2 weeks down, already?

I know this is a bit cliche to say, but my goodness, time is moving by fast! I have already completed the 2nd week of my 10 week internship and I feel like I just started.

This week has been filled with lots of emails, phone calls, stacks of policy documents, and meetings. I realized mid-week that I am in love with the field I am working towards right now. Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning (CMSP) is cutting-edge for both the science and policy realms. It is also a field that calls for interdisciplinary work and requires individuals to be literate in both fields. Marine science and policy are my two passions that I have not been able to decide between; CMSP unites both. I am already starting to develop graduate school ideas for how I could contribute to this field with my future PhD.

The most interesting part of this week was sitting in on a webcast for a national policy meeting for CMSP. On Tuesday I got up at the crack ‘o’ dawn to sit in on the meeting at 6 am. To provide some very brief background, in July of last year, Obama created 9 new ocean policy priorities for the United States. Developing CMSP for coastal regions and the territorial seas of the United States was one of them. CMSP is a process where map layers of the ocean (topography, biology, oceanography) are combined with the human needs for marine resources. Spatial and decision-making computer programs map these together to identify areas of high priority (EX: finding areas of high conflicting interests, or seeking areas that are biologically most vulnerable). The national meeting that I watched online was designed to receive input from stakeholders (people who have a vested interest in the ocean) on the CMSP process laid out by the National Ocean Council. It was also a venue to help inform stakeholders about the CMSP process and the vision behind making it a national priority. While listening to agency heads was a bit boring in the beginning, I found the workshop to be very informative and engaging to listen in on.

If you are curious for more detail into what CMSP is about, I will be writing a more lengthy blog description on my personal blog AnnaRose and the Sea later today. Also if you are interested in some links to national policy visit the White House’s National Ocean Council website for more information.

 

Saving Oysters in Oregon – week 1

Hello there!

A quick introduction:  My name is Joanne Choi and I am recent graduate from Yale University where I studied Environmental Studies with an emphasis on marine systems.  My main research interest was in jellyfish ecology, specifically relationships with endosymbiotic bacteria and polyp settlement.  I have also done research in the Turks & Caicos Islands with the School for Field Studies on the effectiveness of marine protected areas, and in St. Thomas, USVI on rates of soil run-off and sedimentation in the Caribbean.  I am here in the Oregon Sea Grant program to gain more experience before I apply to graduate school for a career in marine environmental work at the intersection of science, policy, and outreach!  Outside of academics, I am a socal native, a dancer, an amateur-but-almost-there! scuba diver, a travel addict, a recreational photographer, and.. a dork.. as evidenced by the fact that it took me at least 30 minutes to find a nice, serious picture of me appropriate for this website.

 

Now, on to more important things… What exactly am I doing during my internship with Oregon Sea Grant?

OYSTER RESTORATION!!

I am working to restore the Native Olympia Oysters, Ostrea lurida, to Coos Bay and the South Slough in Oregon.  They used to flourish in the estuaries and coastal waters off the west coast hundreds of years ago before the Native Americans harvested them, tsunamis and earthquakes buried them under sediment, Europeans brought over non-native Pacific oysters for large-scale production, and the usual habitat modification, sedimentation, overfishing, and so on from human use of coastal lands.

Oysters provide many indispensable ecosystem services, however, including:

  • improving water quality through filtration
  • ocean bottom stabilization
  • providing a complex habitat for biodiverse ecosystems

and thus, it would be extremely advantageous for us to help these at-risk species recover to sustainable levels.

My Advisor…

is Steve Rumrill, a scientist at South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, an assistant professor at University of Oregon, graduate faculty at Oregon State University, and on the board for (it seems like) countless councils and advisory committees.  Even if I have only known him for a few days, I can say that he is an amazing mentor who is extremely willing to share his knowledge and expertise, offer opportunities for me to get as much hands-on training and experience as I can, and give advice on how to maneuver in the marine world career-wise.

What I’ve done so far..

