This month, ScienceWatch.com takes a closer look at VIMS, its history and research projects, and talks with some of the scientists who have contributed to its citation achievements.

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Zooplankton Ecology and Climate Change: Deborah Steinberg

Dr. Deborah K. Steinberg came to VIMS in 2001, and is Professor of Marine Science. Her work deals with zooplankton ecology and physiology, coastal and deep-sea food webs, nutrient cycling, particle flux in the ocean, and using long-term datasets to study the effects of climate change on zooplankton. A big order, and her research takes her all around the world, from the Antarctic to the Amazon. "I just love looking through the microscope at zooplankton because they're very diverse," she says. "Every time I look at a sample, I always see things I haven't seen before. And because I work in different environments, from tropical and polar areas to the Chesapeake Bay, the zooplankton communities are different in all of these different places."

One of Steinberg's papers that has garnered attention in the research community is the 2004 Marine Ecology-Progress Series article, "Production of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) in the open ocean by zooplankton and the colonial cyanobacterium Trichodesmium spp.," (Steinberg DK, et al., 267: 45-56). "Oceanographers are interested in dissolved organic matter in the oceans because bacteria use it in their metabolism, and it's another source of carbon in the ocean, which is a hot topic now because of global warming," she explains.

What Steinberg and her coauthors discovered is that zooplankton produce CDOM as well—previously, it had been thought that this was the realm of phytoplankton, the microscopic plants. "And not only do zooplankton produce CDOM, but different types of zooplankton produce unique color signatures related to the types of CDOM they produce.

The amount of carbon in the ocean is a hot topic with regard to the matter of global warming. "The oceans take up about half the carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere through fossil-fuel burning—this carbon dioxide diffuses into the surface waters of the ocean and phytoplankton take it up during photosynthesis, and then this carbon gets transferred down into the deep ocean in a number of different ways. The deeper you can transport that carbon into the deep oceans the longer it stays there because of the way oceans circulate," Steinberg explains. "The problem is as the oceans take up more carbon dioxide the delicate balance of its carbonate buffering system is disrupted and the ocean is slowly acidifying. It's a problem in terms of coral reefs, and basically anything that makes a calcium carbonate shell, including some zooplankton and phytoplankton."

Part of Steinberg's research involves studying how that carbon circulates in the ocean. Some of the ways include zooplankton consuming phytoplankton, then excreting fecal pellets that sink into the ocean; there are also zooplankton that migrate daily through the "twilight," or mesopelagic zone of the ocean—an area between the reach of the sun and the deep, dark ocean—transporting the carbon with their movements.

Steinberg is also involved in a long-term project at the Palmer Antarctic Research Station, looking at the effects of climate change on the ecosystem, on everything from bacteria to penguins. Her role is, of course, to look at the effects on zooplankton. "This area is one of the fastest-warming areas on earth—the amount and duration of the ice there is shrinking all the time, and this has an effect on the ecosystem," she says.

Robert Diaz Looks at Bioturbation and Dead Zones

Dr. Robert Diaz has been with VIMS since 1979, and says it's "like what you think a marine lab would be—very laid-back, and a beautiful setting by the sea. That has never changed, although the country has become much more built up than it was 30 years ago, it's still a nice place with good vistas and lots of interesting work going on." Diaz's work focuses on two main areas: bioturbation, or the way in which marine animals interact with sediments from the shallow waters to the deep sea, and dead zones, areas of low dissolved oxygen in the water.

Bioturbation is actually a concept that dates back to Charles Darwin; he postulated that animals living in the soil greatly affected processes within the soil, and he was right. The composition of organic matter, the cycling of nutrients, the burial of organic matter on geological time-scales—whether on land on in the water, bioturbation plays a key role in all of these things.

The term "dead zones" was first popularized by Nancy Rabalais, the executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, and it's an apt term. "What happens in a dead zone," Diaz explains, "is that oxygen becomes too low to support fish, crab, and shrimp, and so they leave, creating an area where fisherman can't catch anything."

