The Marine Laboratory ~ Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment

I m Training the Next Generation- The Graduate Programs of the Marine Laboratory

sk a small child what he wants to be when he grows up - a fireman, n astronaut and the president of the

United States top the list of many young dreamers.

"Dad, I want to be a scientist," my 8-year-old son told me the other day. I under­stand his dream. As he explores the Marine Laboratory, he feels the energy of its learning environment. He meets professors and stu­dents as they cross the quad, navigating fan­ciful arrays of scientific apparatus and won­drous maritime hardware concocted to ex­plore every imaginable hypothesis. His youth­ful imagination is nourished by laboratories filled with towering microscopes, gleaming glassware and a myriad of marine life. But what he remembers most are the gradu­ate students - the ever-present graduate student.

"Do they live here, Dad?" he asks. At times it must seem that way as the late hours pass in yet another all-night experiment. He is impressioned with their passionate com­mitment to the work and life they have chosen. They understand what it takes to fulfill that childhood fancy. Each has come to the Marine Laboratory in pursuit of their dream.

The Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment Marine Laboratory of­fers the graduate hopeful two courses of study. The Ph.D. program reflects the multi-disci­plinary and international nature of marine environmental issues. The students are from the departments of Botany, Geology and Zoology as well as from the Nicholas School. Research topics are diverse with their only common denominator being they are mod­ern areas of marine research. They range from ocean modeling and studies of physical processes such as sediment transport and

Standing (Left to Right): G. Piniak, K. Craig, L. Eby, R. Beavers, J. Welch, Z. Johnson, L. McKelvey, K. Parker, L. Bunce, M. McClary, S. Canova, M. Mascia, E. Oberdoerster, J. Layne Kneeling (Left to Right): M. Duval, T. Andacht, S. Heppell

particle capture to toxicology, development, physiology, animal behavior and ecology in­cluding resource management and policy. The Nicholas School also offers a two-year professional degree program, the Masters in Environmental Management (MEM). Many of those who choose this path come to the Marine Laboratory to focus on coastal envi­ronmental issues and will complete their course of study as Coastal Environmental Management (CEM) graduates.

The combination of these programs under one roof is essential to the growth of graduate programs in the marine and coastal related areas of study. In our increasingly complex society, graduates entering the work force will find more employment avenues open to those who possess supplemental skills. MEM students need to understand where the science comes from on which they base their policy and management decisions. A

Fall1996 THE BEAUFORT EXPERIENCE Page 1

more complete picture of the research pro­cess, how it's conducted and how well or how poorly it often works will help forecast the potential difficulties underlying their future management decisions.

For the Ph.D. student, research can become the only objective- the means and the end where basic science drives the work with little attention paid to societal applica­tion. Dr. Larry Crowder notes: "It's healthy for a Ph.D. candidate to be exposed to others of equal caliber who are interested in applied science and real world questions. They need someone who will ask the 'so what' question - what good is this work for society?"

In this edition of the Beaufort Experi­ence we introduce the participants in the graduate programs of the Marine Labora­tory. Perhaps you'll wish you became a scien­tist when you grew up too.

- Scott Taylor

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Ph.D. Candidates ............................. .

Botany Zachary Johnson is involved in three main projects, all of which contain elements ofhis Ph.D. dissertation work which focuses on understanding phy­toplankton/light dynamics.

The first project, associated with his advisor, Dr. Richard Barber, has been the JGOFS Arabian Sea program. The general goals of the project are to characterize the Arabian Sea's roll in biogeochemical cycling in the ocean. In particular, carbon fluxes in and out of the ocean are para­mount to understanding global carbon budgets. To this end, he participated on two of the seven major research cruises out of Muscat, Oman, and measured primary production, that is, carbon uptake by phytoplankton. In addition, phytoplankton efficiency and biomass was also measured.

The second major project is titled the Zonal Flux project. The Pacific Ocean, due to its enormous areal expanse, is important to carbon dynamics in the world. Johnson participated on a research cruise along the equator from El65 to WI 50 measuring zonal variability in carbon uptake by phytoplankton, phytoplankton biomass, and phytoplankton efficiency. On this cruise, particular attention was focused on how light affects production.

Most recently Johnson has been working on how light affects phytoplank­ton. The majority of this work has been in the form of computer modeling, with the goal of characterizing the available light field to phytoplankton and understanding light's fate when it interacts with phy­toplankton.

Environment Leah Bunce is in the final year of her doctoral program in Marine Resource Planning through Nicholas School of the Environment. Leah's career and research interests are in marine resource manage­ment in developing countries. She is interested in the role of socioeconomic and public policy factors in coral reef manage­ment in Antigua, West Indies. More specifically, whether theories on managing common pool resources and integrated coastal zone management are applicable to coral reef management in Antigua, a small island developing state.

