Access the SMAST news archive

  SMAST to lead NASA study of Coastal CO2 Flux

August 10, 2012

NASA has awarded $134,000 to SMAST Dean Steven Lohrenz to lead a multi-institutional study of CO2 exchange along continental margins.

The project will use linked terrestrial and coastal models, along with ship and satellite observations, to address the significant uncertainties in coastal carbon fluxes, which are in turn a source of uncertainty in predictions of ocean acidification and climate change.

The team will also establish "geospatial portals," map-based sites to allow the wider research community to access data based on location.

The project will be jointly conducted with partners at universities in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina, and will focus on the Mississippi River watershed, northern Gulf of Mexico, and southeastern U.S. coast.

  UMassD to share in $2M ocean observing grant

August 6, 2012

 The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and six partner institutions will share $2 million in the next fiscal year awarded by NERACOOS, the Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems.

The UMassD funding will support continued development of models to predict the impact of storm inundation on New England coastal municipalities.

Led by Dr. Changsheng Chen of SMAST and long-time collaborator Dr. Robert Beardsley of WHOI, a research team has validated these models in Scituate, Massachusetts, and Saco, Maine, for selected extratropical storms (nor'easters) of 2005, 2007 and 2010.

Work is now underway to extend the model domain to cover the entire Massachusetts coast and establish an inundation forecast model system for the state. (Read full UMassD release.)

  Kerr wins AIFRB best student paper award

 August 2, 2012

The American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists has named SMAST's Dr. Lisa Kerr as winner of the W. F. Thompson Best Student Paper Award for a 2010 publication

The award is given annually to recognize excellence in research and to encourage student professionalism in fisheries and aquatic sciences and publication of research results.

The winning paper, "The role of spatial dynamics in the stability, resilience, and productivity of fish populations: An evaluation based on white perch in the Chesapeake Bay," was co-authored by S.X. Cadrin and D.H. Secor and published when Lisa was pursuing her PhD at the University of Maryland.

She is currently a Research Associate in the Department of Fisheries Oceanography at SMAST.