Neuheimer Lab @ ASLO 2017 Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Honolulu, HI

This week the Neuheimer Lab will be at the 2017 Aquatic Sciences Meeting being held here in Honolulu, HI.  Anna (along with Lorenzo Ciannelli) will be co-convening Session 044 Bridging the eco-evolutionary gap: Plastic and adaptive responses to climate change on Thursday 2 March.  In addition, here are a list of presentations co-authored by lab members:

Neuheimer, A. B.; Ciannelli, L.; Ottersen, G.; SESSION TUTORIAL: BRIDGING THE ECO-EVOLUTIONARY GAP: PLASTIC AND ADAPTIVE RESPONSES TO CLIMATE CHANGE (Abstract ID: 29217)

Leitner, A. B.; Neuheimer, A. B.; Drazen, J. C.; UNRAVELING THE MYSTERY OF SEAMOUNT ENHANCED PRIMARY PRODUCTION: A GLOBAL ANALYSIS OF SATELLITE CHLOROPHYLL DATA AROUND SEAMOUNTS (Abstract ID: 30020)

Comfort, C. M.; Smith, K. A.; Sevadjian, J. C.; McManus, M. A.; Neuheimer, A. B.; Ostrander, C. E.; OBSERVATIONS OF THE MESOPELAGIC MICRONEKTON BOUNDARY COMMUNITY’S DIEL MIGRATION AT OAHU, HAWAII BASED ON BACKSCATTER DATA (Abstract ID: 30123)

Hope to see you soon!

Call for Symposia: XIth International Larval Biology Symposium, Honolulu, HI

The organizing committee for the XIth International Larval Biology Symposium is soliciting short proposals for symposium topics for our August 2017 meeting.  If you’re interested in organizing a symposium for a particular topic, please submit your proposal through the link on the front page of the meeting website.  

We hope to see you all in Honolulu next August!

Neuheimer Lab @ Hawaii Pacific University

This week Anna was invited to speak at Hawaii Pacific University as part of their Marine Science Guest Speaker Seminar Series.  Anna presented recent work from the Neuheimer lab exploring early fish life history variation at high and low latitudes.

31st Wakefield Symposium on high-latitude fish and fisheries, Anchorage, AK

The 31st Wakefield Symposium on the Impacts of a Changing Environment on the Dynamics of High-latitude Fish and Fisheries is now accepting abstracts.  The symposium will be held from 9-12 May 2017 in Anchorage, Alaska.

Symposium topic areas are:

• Environmental impacts on subarctic and arctic ecosystems: species-specific responses
• Environmental impacts on subarctic and arctic ecosystems: community structure, biodiversity, energy flow, and trophodynamics
• Physiological effects of ocean acidification, oxygen limitation, and temperature stress on high-latitude fish and shellfish
• Incorporating environmental effects and accounting for changing life history traits in the assessment and management of fish populations
• Evaluating management strategies under projected environmental changes
• Coping with environmental variability and climate change: perspectives from coastal communities

More info on session descriptions and invited speakers is available here.  Hope to see you in Anchorage in May!

Submit an abstract: 2017 ASLO Meeting - Bridging the eco-evolutionary gap

We invite you to submit an abstract to 

Session 044 - Bridging the eco-evolutionary gap: Plastic and adaptive responses to climate change

at the 2017 ASLO Aquatic Science Meeting in Honolulu (Hawaii; 26 Feb – 03 Mar).

Abstracts are due 14 October 2016.  