Bunce completed her data collection this past spring and had an exciting summer presenting papers at the Interna­tional Coral Reef Symposium in Panama and the Coastal Society Conference in Seattle as well as giving an invited talk at the 89th Caribbean Fisheries Manage­ment Council Meeting in St. Croix.

Where she hopes to be in 10 years: working on coastal management projects overseas and teaching a course or two as adjunct faculty at a small liberal arts college.

Where she hopes to be in 7 months: all dressed up with lots of stripes ... strutting across that stage ... tossing that hat ... and then receiving a toast or two of champagne.

Kevin Craig recently completed a predator-prey experiment involving spot and southern flounder, two locally abundant estuarine fish. The experiment· was designed to test the effect of spot growth rate on spot survival when subject to predation by flounder. This work was part of Craig's master's degree at the University ofWashington. He is also involved in a project looking for the possible existence of trophic polymor­phisms in Lake Michigan bloater fish. The depth distribution of these fish shifts dependent on the abundance of other species in the system. This study looks for possible shifts in diet and trophic mor­phology coincident with this shift in habitat.

Craig considers himself a fish ecologist with strong interests in both basic ecology and applied management issues. Since coming to the Marine Lab he has made the switch from freshwater systems of salmon in the Pacific North­west to marine systems using a variety of approaches from experiments and modeling to field studies in his work. Fish are at the heart of many policy/ conserva­tion debates such as water quality issues and overharvesting. They are subject to a variety of often competing user groups of commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen, subsistence harvesters, and environmentalists adding a human dimension.

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Kevin Craig

Lisa Eby continues her work on the Laurentian Great Lakes with Dr. Larry Crowder. On a grant from the Great Lakes Fishery Commission she examines the role of biodiversity in managing Great Lakes fisheries resources. This work examines human impacts on biodiversity, the role of biodiversity on food web and ecosystem functions, and how human values and system conditions are reflected in manage­ment objectives.

In Eby's Ph.D. work, she is examining the role of space and environmental heterogeneity on species interactions. The environment fish experience is a very heterogeneous place consisting of abiotic patches such as upwellings and fronts, and biotic patches of prey and predator distributions. By incorporating environ­mental patchiness we can improve our understanding of fish dynamics, species interactions, and impacts of some human disturbances. Humans are currently . altering the landscape in ways that not only affect the average water flow, nutrient loading, and productivity of coastal estuaries, but also the temporal and spatial variability of these processes. U nfortu­nately, most studies ignore how organisms utilize heterogeneity and how humans impact this environmental heterogeneity. Eby plans to examine how fish utilize the spatial structure of their environment , and how human-induced changes in the environment may influence their distribu­tion and, therefore. potential growth, production, and species interaction.

Michael Mascia is aiming for his Ph.D. in Environmental Policy with a focus on marine and coastal environments.This

summer Mascia conducted preliminary site assessments of nine marine protected areas in five Central American countries to determine which of the areas, if any, were suitable to use in his dissertation research.

Mascia is studying the role of institu­tional design in the development and management of biologically and socioeco­nomically successful marine protected areas. He's attempting to determine what the key institutional design factors are that lead to a marine park or reserve that benefit both the local population and the local environment. Variables include participation (who is involved in making decisions, when are they involved, and how), incentives (how does appealing to the interests of local users change out­comes), and, financing (how does the source and distribution of funds impact outcomes). This is important because of the way in which people are included in decision making and sharing responsibili­ties can result in dramatically different outcomes. It can result in a park or reserve that provides benefits to both people and

, the environment, or a protected area that provides neither. Underlying all this is the idea that fisheries are over exploited all over the world, the marine environment is often in perilous condition, and people are very poor. Marine protected areas can provide both socioeconomic benefits through ecotourism and enhanced fisheries yields in adjacent waters, and environmen­tal benefits by protecting areas from destructive use: a win-win situation.

Kristian Parker lived most of his life in Switzerland before attending Colby College in Maine. He spent part of his junior year at the Marine Lab doing research on fiddler crab sugar chemorecep­tion where he was introduced to Dr. Dan Rittschoff, his present Ph.D. advisor, who drew him into chemical and behavioral ecology. Parker's research investigates the use of alarm chemicals by three species of local cypridontid fish (Funduls species and Gambusia). He is studying their use of alarm chemicals originating from conspe­cifics, heterospecifics, and both inverte­brate and vertebrate predators attempting to determine the role of smell in the every day decisions of some local killfish. Upon completion of his Ph.D. Parker hopes to

teach and continue his research at a small college in the United States.

