patchiness. However, in order to eventually achieve these objectives, several very basic questions remain to be answered and therefore will be the focus of these studies. What do different life stages of doliolids eat in situ? What organisms prey on doliolids? At what rates do doliolids feed? Does the composition of phytoplankton communities control the formation and demise of summer doliolid blooms on the South Atlantic Bight shelf?

Dolioletta gegenbauri 

The goal of the three cruises was to conduct feeding experiments with large gonozooids of the doliolid Dolioletta gegenbauri on natural particle suspensions. We steamed to the 40 meter isobath at 31 °N (off Cumberland Island, GA) and started performing CTD casts every 10 nautical miles southward to locate evidence of shelf-upwelling containing a phytoplankton bloom. Once the upwelled water and phytoplankton bloom were found, we carefully conducted realistic incubation studies to assess and quantify doliolid consumption of prey communities, and performed state of the art molecular based zooplankton gut content analysis methods that allow in situ characterization of gut contents of individual animals.

Parking Information

Directions for External Guests to HU:

To park your car, please first goto the main gate of the university -- if you tell the officers at the gate that you are visiting the atmospheric sciences dept and need to park, they should be able to guide you from there. The campus map is here:

https://www.hamptonu.edu/visitor/parking.cfm