Here's a description of the session:

Climate change is affecting ecological processes and biogeochemical cycles of marine environments. Species respond to climate change through both phenotypic plasticity and microevolutionary adaptations. For example, across many trophic levels, species quickly respond to change is by shifting their distribution in space (e.g. population distribution) or time (e.g. reproductive events). However, there are limits to these types of responses, imposed by the presence of the limiting requirements of different critical stages in a species? life history. These limitations are linked to a species? life history strategy, with further response of the species beyond this point moving from phenotypic plasticity to genetic adaptation. There is unfortunately a chasm between phenotypic plasticity and evolutionary adaptations in the literature of marine species response to climate change. In this session we invite studies on species? response to environmental change, using both niche-based (e.g., climate-envelope models) and genetic (e.g., evolutionary models) approaches. Through this theme session we intend to develop awareness among scientists and build capacity to merge these two realities by including more evolutionary thinking in niche-based approaches and more ecological thinking in studies of species evolutionary processes. This understanding is necessary as we develop models to project species adaptability to future climate scenarios.

New Article: Spatial variability in deep-diving toothed whale occurrence in the Ligurian Sea, Mediterranean

A second article from our collaboration with UH’s Marine Mammal Research Program over at the Hawai`i Institute of Marine Biology has been accepted at Deep Sea Research Part I. In the article, we use passive acoustic recordings to explore spatial variability in toothed whale occurrence in the Ligurian Sea, Mediterranean.

Neuheimer Lab @ Aarhus University

Anna is visiting Peter Grønkjær in the Department of Bioscience at Aarhus University (Aarhus, Denmark) for the next two months to collaborate on ongoing research of high latitude fishes.

Neuheimer Lab MSc defence - Congrats Chantel!

On 15 July 2016, lab member Chantel Chang successfully defended her Oceanography MSc thesis entitled "The Influence of Biophysical Factors on the Connectivity of Holoplanktonic Copepods".  It was a wonderful celebration of all Chantel's hard work and excellent contributions to our lab and department.  Congratulations Chantel!

Before! - photo by J. Wong-Ala

Thesis cake! - Photo by J. Wong-Ala

Jenn & Chantel, MSc - photo by J. Wong-Ala

Anna & Chantel, MSc.

Neuheimer Lab @ Bayesian Workshop, Colorado State University

Anna is at CSU in Fort Collins, CO this month to attend a NSF-funded (award #: DEB-1145200) Bayesian modelling workshop presented by Drs. Tom Hobbs, Mevin Hooten, Kiona Ogle, and Maria Uriarte.  The workshop follows material in Drs. Hobbs and Hooten's 2015 book Bayesian Models: A Statistical Primer for Ecologists.

Congratulations 2016 C-MORE Scholars!

Congratulations to this year's C-MORE Scholars, including our very own Jennifer Wong-Ala!  Best of luck in all your future endeavours, Scholars! 

Neuheimer Lab @ ICES/PICES 6th Zooplankton Production Symposium

Chantel and Anna are in Bergen this week for the ICES/PICES 6th Zooplankton Production Symposium.  Come check out our poster "Can biophysical processes explain copepod connectivity and distribution across the Atlantic Ocean basin?" (#136, Tues. 10 May, 17:45-19:45).  A big mahalo (takk!) to PICES for providing Chantel with a grant to support her travel to Norway. 

Adult and offspring size paper featured at The Centre for Ocean Life

Our paper (and accompanying data paper) exploring patterns of adult and offspring size in the ocean is featured on the Centre for Ocean Life's website here.

New Article: Adult and offspring size in the ocean data paper

Our data paper, Adult and offspring size in the ocean: A database of size metrics and conversion factors, is posted as an Accepted Article over at Ecology.  The database contains adult and offspring size estimates (and associated conversion factors) for marine species covering >17 orders of magnitude in body mass.  The work is a collaboration with the Centre for Ocean Life and accompanies our papers:

Andersen, K.H., T. Berge, R.J. Gonçalves, M. Hartvig, J. Heuschele, S. Hylander, N.S. Jacobsen, C. Lindemann, E.A. Martens, A.B. Neuheimer*, K. Olsson, A. Palacz, F. Prowe, J. Sainmont, S.J. Traving, A.W. Visser, N. Wadhwa, and T. Kiørboe. 2016. Characteristic Sizes of Life in the Oceans, from Bacteria to Whales. Annual Review of Marine Science. 8:3.1-3.25. (pdf)

Neuheimer, A.B.*, M. Hartvig, J. Heuschele, S. Hylander, T. Kiørboe, K.H. Olsson, J. Sainmont, and K.H. Andersen. 2015. Adult and offspring size in the ocean over 17 orders of magnitude follows two life history strategies. Ecology 96:3303–3311. (link, pdf)

Lab Member Chantel Chang awarded PICES travel grant!