Gregory Piniak, the most recent addition to the Ph.D. program at the Marine Lab, graduated from the Univer­sity of Notre Dame in May of 1995. With Dr. William Kirby-Smith as his advisor, Piniak will focus his efforts on using a statistical approach called path analysis as a tool to determine causal mechanisms and strength of interactions within trophic webs. He proposes to use this approach to compare the community structure in natural and anthropogenically disturbed reef systems.

Geology

Becca Beavers

Rebecca Beavers studies modern storm sedimentation records on the shoreface of Duck, N.C. She asks what storm deposits look like in the rock record and what key features are used to distinguish the deposits. The public spends millions of dollars per year on beach renourishment projects. Design features of these projects include the "closure depth," the depth beyond which sediment is neither gained nor lost. This research has shown that sediments are quite mobile in storms, enough so that the design criteria of closure depth usually needs to be deeper.

A certified scientific diver, Beavers spends much of her research time in the water. This fall she plans on returning to

the US Army Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility in Duck to collect post­storm sediment cores. Next summer Beavers and her advisor, Peter Howd, are principal investigators for the Sandy Duck experiment which is a continuation of her dissertation research. They will be using the R/V Cape Hatteras for soine of this work.

Zoology Tracy Andacht is interested in how nickel chloride disrupts the development of sea urchin embryos. Nickel chloride has two effects on sea urchin embryos. It inhibits the formation of the fertilization envelope, a protein and sugar coat surrounding the egg that prevents multiple sperm from fertilizing the same egg as well as protects the developing embryo and it alters the dorsal-ventral axis of the developing embryo. Andacht is using nickel as a tool to investigate how the fertilization envelope forms and how the dorsal-ventral axis is formed. This should enable us to learn more about some of the basic mechanisms of develop­ment and nickel toxicity.

Susan Conova is interested in animals that filter-feed. Filter-feeders catch little particles in the water for food. Like humans, some filter-feeders are selective about what they eat. Humans don't want to eat that thing in the fridge with green fuzz all over it, and the filter-feeder doesn't want to eat that toxic dinoflagel­late that keeps swimming by. So when it catches the nasty particle it can smell or taste it and then spit it out. Another way the animals could avoid nasty particles is to simply not catch them. In some cases of filter-feeding, particles must adhere to the animal's filter t~ be captured. Sticky particles would then be captured at a higher rate than non-sticky ones.

What makes particles sticky to the filters and what can the animal do to make its filter collect the particles it wants? Conova has used the filter of the mole crab, Emerita talpoida, and artificial particles of various surface characteristics to determine that filters catch non­wettable particles better than wettable particles. If there are differences in

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Fall 1996 THE BEAUFORT EXPERIENCE Page 3

wettability among natural particles in the ocean, then it's possible animals select among them using this adhesive property of their filters. Co nova has recently been testing the adhesion of natural particles, the green flagellate Dunaliella tertiolecta and the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, to different surfaces to see how filter surface properties could affect adhesion. She has found two surfaces that Dunaliella adheres to very well but that Thalassiosira barely sticks to at all! The next question is will these algae stick or not to the mole crab filter. Eventually she would like to see if the sticky particles the animal is collecting are also the more nutritious particles.

When Conova isn't chained to her microscope, she can be found surfing the waves of the Atlantic on her favorite short board.

Michelle Duval's research focuses on hormonal control of foraging behavior in fiddler crabs. This work concentrates on the biochemical and physiological factors affecting the crab's foraging patterns. What internal mechanisms stimulated crabs to emerge in droves to feed upon the sandflats? What makes them stop eating to return to their burrows? Was it merely the environmental conditions or did physi­ological conditions affect these behavior patterns? Duval combines her interest in biochemistry with her training in ecology and behavior. She hopes that her research will help people understand why inverte­brates play an important role in ecosystem dynamics and that we need to pay more attention to them from a conservation standpoint.

Selina Heppe II did her master's work on population models for red cockaded woodpecker and sea turtle conservation at North Carolina State University. Last year she transfered to Duke with her advisor, Dr. Larry Crowder. Selina's current research is attempting to validate the use of fairly simple models for guiding research and management of endangered species. Many species of populations that we wish to conserve are poorly-known. Realistic models that require years of data are impossible to produce. The question is whether simpler models are realistic to use, at least until better data is collected. She is currently raising 20 populations of

mosquitofish to test the predictions of simple and complex models. Another area of interest is how larger, older females contribute to population size compared to smaller, younger ones. In some cases, the egg size and I or offspring quality of older fish is higher, leading to better survival growth. These effects may be important to understand for species we harvest where most of the older fish are removed from the population. Heppell has been chosen as the first grad student to participate in the Marine Lab's new teaching mentorship program that allows Ph.D. students the opportunity to run a seminar under the guidance of one or more faculty members. She is organizing a two-hour seminar titled "Conservation Biology in Marine Systems."

