February 3, 2009
SFOS students earn best poster, best presentation awards at Alaska Marine Science Symposium
Editor's Note: View a webpage about SFOS participation in the Symposium here.
Fairbanks, Alaska—Three SFOS graduate students took home prizes for an outstanding poster or oral presentation at the 2009 Alaska Marine Science Symposium held in Anchorage the week of January 19. More than 600 scientists attended the conference and many of the attendees were SFOS faculty, students or staff.
All student posters and presentations were entered into a Symposium-wide contest for the best student presentation and best student poster. Alaska Sea Grant provided $250 each for the winning master's student and Ph.D. student poster. The North Pacific Research Board offered $250 each for the best two master's level and best two Ph.D. level oral presentations.
Markus Janout won an award for best oral presentation by a Ph.D. student for his talk on "Temperature controlling processes and the recent cooling of the northern Gulf of Alaska." Janout's advisor is Tom Weingartner. View his abstract and download his presentation here.
Mayumi Arimitsu's winning poster on Kittlitz's murrelets. Click on the image to view a high-resolution version.
Mayumi Arimitsu won the best M.S. student poster for her work on " The influence of glacial features on oceanographic gradients in Kenai Fjords, Alaska: A closer look at Kittlitz's murrelet foraging habitat." Arimitsu's advisor is Nicola Hillgruber. View her abstract and poster here.
Nathan Stewart's winning poster on sea otters in Kachemak Bay. Click on the image to view a high-resolution version.
Nathan Stewart, a Ph.D. student studying sea otters with advisor Brenda Konar won the best Ph.D. student poster award for "Patterns in sea otter resource selection in Kachemak Bay, Alaska." Last fall, Stewart completed a professional development course taught by Konar on creating professional posters and presentations. Konar says she plans to teach the course every fall. View Stewart's winning poster and abstract here.
Many SFOS faculty, staff and students presented talks and posters.
Oral Presentations: SFOS Faculty and Staff
Courtney Carothers, Privatizing the right to fish: Challenges to livelihood and community in Kodiak, Alaska
Russell Hopcroft, Oceanographic conditions along the northern Gulf of Alaska's Seward Line, 1997-2008
Arny Blanchard, Long-term investigation of benthic communities in Port Valdez, Alaska 1971-2007
Terrance Quinn, Failure of Population Recovery in Relation to Disease for Pacific Herring in Prince William Sound
Sarah Mincks, Epibenthic megafauna in the Northern Bering and Chukchi Seas: Environmental influences on community structure
Andrew Seitz, Behavior of satellite tagged Pacific halibut in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands region and its biological implications
Oral Presentations: SFOS Students
Seth Danielson (for Thomas Weingartner), A satellite-tracked drifter perspective of the nearshore Bering Sea: science and outreach
Peter-John Hulson, Comparison of Pacific herring in Prince William Sound and Sitka Sound
Kelly Newman, Temporal and spatial vocal patterns of killer whales at the Pribilof Islands
Posters: SFOS Faculty and Staff
Maggie Castellini, Mercury levels in Steller sea lion pups in Alaska
Ginny Eckert, Marine Ecosystem Sustainability in Alaska, A new interdisciplinary graduate study program
Georgina Gibson, Modeling processes controlling the on-shelf transport of oceanic mesozooplankton populations in the Gulf of Alaska and SE Bering Sea
Georgina Gibson, Collaborative research: Downscaling global climate projections to the ecosystems of the Bering Sea with nested biophysical models, the NPZ Model
Stephen Okkonen, Upwelling and aggregation of zooplankton on the western Beaufort shelf as inferred from moored acoustic Doppler current profiler measurements
Jennifer Reynolds, Marine habitat mapping technology for Alaska: Workshop report and published monograph
Posters: SFOS Students
Mayumi Arimitsu, The influence of glacial features on oceanographic gradients in Kenai Fjords, Alaska: A closer look at Kittlitz's murrelet foraging habitat (winner)
Mandy Keogh, Impact of health and maternal investment on survival of endangered Steller sea lion pups
Brooke McFarland, Black oystercatcher breeding territories: biotic and abiotic habitat characteristics
Megan Murphy, Larval transport of Tanner (Chionoecetes bairdi) and Dungeness (Cancer magister) crab across Kachemak Bay's inner/outer bay boundary
Elizabeth Siddon, Seasonal bioenergetics of walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) and Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) in the southeastern Bering Sea
Ashwin Sreenivasan, Differences between observed growth and a physiological growth index (RNA/DNA ratio) in larval Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) at different temperatures
Nathan Stewart, Patterns in sea otter resource selection in Kachemak Bay, Alaska (winner)
Amy Tippery, Three decades of change in a far north eelgrass food web
Joel Webb, Variability in egg quality for eastern Bering Sea snow crab, Chionoecetes opilio
The UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences conducts world-class marine and fisheries research, education and outreach across Alaska, the Arctic and Antarctic. More than 55 faculty scientists and 135 graduate and undergraduate students are engaged in building knowledge about Alaska and the world's coastal and marine ecosystems. SFOS is headquartered at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and serves the state from facilities located in Seward, Juneau, Anchorage and Kodiak.