Dead zones are in constant flux—some can last a few months, such as in Chesapeake Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, or Lake Erie, whereas others can last year-round, such as in the Baltic Sea. The cause of dead zones is mainly too much primary production. "Basically," says Diaz, "the waters are too 'green.' If you look at the dead zones around the world, you can see that the main source of the problem is connected to runoff from land—agricultural land in particular. It's a land-sea interaction gone bad. You have the nutrients coming in from the runoff, and they stimulate the phytoplankton in the water—just like fertilizers on land stimulate the growth of crops. When this happens in the sea, if you get too much of it and nobody harvests it, it settles to the bottom, decomposes, and uses up the oxygen, and if the physics are right, you get a dead zone."

There is a fair amount of work being done by both researchers and resource managers to mitigate dead zones throughout the world. There are programs within the United Nations, as well as programs local to the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Erie, and Chesapeake Bay to reduce nutrients being drained into the waters to eliminate dead zones. Diaz is confident that applying management strategies will lead to improvement. "The trouble with these big dead zones is the problems are coming from diffuse sources, which are a lot harder to control and regulate. It's going to take a long time to see any effect," he cautions.

"There is one really good example of a system that basically went from the world's second-largest dead zone to having no oxygen problems in a mere three years," Diaz offers, "and that's the Black Sea's northwest continental shelf. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the agricultural subsidies to the farmers in the area, which included land around the Danube, were simply gone. In a matter of one to two years the nutrient additions to that area fell by a factor of three to four. In 1990, the dead zone was measured at 40,000 square kilometers, and by 1993 it was at zero because of the nutrient reductions."

"So," he concludes, "you can see that if you regulate nutrients going into the water, you can get rid of these dead zones but I certainly don't recommend economic collapse as the way of doing it!"

Robert Hale on Persistent Organic Pollutants

Dr. Robert Hale came to VIMS in 1987 from the Mobil Oil Corporation, Environmental Health & Science Laboratory in Princeton, NJ. His interest in pollution dates back to growing up in Michigan in the 1970s, which was, as he says, " highly industrialized and we had issues such as polybrominated biphenyls in cattle, lampreys in the Great Lakes, and other problems."

One of his major research concentrations at VIMS is the study of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the aquatic environment. "As POPs, PCBs & PBDEs represent long-term hazards, they degrade only slowly. They also can become widely distributed in the environment, affecting human and wildlife long distances from their points of usage—for example, from cities to remote polar zones—and the impacts persist long after their release," Hale says.

As far as mitigating the effects of various POPs, Hale says the key is prevention. "Once in the environment, POPs are difficult to remove. The best approach is prevention. This is one reason for my interest in so-called 'emerging contaminants.' The 'train has left the station' for PCBs; their use has been stopped and they have already become distributed globally. In contrast, PBDEs are still present in common household products. Production of some PBDE formulations stopped in late 2004, another (Deca) remains in use. Better industrial stewardship would help for Deca. All PBDEs in products may find their way into the environment."

"Biosolids," or sewage sludge, their composition and their re-introduction into the environment as agricultural amendments are another interest of Hale's.

Pollution and Its Effects: Michael Newman

Professor Michael Newman has been with VIMS for just over a decade, where he now holds the title of A. Marshall Acuff Jr. Professor of Marine Science. "My research and teaching involves pollutant effects," he says. "Like many my age, an awareness of environmental pollution was as much a part of coming of age as the Vietnam War and Kennedy’s push for science education. I remember sitting on a Connecticut beach as a child watching for dolphins on the horizon, as smoke from a burning dump floated by. In the drift line of the beach were rusty aerosol cans and tar balls in addition to skate egg cases and shells. Pollution issues that needed to be solved were obvious even to young children."

Several of his highly cited papers deal with the effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination, specifically in Fundulus heteroclitus, the common mummichog. Newman explains, "My wife and I spent a decade prior to coming to VIMS studying pollutant impacts on animal populations. The molecular genetics we applied before coming to Virginia were easily applied to fish populations in the heavily polluted Elizabeth River. We were able to show that PAH exposure for many generations of this common fish, F. heteroclitus, resulted in changes in the population genetics: the exposure was serious enough that the populations underwent microevolution."