John layne is interested in how animals obtain and use a perception of their spatial surroundings. Layne's interest spans all

John Layne

aspects of the question, from neurophysi­ology (how neurons in an animal's sense organs, brain, and muscles produce spatially oriented behavior), to functional morphology ( the physical capabilities of sense organs ) , to behavior ( how animals behave so that they can gain useful, accurate information about the space around them, and what components of their behavior can be attributed to the limits of their sense organs).

Layne is currently focusing on the behavioral questions of the visual system of a local fiddler crab, Uca pugilator. His experiments seek to determine how these animals move their eyes, or hold them still, so they can accomplish such daily

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tasks as recognizing predators from potential mates, determining their own direction and speed and locating their burrows again after leaving them. These behaviors require very particular move­ments and postures of their eyes, which are dependent not only on their vision, but also on their sense of gravity, of linear and rotational acceleration and of joint movement in their legs.

After graduating, Layne hopes to do a post-doc looking into the neurophysiology of how crabs' visual system detects motion. Eventually he wants to continue to do research on the crustacean visual system and its interactions with other senses and the central nervous system. This research holds great promise as a model of visual processing, as a model of multi-sensory and sensory-motor integra­tion, and as a biological model for robotics.

Marion McClary Jr.'s work questions how chemoreception mediates gregarious settlement of larval barnacle Balanus amphitrite. His research is attempting to show that barnacle larvae have a sense of smell that they use to find other barnacles to settle next to. It is necessary for barnacles to settle near one another for the purpose of sexual reproduction. If we know that smell is important for the settlement of barnacles, we might be able to find ways to block their smelling process and prevent the settlement of barnacles on boats and ships in ways that do not pollute the environment.

Marion McClary

Leslie McKelvey and Michelle Duval

Leslie McKelvey's natural love of the water and intrinsic curiosity led her to graduate school in marine sciences. Her interests lie in sensory biology: how animals see, smell, taste and hear underwa­ter and what kind of sensory information is important to the way they feed, avoid predators and interact with other animals in the estuarine environment. An estuary is an environment of extremes in physical factors such as salinity, temperature, oxygen availability and land run-off. These factors vary dramatically on a very short time scale which makes the plants and animals that live here fascinating to study in terms of their physiology and behavior. Estuaries are the nursery grounds for 90 percent of commercially collected fish and shellfish.

McKelvey's dissertation research focuses on the underlying physiological mechanism for a nearly ubiquitous phenomenon among freshwater, marine and estuarine zooplankton termed Diel vertical migration: a pattern of zooplank­ton distribution where animals are found in deep, dark waters during the day and migrate to the surface waters at night. This work demonstrates that zooplankton detect and identify different kinds of predators in the environment by chemical cues which activate behavioral responses to light which in turn mediate migration behavior. Her project asks what kinds of information in an animal's environment play a role in the patterns we see in nature. This should help us understand more about zooplankton sensory biology and how molecules carry information in the environment.

Eva Oberdoerster's research focuses on the effects of the active ingredient of some bottom paint, tributyltin (TBT), on marine invertebrates. In the mid 80s people began noticing detrimental side effects ofTBT on marine mollusks,

especially oysters, mussels and snails. Since then, we have been trying to elucidate the mechanism of toxicity. Some gastropod species seem especially affected by TBT. Our local mud snail is one of these species. Imposex, male sex character­istics on females, occurs at very low TBT concentrations. One of our local marinas has over 80 percent imposex animals. Evidence from fish points at the cyto­chrome P450 steroid metabolizing enzymes as a possible mechanism of this condition. All organisms have P450s. Mollusks are notorious for not being able to upregulate these enzymes. P450s also metabolize TBT and Eva believes that the snail's limited amount ofP450 cannot deal with metabolizing TBT and testoster­one at the same time. This is why we see this androgenization effect in mud snails. Crustaceans do have a P450 system which is able to upregulate isozymes. Blue crabs

Eva Oberdoerster

exposed to TBT show specific isozyme induction and do not have androgen­ization occuring.

An avid SCUBA instructor, Oberdoerster hopes someday to combine teaching grad level bio courses with SCUBA diving at a marine lab.

James Welch studies factors affecting the population size ofblue crabs, specifi­cally those affecting larval recruitment. His work has both a chemical side and a physical side. The chemical side examines how blue crabs select their settlement sites. Blue crabs can detect and are attracted to seagrass beds and avoid settling in areas of high predator densities. Welch's work shows that blue crabs have

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evolved a method to select good sites and avoid ones where they are likely to get eaten.

