Jeff Schilling's blog

Every day CMOP senior research programmer Paul Turner commutes on his electric bicycle from the outskirts of Portland to his office at the OHSU Marquam Hill campus. Rain. Traffic. Road obstacles. Paul documented the nine mile ride with his GoPro and I edited the footage into this short video. Enjoy!

The CMOP Senior Management Team from Oregon Health & Science University, Oregon State University and University of Washington came together on Thursday to discuss exciting opportunities and long-term plans for our NSF Science and Technology Center. "We called it a retreat but we moved forward full-force," said Fred Prahl.

SMT Team from left to right: Yvette Spitz, António Baptista, Nievita Bueno Watts, Fred Prahl, David Martin, Vanessa Green, and Amy Johnson.

Photo by unidentified employee from The Reserve

This selfie was taken while I was on an assignment in Astoria to cover the deployment of the Environmental Sample Processor. The high winds and cold rain were challenging or as the field team reminded me, just another typical day of work at the estuary. 2013 was a tremendous year for CMOP research and education. From performing the first adaptive sampling, to the story of robotic vehicles performing research in an unlikely place, here 's what you may have missed last year.

1. Visiting Scholar Returns to United Arab Emirates
   Nabil Abdel Jabbar, a professor of chemical engineering at American University of Sharjah, spent his sabbatical at CMOP to better understand the computational models and observation network.
    
2. Underwater Robotics Succeed In Unlikely Place
   CMOP puts autonomous underwater vehicles to work in a challenging environment to study how climate change and human stresses affect estuaries and nearby coastal waters.
    
3. CMOP Advances Sampling Strategies of Microbial Communities in Coastal Ecosystems
   CMOP collects autonomous adaptive samples from microbial communities by integrating an Environmental Sample Processor with the SATURN Observation Network.
    
4. CMOP Research to Provide Insight into Biogeochemical Exchange Between Bays and Estuary
   Scientists study the biogeochemical exchange between three bays and the Columbia River estuary to gain scientific insight of how metabolic processes affect the overall health of the estuarine ecosystem.
    
5. Scholarship Enables Graduate Student to Study New Pathways of Carbon Flow Through Aquatic Food Webs
   A scholarship supports Michelle Maier’s research into describing how environmental variables influence microscopic biological communities in river ecosystems.

António Baptista was one of the invited guest speakers at today’s OHSU Tribal Gathering held in the Biomedical Information Communication Center (BICC) BICC Gallery at Oregon Health & Science University. Baptista talked about the importance of salmon to people as the environment is to our health.

The  gathering brought together tribal delegates, OHSU directors and guests at a meeting to identify areas of partnership, needs coordination and collaboration, and technical assistance. The event focused on building and strengthening community partnerships and was sponsored by OHSU Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) and the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board.

Learn more about OHSU Center for Diversity and Inclusion →

One of my photos was used on the 2014 calendar from the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington. Craig McNeil and Trina Litchendorf are shown aboard the R/V Inferno conducting field research with an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle in the estuary. Finally, my work is swag worthy!

Read a story I wrote about underwater robotics succeeding in an unlikely place →

Day 9 from the Antarctic Expedition  – CMOP scientist Joe Needoba with one of his students review images of phytoplankton after a day's plankton tow science.

Needoba and his students are surveying the near shore marine environment during the expedition and examining water properties and phytoplankton assemblages to gain a first-hand perspective of Antarctic food webs. In addition, they are discussing the far reaching impacts of human activities, such as increased fertilizer use or fossil fuel burning, and how the oceans are responding to these global-scale perturbations to the environment.

See more photos and read student blogs at the Students on Ice expedition's official blog.

(Photo courtesy of Students on Ice program)

Joe Needoba, a CMOP scientist and assistant professor with OHSU Institute of Environmental Health, is with the Students on Ice Antarctic Expedition to teach high school and university students about the impacts humans have on marine life, and what this means for the future health of our oceans and our planet.

The trip stared December 26 and ends on January 10. The group is visiting the Antarctic Peninsula, which is an important region of the continent that is experiencing significant changes as a result of tourism and climate change impacts. Needoba is leading one of four of the academic programs on the ship. In addition to oceanography, there is geology, tourism, and a general class. All told, there are 70 students, about 35 university and 35 high school.

Read interview with Dr. Needoba on teaching oceanography in Antarctica →

Follow the Antarctic scientific adventure on the Students on Ice expedition's official blog →

(Photo courtesy of Students on Ice program)

The Oregon Sea Grant College Program is soliciting applications for the 2014-2015 Oregon Natural Resource Policy Fellowship. This fellowship is intended to give a student first-hand experience in natural resource policy at the state level. In so doing, the student will contribute to policies that will benefit natural resource managers, stakeholders, and user groups.

CMOP student Rachel Golda was awarded an Oregon Sea Grant in 2012. The grant supports her research to gain a better understanding of the relationship between ocean acidification and harmful algal blooms.

How can a Sea Grant fellowship benefit you? Hear what former Knauss Fellows have to say about their year in Washington, D.C.,  in this video from Alaska Sea Grant.

We would like to welcome Alexandra Cravo from the University of Algarve in Portugal. She is a visiting scientist that will be spending a nine month sabbatical at CMOP.

Dr. Cravo received her Ph. D. in Ocean Sciences from the School of Ocean Sciences at the University of Wales- Bangor in 1996. Her scientific research has been focused on chemical processes in estuaries and coastal zones, addressing environmental issues such as eutrophication, environmental quality assessment, marine and aquatic pollution/ecotoxicology, and environmental chemistry. Dr. Cravo established collaboration with the Physical Oceanography group, within the scope of Oceanographic issues in the south Portuguese coast, particularly the chemical oceanographic processes, associated with coastal upwelling and counter currents; chemical characterization of water masses and mass transport and exchanges across and along-shore.

Rachel Golda recently won Best Completed Work at the 2013 Heceta Head Coastal Conference for her poster titled "Elucidating the role of ocean acidification in saxitoxin production of the toxic alga Alexandrium catenella."

Golda is a graduate student at  Oregon Health & Science Universty's Insitute of Environmental Health and performs research with her advisors Tawnya Peterson, Ph.D. and Joseph Needoba, Ph.D..