Another of Newman's major projects is to update statistical methods used in ecotoxicology. "The approaches established in the 1970s to address very real and immediate problems became the standard methods applied by pollution scientists and incorporated into EPA regulations. These methods were borrowed hastily from human toxicology, a field that correctly focuses on the well-being of the individual. But, except in cases of endangered or especially charismatic species, environmental scientists are more concerned about the well-being of ecological populations and communities," he relates, "A growing number of scientists now realize that the standard methods applied in ecotoxicology are outdated, generating unsound scientific conclusions and indefensible regulatory decisions about population viability or community biodiversity."

Newman views teaching as a key responsibility as well. "Expertise and innovation in ecological toxicology are essential as the human population grows and our technologies become more sophisticated and widespread. Useful new and old ideas must be drawn upon to address concerns as they emerge. So exposing each generation of environmental scientists to useful ideas and helping them develop skills for selecting the best approach in the presence of uncertainty are essential to our well-being," he concludes.

Sound Science, Informed Management, Brighter Tomorrows

The mandate of VIMS is "sound science for informed management," and this mandate is carried out in a three-pronged path of research, education, and advisory service. The goals of VIMS are to "make seminal advances in understanding marine systems through research and discovery; translate research findings into practical solutions to complex issues of societal importance; and provide new generations of researchers, educators, problem solvers, and managers with a marine-science education of unsurpassed quality."

The work that VIMS engages in does bring results in all three areas—as we have seen through the researchers who spoke with ScienceWatch.com. But their work is only a small portion of what goes on at VIMS—the institution has hundreds of other projects underway locally and throughout the world. Some of its historic achievements that are still in play today include oyster ecology research as well as juvenile fish and blue crab surveys in Chesapeake Bay. The annual shark survey begun in 1973 is now the longest running such survey worldwide. VIMS scientists were key players in the establishment of the national Sea Grant and Coastal Zone Management programs in the 1960s. The founding of the Eastern Shore Laboratory helped kick-start the state's hugely profitable hard clam industry. VIMS' seagrass restoration programs are among the most successful in the world.

With its state-of-the-art laboratories, fleet of research boats, libraries, and collections, as well as its partnerships with the US government and international research institutes, VIMS is well-positioned to lead marine science research for years to come.

Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Gloucester Point, VA, USA

Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS)'s current most-cited paper (Biology/Biochemistry) in Essential Science Indicators, with 333 cites:
	Beck MW, et al., "The identification, conservation, and management of estuarine and marine nurseries for fish and invertebrates," Bioscience 51(8): 633-41, August 2001. Source: Essential Science Indicators from Thomson Reuters.
Additional Information:
	This interview is based on the Virginia Institute of Marine Science's citation record in the field of Environment & Ecology, for which the current-most cited paper from Essential Science Indicators, with 264 cites is: Worm B, et al., "Impacts of biodiversity loss on ecosystem services," Science 314(5800): 787-90, 2 November 2006.
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KEYWORDS: MARINE SCIENCE, AQUACULTURE, HABITAT CONSERVATION, HABITAT RESTORATION, SEAGRASSES, WATER QUALITY, SEED GERMINATION, SEED DISPERSAL, CHESAPEAKE BAY, BIODIVERSITY, INVERTEBRATES, OCEAN ECOSYSTEM SERVICES, WILD ALGAL COMMUNITIES, BIOFUEL FEEDSTOCK, ZOOPLANKTON, CHROMOPHORIC DISSOLVED ORGANIC MATTER, FOOD WEBS, NUTRIENT CYCLING, PARTICLE FLUX, CLIMATE CHANGE, OCEAN CARBON CONTENT, BIOTURBATION, DEAD ZONES, LOW DISSOLVED OXYGEN, PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS, PCB, PBDE, DECA, BIOSOLIDS, POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS, ECOTOXICOLOGY, ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY, TRIBUTYLTIN, AQUATIC POLLUTANTS, FISH IMMUNOLOGY, EDUCATION, PARTNERSHIPS.