The physical side is more subtle. Blue crab larvae develop offshore into pre­juvenile stage megalopae. The megalopae moves back into the estuary and selects the settlement site. They then move upstream by swimming during flood tides and staying on the bottom during ebb tides, moving out of the flow before they are carried back out. We think that megalopae detect the salinity increase of an incoming tide as a cue to begin swimming. Once they're in the water column, they travel with a given patch of water, so salinity is no longer changing. One possible signal is turbulence. Tidal flow is turbulent. However, at slack water, the flow stops, and the turbulence drops to very low levels. This cue causes the megalopae to drop out of the water column and await the next incoming tide.

Welch has tested this hypothesis by observing megalopae in a flow tank, and will measure naturally occurring turbu­lence with a drifter, which will float with the current as a megalopa does. Another area of interest is the fishery implications of his work. Welch predicted a good year for crabs beginning in August, and is predicting that next year will see even better harvests starting in August. Wind events cause pulses of entering larvae. Last year, Hurricane Felix brought in lots of megalopae, which entered the fishery as adults approximately a year later. This year we had an even bigger pulse of East winds in addition to hurricane Bertha. Up to 80% of the larvae that enter an estuary in a given year can come in only one or two big pulses, with the rest of the season accounting for a small proportion of the year's settlement. These pulses have a large effect on inter­annual variations in blue crab popula­tions.

Jim Welch

The aim of the Coastal Environmental Management program is to train scientifi­cally informed professionals to fill coastal policy, management, research or advocacy positions in federal and state agencies, industry, consulting firms and nonprofit organizations, as well as, to provide a firm foundation for future Ph.D. studies. Coastal students typically spend the first year of the program on the Nicholas School's Durham campus fulfilling the required courses in areas such as natural resource economics, general environmental policy, ecology and methodological skills.

Their second year is spent taking courses, doing field work and researching and writing a masters project final report. The CEM program, directed by Dr. Michael Orbach with the assistance of Kathyrn Howd, is offered under the Masters of Environmental Management (MEM) degree. This year's students are focusing on issues of fisheries management, water quality management, coastal sedimentary processes and International interests.

Fisheries Management

With Dr. Andrew Read as her advisor, Cheryl Braunstein seeks to develop a community based habitat management plan for the striped bass population of the Roanoke River system of North Carolina. Her study will include input and coopera­tion from various organizations ranging from federal, state and local governments to industry and citizen groups. She hopes to identify the key habitat issues affecting the Roanoke River striped bass stock and develop a management plan for the future.

Another advisee of Dr. Read, Kathy Eisele, will analyze the take reduction process for Atlantic offshore cetaceans. The National Marine Fisheries Service is required to assess all marine mammal stocks within US waters. Eisele will study the Atlantic Offshore Take Reduction Team process and its participants, evaluat­ing it with respect to Marine Mammal Protection Act regulations and require­ments for effectiveness and efficiency. A large portion of her work will involve three

(Left to Right): Top- Grant Murray, Paul Parker, Jon Kelsey, Todd Menzel Middle- Je1ma Bossung, Cathy Eisele, Chetyl Braunstein, Tanya Minto, Tanya Haddad, Nancy Ragland Bottom -Lori LeFevre, Bhanu Pocha, Jim Reilly, Robin Lacey

fisheries which interact most closely with offshore cetaceans: the tuna pair trawl, swordfish driftnet and longline fisheries, and the effectiveness of the current government regulations involving these fisheries' interactions with marine mammals.

Lori Lefevre will study the potential application of Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQS) as a limited access management technique for Ne;w England fisheries. Through research knd interviews, LeFevre hopes to determine if the conservation needs of the fishery are being met. She will characterize the social, cultural and economic aspects of the fishery and determine if an ITQ system is appropriate for New England. She plans to target every stakeholder group in the fishery to re-establish communication between the fishermen, processors and policymakers.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has implemented a much debated Atlantic Shark Fisheries Management Plan in the Southeast region to counter a dangerous decline in stock. Todd Menzel will study the effectiveness of this plan and attempt to extend his analysis to the California coast and the

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shark fisheries there. He seeks to produce a list of policy options for the west coast area.

Grant Murray will explore the development of management schemes for the Georgia blue crab fishery. He will study the genesis of an effective policy and how the relationship between the nature of the fishery, regulatory agencies and legislative bodies effect policy. Murray's project should provide a framework for examining fisheries management scenarios and determine what factors may be crucial in the creation of an effective policy.