MSc student Chantel Chang was awarded a travel grant from the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) to present her work "Can biophysical processes explain copepod connectivity and distribution across the Atlantic Ocean basin?" at the ICES/PICES 6th Zooplankton Production Symposium in Bergen, Norway in May.  Congrats Chantel!  

In the press: Coverage of our study exploring near-island biological hotspots

Below are links to press coverage of our island mass effect paper published last week in Nature Communications. A press release is available here. 

Neuheimer Lab @ the 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting, New Orleans

Lab member Jennifer Wong-Ala will be presenting our work on larval reef fish connectivity this week at the 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting in New Orleans.  The work is in collaboration with the Hixon and Powell labs here at UH (details below).  Much thanks to ASLOMP for awarding Jennifer with a travel grant to attend the conference.  Congratulations and safe travels, Jenn!

ME14D-0640: The Influence of Life History Variability on Population Connectivity: Development and Application of a Trait-Based Biophysical Model of Individuals

J. Wong-Ala, A.B. Neuheimer, M. Hixon & B. Powell

Connectivity estimates, which measure the exchange of individuals among populations, are necessary to create effective reserves for marine life. Connectivity can be influenced by a combination of biology (e.g. spawning time) and physics (e.g. currents). In the past a dispersal model was created in an effort to explain connectivity for the highly sought after reef fish Lau‘ipala (Yellow Tang, Zebrasoma flavescens) around Hawai‘i Island using physics alone, but this was shown to be insufficient. Here we created an individual based model (IBM) to describe Lau‘ipala life history and behavior forced with ocean currents and temperature (via coupling to a physical model) to examine biophysical interactions. The IBM allows for tracking of individual fish from spawning to settlement, and individual variability in modeled processes. We first examined the influence of different reproductive (e.g. batch vs. constant spawners), developmental (e.g. pelagic larval duration), and behavioral (e.g. active vs. passive buoyancy control) traits on modeled connectivity estimates for larval reef fish around Hawai‘i Island and compared results to genetic observations of parent-offspring pair distribution. Our model is trait-based which allows individuals to vary in life history strategies enabling mechanistic links between predictions and underlying traits and straightforward applications to other species and sites.

Monday, February 22, 2016 - 04:00 PM - 06:00 PM

Ernest N. Morial Convention Center - Poster Hall

New Article: Near-island biological hotspots in barren ocean basins

In an article published today in Nature Communications, we explore the extent and possible controls behind the "island mass effect" (productivity enhancements around islands).  The article is a collaboration among National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, National Geographic Society, Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Bangor University.

Lab member Marie Ferguson heads to TMB-ADMB workshop

MSc candidate Marie Ferguson will head to the Template Model Builder - AD Model Builder workshop in Seattle this week.  Many thanks to the ADMB-TMB team for this opportunity.  Safe travels Marie!

In the press: Sedimentation, land management and reef health in Hawai'i

A press release for our paper exploring land and ocean processes shaping sedimentation on reefs off Lāna'i is available from Conservation International.  The work and its implications for ridge-to-reef management was discussed on Hawai'i Public Radio.

© Conservation International/photo by Keith Lawrence

New Article: Exploring sedimentation on coral reefs

In a collaboration with Conservation International, we've explored coastal (land erosion & erosion mitigation) and oceanic (hydrodynamics) processes shaping sedimentation in coral reef environments.  The paper is available at Collabra.