August 9, 2021 โ New research from Oregon State University recently published in the Marine Ecology Progress Series indicates climate conditions have a significant impact on Antarctic krill reproductive success.
Because krill is such an important component of healthy ecosystems, the impacts of krill abundance be far-reaching, the study found.
June 9, 2021 โ Oregon State University said Tuesday it has been selected to host a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration institute focused on collaborative study of the rapidly changing ocean and expanded demands on its use.
The Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystem and Resources Studies, or CIMERS, will focus on four research themes: conservation, protection and restoration of marine resources; marine ecosystems; ocean acoustics; and ocean, coastal and seafloor processes.
The institute will be eligible for up to $37 million in funding over the next five years, with potential for renewal for five more years.
โNOAAโs significant support of this collaborative marine institute underscores Oregon State Universityโs longstanding contributions in leadership, research and teaching to protect and enhance our oceans,โ said OSU Interim President Becky Johnson. โWe must accelerate that work due to the extraordinary pressures and changes taking place in our oceans and climate. OSUโs collaborative model of engaging many colleges, academic disciplines and external partners is well-suited to address these issues.โ
NOAA supports 20 cooperative institutes in 28 states and the District of Columbia, providing funding to extend basic and applied research beyond the federal agencyโs capacity. The institutes also serve as a training ground for future NOAA employees through undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral education programs that align with NOAAโs mission.
March 4, 2021 โ The following was released by Oregon State University:
An Oregon State University researcher is part of a new federally supported project investigating how communities along the West Coast are adapting to ocean acidification, with the goal of determining what they need to be more resilient.
Ana K. Spalding, an assistant professor of marine and coastal policy in OSUโs College of Liberal Arts, is leading a team looking into how shellfish industry participants in several towns along the Oregon and California coasts are responding to ocean acidification and where gaps in policy or resources have left them vulnerable.
The $1 million, three-year interdisciplinary project is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through its Ocean Acidification Program. At OSU, Spalding is working with Erika Wolters, assistant professor of public policy, and Master of Public Policy students Victoria Moreno, Emily Griffith and Ryan Hasert.
โThe goal of this project is to better align policy responses with the immediate and very local needs of shellfish-reliant communities,โ Spalding said. โThis is both understanding that vulnerability and proactively thinking, โWhat can we do to respond to better support members of the shellfish industry and their needs?โโ
Ocean acidification and its impact on shellfish first became a major concern for West Coast farmers after a 2007 mass oyster larvae die-off at the Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery in Netarts Bay, Oregon. OSU scientists definitively linked that die-off to increased carbon dioxide in the water in a 2012 study.
October 9, 2020 โ The following was released by Oregon State University:
Agenda
August 27, 2020 โ Seafood production could see as much as a 75 percent leap over the next three decades if certain policy reforms and technological improvements are put in place, according to research conducted by Oregon State University (OSU) in collaboration with a bevy of international scientists.
By 2050, the earthโs human population is expected to reach 9.8 billion, an increase of two billion people over the current global tally. Researchers, who published their latest findings in Nature, believe that seafood has the potential to feed the growing world over the next 30 years sustainably โ if certain conditions are applied.
May 6, 2020 โ The worldโs oceans play a critical role in climate regulation, mitigation and adaptation and should be integrated into comprehensive โgreen new dealโ proposals being promoted by elected officials and agency policymakers, a group of ocean scientists suggests in a new paper.
โThe โgreen new dealโ has been the headline, but very few have been talking about the oceans in those conversations,โ said Steven Dundas, an environmental and resource economist in Oregon State Universityโs College of Agricultural Sciences and the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station in Newport, Oregon.
โWe think itโs important to add a touch of ocean blue to this conversation because the oceans play an important role in efforts to mitigate effects of climate change,โ he said. โOur proposed โteal dealโ is an integrated approach that is more likely to generate cost-effective and equitable solutions to this global threat.โ
Dundas is one of three senior authors of the paper, which was published recently by the journal Conservation Letters. The other senior authors are Arielle Levine and Rebecca Lewison of San Diego State University. Additional authors include OSUโs Angee Doerr, Ana Spalding and Will White.
February 21, 2018 โ CORVALLIS, Ore. โ Savvy Northwest anglers have long known that when patches of warm Pacific Ocean water drift closer to shore each summer, itโs time to chase after the feisty and tasty albacore tuna.
Now a new study confirms that tuna are more likely to be found in regions of the California Current System with certain oceanographic conditions โ and that commercial fishermen who work those areas more frequently bring in up to three times the revenue of other tuna anglers.
Results of the study, which was supported by the National Science Foundation and led by Oregon State University, were published today in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
These oceanographic conditions are more complex than simply being warmer temperatures, said James Watson, an OSU marine ecologist and lead author on the study. Their technical name is Lagrangian Coherent Structures, though scientists often refer to them as โthe skeletons of the sea.โ
โEssentially they are physical ocean fronts where surface waters converge,โ Watson said. โIf you toss two tennis balls in the water and they converge quickly, it is considered a Lagrangian Coherent Structure, or LCS.โ
โWhat weโve found is that the stronger the convergence, the more likely it is to attract certain things, beginning with the aggregation of phytoplankton, which in turn attracts larger organisms like tuna โ and, ultimately, tuna fishermen.โ
The researchers sought to discover whether anglers were utilizing these LCSs and if so, whether it had an economic impact. They compiled data from a vessel monitoring system on the location of more than 1,000 fishing vessels every hour in the U.S. California Current Large Marine Ecosystem for a four-year period โ a total of more than 340,000 trips. They then collected fisheries catch and price data.
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