Water Quality Management

Under the guidance of Dr. William Kirby-Smith, James Reilly's project will focus on the development of a scientific understanding of the cause of a particular shellfish area closure and the development of a specific management plan for reopening the closed area. His goal is to provide a model approach for state agencies and the public in addressing current and future closures of shellfishing areas on a case by case basis.

Robin Lacey will explore the interplay between managed forestry and estuarine water quality through a specific

continued on pg. 7

analysis of the Oyster Creek estuary located on the northern side of the Newport River in Carteret County, N.C. At question is whether changes in the natural topography cause changes which result in increased runoff of fecal coliform into the nearby estuary. A better understanding of this process could lead to improved management practices, water quality and decreased management costs.

Coastal Sedimentary Processes

Under the guidance of Dr. Orrin Pilkey, Tanya Haddad plans to create a database summarizing the New England beach replenishment experience over the past 60 years. Few attempts have been made to determine the success or failure of this popular method of beach stabilization, in part due to the difficulty of obtaining quality data. It is hoped that this document will constitute an important source of this difficult to locate replenishment data.

Nancy Ragland hopes to develop an island-wide erosion mitigation plan for Bogue Banks, N.C., based on a consensus building, ground-up approach. Her goal is to examine the policies of the town, county and federal governments and to propose a

new plan for cooperation in erosion mitigation. An evaluation of the options available to the island on the basis of success rate, longevity, environmental impact, cost and feasibility will be an integral part of the study.

International Interests

Jennifer Bossung, Jonathan Kelsey and Paul Parker combined their interests in a proposal to conduct a socioeconomic study of the users groups in the environmentally sensitive areas of the Cayos Cochinos Biological Reserve in Honduras, operated by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI).

Preservation measures in areas such as these affect the people who traditionally use these lands and waters for their livelihoods. Managers of these areas need to integrate social, economic and cultural factors concerning local residents into management plans that have primarily been concerned with natural scientific factors. It is hoped that the resultant study will aid the STRI in their implementation of a sustainable management plan for the reserve as well as serve as a policy and management model for marine protected areas similar to Cayos Cochinos.

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Jim Reilly, Jenna Bossung and Nancy Ragland profile a beach in Dr. Peter Howd's coastal processes class.

Recent graduates of the Coastal Environmental Management program have found employment in a number of related fields.

Laura Taylor ('94) is a coastal planner in the Maine State Planning Office, Augusta, Maine. Marji Puotinen C94) is working on a Ph.D. in Tropical Environmental Studies and Geography at James Cook University, Australia. Brent Ache ('95) works as the Gulf of Mexico Program Coordinator for Bartell, an environmental policy and management company in New Orleans. Susan McCarthy ('95) is Senior Staff/Risk Assessment for ENSR in Acton, Mass. Marshall Hayes ('95) is a 1996 Sea Grant Marine Policy Fellow for the legislative branch and is also continu­ing as a Ph.D. student at the Marine Laboratory in Ocean Sciences. Chad Nelson ('96) received the Coastal Services Center Coastal Management Fellowship to work with the Oregon Coastal Manage­ment Program in Portland, Ore. Karen Hester ('96) is a Chesapeake Bay Fellow with the Chesapeake Bay Program, Living Resources Commit­tee in Annapolis, Md.

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Mike Orbach presided over the 15th biannual meeting ofThe Coastal Society (TCS) in Seattle from July 14 through 17 as the society's newly elected president. The meeting had record attendance, including Chad Nelson (CEM '96), who presented a poster of his Master's Project; Yoshi Ito (CEM '96); Michael Pentony (CEM '96); Brent Ache (CEM '95); Laura Taylor (CEM '94); Leah Bunce, who presented two papers, and several CEM and Ph.D. students from Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and Marine Lab. Orbach has also been elected Chair of the new Carteret County Beach Preservation Task Force. CEM students Karen Christensen and Nancy Ragland, who have been working with Orbach on the "Bogue Bank Island Design Project" funded by the Turner Foundation, will also be working with the Task Force.

Jim Reilly was selected as a Dean John A. Krauss Marine Policy Fellow, a highly competetive fellowship program through Sea Grant. Reilly will be in the legislative branch in Washington, D.C., for 1997.

Laura Jones and Chad Nelson were chosen as finalists for the Coastal Services Center, Coastal Management Fellowships. Nelson was awarded one of the fellowships and will be working for the Oregon Coastal Management Program for two years.

Chad Nelson received the Bigford Award at the 1Oth Annual Meeting of the Coastal Society for the best student poster. This included a $350 cash award.

