Past Seminars

Tuesday
November 10

UM SNRE
Room 1046

Title: "Biodiversity and the Functioning of Ecosystems"

Speaker: Dr. Bradley Cardinale, Assistant Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara

Title: "Development of GIS-based decision support tools for evaluation of Great Lakes lakebed alterations"

Speaker: Mr. Jason Breck, University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, Institute for Fisheries Research

Title: "The Waterman Project: a coastal forecasting system for Hong Kong harbor"

Presenters are scientists from Hong Kong University:
Prof. Joseph H.W. Lee, Prof. Wenping Wang, Dr. Bin Chan,
Mr. Thoe Wai, and Mr. Adrian Lai

Monday
August 10

Title: "NOAA in the Great Lakes: Guest speakers from NWS and NOS"

"Integrated Water Forecasting (IWF) Program"
Pedro Restrepo, National Weather Service Senior Scientist for Special Projects

"Integrated Water Resources Science and Services (IWRSS) a component of the IWF"
Don Cline, National Weather Service Office of Climate, Water and Weather Service

"International Great Lakes Datum Update"
Rich Edwing, National Ocean Service, Deputy Director of NOS Center for Operational and Oceanographic Products and Services

"NOAA's Coastal Strategy and Intersections with the Great Lakes"
David Kennedy, National Ocean Service, Director, NOS Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management

Wednesday
July 22

Title: "Water bloom forming Cyanobacteria in Chinese Waters: Morphotypes, Genotypes and Phylogenetics"

Speaker: Dr. Renhui Li, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.

Abstract:
Environmental problems caused by cyanobacterial blooms in eutrophic lakes, rivers and drinking water reservoirs have been increasingly documented. Toxins produced by cyanobacterial blooms, directly threatening to human health through drinking water systems, have attracted more attention and have been extensively studied.

This talk will focus on molecular diversity and phylogenetic analyses in several major groups of water bloom forming cyanobacteria in Chinese waters: Microcystis, Planktothrix/Planktothricoides, Anabaena/Aphanizomenon, Cylindrospermopsis/ Raphidiopsis. Cyanotoxin production related to these groups will also be reported.

Title: "Estimation of overlake precipitation and basin runoff uncertainty in the Great Lakes"

Speakers:
Qiang Dai
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Mary E. Mello
Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystem Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Dr. Carlo DeMarchi
Department of Geological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio

Abstract:
The Net Basin Supply (NBS) for one of the Great Lakes represents the net amount of water entering the lake, not counting the supply of water from upstream lakes and can be computed as the sum of the actual inputs (over-lake precipitation, runoff from the drainage basin, and net groundwater flux) and outputs (evaporation) to/from each lake, but not the connecting-channel flows or change in storage. The reliability of NBS is a key parameter for managing Great Lakes water balance and for understanding long-term trends in the hydrological conditions of the Lakes. As part of the International Upper Great Lakes Study, we analyzed the algorithm used by NOAA (GLERL) to estimate tributary flow to the Great Lakes and evaluated its uncertainty using a Monte Carlo technique. We also computed over-lake precipitation by merging an operational multisensor product combining radar-based precipitation estimates and rain gage data, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Multisensor Precipitation Estimates (MPE) with data from a larger network of rain gages for 2002-2007 and we analyzed the differences with the GLERL estimates for over-lake precipitation.

Results indicate that runoff uncertainty is relatively small for Lake Erie and Lake Michigan, but quite larger for lakes Superior, Huron, Saint Clair, and Georgian Bay. Further, GLERL estimates seem affected by a small bias (2 to 7%). Due to limitations of MPE, the comparison of overlake precipitation is limited to lakes Ontario, Erie, Michigan, and Huron. For these lakes, the Lake version of GLERL estimates show a better agreement with our results than the Land version of GLERL estimates. For the former product, no substantial bias is detected, while monthly uncertainty is limited for the smaller lakes, but substantial for the larger lakes.

Speaker: Dr. Ian Hartwell, Ecologist
NOAA National Ocean Service
Silver Spring, MD

Abstract:
The research was designed to investigate and document the soft bottom benthic infauna community in a systematic approach in the central California region, and to delineate habitats as defined by the resident biological communities. One objective is to assess what the physical and ecological processes are that enable these highly diverse communities to exist in a seemingly simple habitat that is stable over long periods of time. In contrast, canyons experience periodic sediment sloughing that opens up new habitat space by removing the existing benthic community. The frequency of these natural disturbances are partially dependent on storms, earthquake activity and sedimentation rate, and resident communities are expected to be evolutionarily adapted for periodic disturbance. Submarine canyons are also the conduits to the deep ocean for material accumulated on the shelf. National Status & Trends sediment chemical contaminant data from 2002 indicated a very inhomogeneous distribution of tracer chemicals between the canyon heads in central California. Relative to the continental shelf and Pioneer Canyon stations, DDT and other contaminants were found at higher concentrations in Ascension and Monterey Canyons. Monterey Bay still receives DDT input from terrestrial runoff and may be the source of DDT found in Ascension Canyon. All data indicate a continuous input 30 years after DDT was banned.

In 2004, stable depositional areas of six canyons and five transects across the continental shelf and slope were sampled for benthic community and contaminant concentrations. Sampling in 2005 targeted the axes of the canyon floors and expanded the study area north and south to assess contaminant distributions and benthic community characteristics on a regional basis. Moorings with sediment traps and turbidity flow sensors to monitor sediment transport in Monterey and Soquel Canyons were deployed in 2005. The presence of DDT in Ascension and Ano Nuevo Canyons at comparable concentrations to Monterey Canyon indicates transport of fine-grained materials out of the Monterey Bay system to the shelf to the north. Contaminant concentrations in Carmel canyon and on the shelf south of Monterey Bay did not appear to be elevated above background levels. Contaminant concentrations in the Gulf of the Farallones and Bodega Canyon north of San Francisco do not appear to accumulate organic contaminants despite input from San Francisco Bay. However, chemical contaminants do appear to accumulate in deeper areas below the continental shelf break. Benthic communities are extremely diverse along the continental shelf break. Patterns in benthic communities illustrate gradients with depth and sediment grain size that are confounded with contaminant concentrations. Simple measures of community abundance and diversity do not indicate differences between active and depositional canyon habitats. Detailed community composition assessment is ongoing. Turbidity flows and routine tidal currents result in a highly dynamic benthic habitat, that nonetheless harbors a robust benthic infaunal community.

Speaker: Dr. Edward Rutherford
University of Michigan
School of Natural Resources & Environment
Institute for Fisheries Research

Title: "Hydrologic Research at the Office of Hydrologic Development: Present and Future"

Speaker: Dr. Pedro Restrepo
Chief Scientist, Office Of Hydrology
NOAA National Weather Service

Title: "An approach to establishing aquatic organisms as in situ environmental bioindicators of natural hazards"

Dr. Stephen A. Bortone, Director
Minnesota Sea Grant College Program

Video archive available:
Video: ftp://ftp.glerl.noaa.gov/webcast/2008/bortone/20080131.wmv
PowerPoint: ftp://ftp.glerl.noaa.gov/webcast/2008/bortone/20080131.ppt
Adobe PDF: ftp://ftp.glerl.noaa.gov/webcast/2008/bortone/20080131.pdf