Eva Oberdoerster will be attending the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (ISSX) meeting in San Diego where she'll be presenting a poster on Testosterone metabolism in imposex and normal mud snail, Ilyanassa obsoleta. In November, she was off to Washington, D.C., for the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Aquatic Chemistry (SETAC) meeting.

Leslie McKelvey and Rebecca Beavers received DOE fellowships to attend the sixth annual Council for Undergraduate Research held at North Carolina Central University in late June. The conference emphasized enriching science through partnerships with academics, industry and government.

The graduate students have represented the Marine Lab at two educational events this year. They created an interactive, hands­on exhibit for Science Fun Days held in Morehead City, N.C. This two-day event is designed to expose fourth through tenth graders to science as a part of everyday life. They also created an exhibit for Kids Fest '96 held in early June in Atlantic Beach Circle, an event that attracted 25,000 people. The exhibit was part of an interactive science museum including a touch tank of local estuarine animals, mud sieving for critters, hatching of larval fish and a physical model of salt and freshwater mixing in an estuary.

Michelle Duval and Eva Oberdoerster organized and hosted the 1996 Graduate Student Mini-Symposium the weekend of September 14. The symposium had over 100 attendees and 35 presenters, with participants coming from biology, geology, environmental science, marine sciences at East Carolina University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Wilmington, Duke and North Carolina State University.

Michelle Duval will be presenting a poster on her dissertation research this December in Albuquerque, N.M., at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Integrative and Compara­tive Biology.

Jim Welsh received a $450 Grant-in-aid of Research from Sigma Xi to support his work on selection of settlement sites by blue crab megalopae as well as $780 from the Lerner­Gray Fund for Marine Research to support his work on the behavioral response of blue crab megalopae to turbulence.

Lisa Eby attended the Workshop on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management in the Great Lakes including defining terms and examining the role of biodiversity in ecological systems. Eby also attended annual meetings of the Ecological Society of America and American Fisheries Society.

Falll996 THE BEAUFORT EXPERIENCE Page 8

Hugh Willis has left the maintenance department to join the crew of Marine Operations as chief mate of the RIV Susan Hudson.

John Layne attended "The Biology of Crustacea: a conference to celebrate and acknowledge the contributions ofProfessor Ernest Naylor", last April in Plymouth, England, where he presented his own data as a poster. Layne attended a course last summer at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory called Neural Systems and Behavior to gain more insight into the physiology of the visual system and behavior of the fiddler crab.

Kevin Craig gave a talk at the ESA (Ecological Society of America) Conference in Providence, R.I., entitled, "Sexual selection and sympatric speciation in sockeye salmon: genetic divergence leads to pheno­typic convergence."

Mike Mascia spent the summer conducting preliminary site assessments of nine marine protected areas in five different countries in Central America to determine which of the areas, if any, were suitable for use in his dissertation research. While there, he attended the 8th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) in Panama City.

Selina Heppell was invited to present a paper on sea turtle "headstarting" at a conference on marine stock enhancement at Mote Marine Lab, Sarasota, Fla., in November. Selina was also one of 12 graduate students chosen to participate in an upcoming symposium at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, Calif.: "Synthesis in Ecology: Applications, Opportunities and Challenges."

Newsletter of the Duke Univeristy School of the Environment, Marine Laboratory, Beaufort NC http://www.env.duke.edu/marinelob/morine.html

email: scotty@mail. duke. edu J::lrum

Norman L Christensen

J2ire.c1or Joseph S. Ramus

.Edi:tru Scott Taylor

Photography David Taylor

Scott Taylor Chris Hildreth

Amy (Fall '91) and John Burroughs (Fall '91) are proud to announce the birth ofBrigid Eileen on March 7, 1996, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Brigid's godmother, Anne Gallagher (Fall '91), was present at the baptism on May 19. John Burroughs has just graduated from Bowman Gray School of Medicine and will be starting a residency in Family Practice at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Other Bowman Gray students include third-years Michael Ott, Steve Sgan and Alex Ewing (all Fall '91) and second-years Jen Brown (Fall '91) and Claire Southern (Fall '93). John and Amy's new address will be: 1552 E. Bryan Ave., Salt Lake City, UT 84105

Matthew J. Grove (Fall '92) Under the "it's a small world" catagory Matt writes: I spent the first part of the summer working in Bolivia doing field research for my Ph.D. in Geology.

Help Pave the Way

Mter four weeks of work I embarked on a two­week vacation with 3 other people (including my advisor Paul Baker) into Peru. Part of our vacation was a trip to the Cusco and Macchu Picchu. To get there we took a train from Puno (on Lake Titicaca) to Cusco. In the train station I saw someone who looked vaguely familiar and whose voice sounded familiar as well. On the train this person sat across the aisle from me and it turns out it was lisa Hilster (Fall92) who I had known while I was at DUML. She has been working for the Peace Corps in southern Bolivia teaching environ­mental science and was taking some vacation time herself. It was a very fortuitous meeting. If anyone else from Fall 92 wants her address they should contact me at the Geology Department at Duke University.

Steve Shenk (Fall '94, Fall '95 ) is working on his Ph.D. at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla. Steve is working with Peter Wainwright and is teaching assistant in invertebrate zoology. Steve hopes to begin his research this fall. You can contact Steve at the Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-3050.

Email: schenk@bio.fsu.edu.

Bret (Ph.D. Duke '94 , ML '89-'94) and Kay Danilowicz have their first baby, Torin Tayler, born July 8, 1996. Bret currently has a post-doc at the University ofWindsor and Kay is working on her physical therapy degree.

Todd Marshall and his wife, Stephanie, proudly announce the birth of their daughter, Rachel Rose Marshall. Rachel was born September 7, 1996, and weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces.

Maureen Krause (post doc '93-'94) married William Horak on October 5, 1996, in Shoreham, N.Y.

Please let us hear from you. Write in care of the editor:

The Beaufort Experience 135 Duke Marine Lab Rd.

Beaufort, NC 28516 e~moil: scotty@mail.duke.edu

The Duke University Marine Laboratory is a vibrant community of students and scholars working to find viable solutions to complex coastal environmental problems. Your support of the Marine Lab Annual Fund helps pave the way for students to study at this unparalleled facility with world renowned faculty.

Please consider the vital role an Annual Fund gift will play in keeping the Marine Lab programs strong, competitive, and progressive. You may use the form below to make your pledge. Many employers match Annual Fund gifts, doubling the dollars the Marine Lab receives -please check with your employer about the matching gift program. Pledge payments rrpy be made through June 30, 1997.

Your support, and that of others like you, will truly help pave the way for students and will be an investment in the Marine Lab- in the preservation of its past, in support of its present, and to ensure its future. Thank you.

DUKE UNIVERSITY NICHOLAS SCHOOL OF THE ENVIRONMENT

MARINE LABORATORY ANNUAL FUND

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. Fall1996 THE BEAUFORT EXPERIENCE Page 9

RETURN FORM TO: Marine Laboratory Annual Fund

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Beaufort NC 28516

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Galvanized by shaping issues larger than the academic ocean science com­

munity itself, the community has held several national workshops of self examination in which I have participated, the "Ocean Sci­ence Education Retreats" (retreat is a strange choice of words here). It would seem that the product which the community is producing does not match the marketplace, a consterna­tion for all and the greatest for graduate students. The professoriate is a guild which replicates itself with fidelity, only to discover that the market for such replicates is satu­rated. It is a shortcoming that the replication process seldom includes a wide-angle view and adaptability. The values of the guild are so narrow and the apprentices so well indoc­trinated that disappointment for many is inevitable. The reward is for a single and rigidly defined scholarship. Only after being anointed with tenure do few of the guild break the mold and attempt other kinds of rewarding scholarship, and incidentally risk second class status in the process.

Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment Marine Laboratory Beaufort, NC 2851.6-9721

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

There is nothing wrong with the ap­prentice system as a method for passing a craft to successors, in fact it has proven quite effective in academia. It is the reward system that limits adaptability of the apprentice sys­tem. We here in Beaufort are beginning to deal with essential culture change. The desig­nation "graduate student" now includes not only Ph.D. candidates but professional de­gree candidates as well. They deserve equi­table respect from faculty and have much to offer each other in world-view. New ranks have been introduced to the professoriate by Duke, Professors in the Practice and Re­search Professor, both non-tenure ranks. Without vigilance, the creation of non-ten­ure ranks can yield an undesirable caste sys­tem. Who is the gatekeeper but the guild? All ranks require scholarship, teaching and ser­vice for reward, but the mix of expectations may differ between ranks. The rewards should be comparable as well.

The cultural change is now manifest in parallel tracks, one being appointment, pro-

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motion and tenure (the guild) and the other appointment, promotion and term contract (the alternative). Rights, privileges and re­sponsibilities are roughly equivalent for the two tracks. The reward system for the alterna­tive track challenges the guild to the utmost because it threatens the institution of tenure, and may itself be an instrument of change. Is this the" outsourcing" argument between auto manufacturers and labor unions now so prominent in the news? Yet the faculty in the alternative rank are achieving rewarding schol­arship and a high rate of success in placing their graduate students in the marketplace. Perhaps the world-view which passes to ap­prentices from the term contracted is more adaptable than from the tenured? ~

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