  1. I read tons and TONS of academic papers, packets on workshop proceedings, a powerpoint, etc on oyster ecology, oyster restoration efforts around the world, and the natural history of Olympia oysters in Coos Bay.  I didn’t know much about oysters to begin with, so I had to be caught up.
  2. Made friends with the summer session and graduate students here at OIMB.  At first, I was worried that I was the only OSG scholar in Charleston, OR, which is at least 2 hours away from the rest of the group.  But the people here are extremely friendly and fun, and there are tons of cool things to do here.  I’ve already gone to a beach bonfire, tidepooling, trekked through a tunnel to find an isolated beach, and into Coos Bay a few times (had to go to Goodwill because, Daang! it’s COLDER than I thought it would be!)
  3. Collected oyster shell bags and scrubbed them.  Bags of Pacific oyster shells (because there are a lot of them) are deployed in various locations in Coos Bay as recruitment sites for Olympia oyster larvae.  After a year or two, they are taken out of the water and cleaned to remove possible competitors, predators, sand and mud that may decrease flow-through, so that the juvenile Oysters have a better chance at survival.  They are also scrubbed so that invasive species are not spread when we re-locate bags.
  4. Had meetings with other graduate students, postdocs, professors, and policy makers who are all involved in the oyster restoration process.

What I will do next..

  1. Make Oly ROCS (Olympia – Restore Oysters with Cement Substrata).  We are going to construct, test, deploy, and evaluate a new technique to embed living Oly (Olympia) oysters into substrate that will hopefully attract more oysters to attach and settle for a more long-term arrangement than the oyster shell bags.
  2. There are many more possible projects including installing & operating a water quality datalogger, and some personal projects of mine such as attempting to mountain bike to get to some cool sites around here, but I will explain more about those as they come up!

 

APOLOGIES for making this SOO long!  I wasn’t expecting to be such a talkative blogger, but SO much has happened in the past week!  I’ll try to take more pictures so you can see all my cool projects in-action, but as you’ll soon see, it can become quite a dirty job working in the field with mud.. not to mention a little dangerous for a digital camera when you’re working with water.

Until next time!!

‘Ore-eh-gun’ |wk.1|

Hello, hello, hello!

It has been one week since I first arrived in Corvallis, Oregon to begin my internship. A lot has happened! I’ve met lots of great people and seen lots of cool places – but first, a short intro. I hail from Michigan which is also where I go to school (Michigan Technological University). I have one year to go and then I’ll have my BS in Biology with a concentration in fish bio, and a minor in ecology. I’ll be working with Mike Donnellan at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) under the Marine Resources Program (MRP).

I decided to drive to Oregon which was about 39 hours away, taking three days and two nights, and crossing 10 states. While it was a bit intense, it was a great experience, and I got lots of great pics. Plus, how often can you say you drove across the country? :)

Since my arrival, and mainly last weekend, I’ve managed to see the banana slugs in the Redwood National Forest in California, numerous hundred+ foot waterfalls along the Colombian River Gorge, and the 11,249 foot Mt. Hood. I hope to see more while I’m here learning and working!

Coast Redwoods

While I wasn’t exploring I was working. Part of what I have been doing this past week has been familiarizing myself with ODFW and the whole West coast in general. There are a lot of species I’m not familiar with and it has been real interesting to learn about them – I even had the opportunity to visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium, which I highly recommend.

The other part consisted of me building a framework for how I will be tackling my project. There are a lot of things I need to learn, like Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 or building a map interface on GoogleMaps/Earth. What we want to try to do is pinpoint locations on a map where the general public can go, click on the point, and see underwater ROV footage of that exact spot. Surprisingly, not many people really know what the ocean floor looks like! I am getting a lot of ideas from people so I’m excited to see where this project will take me and how much I can accomplish!

 

 

 

Week 1: Getting an Outline

Hello everyone! Thought I would get everyone up to date on what has been going on here on my end of the line! I spent most of last week getting oriented and outlining how I am going to approach my project. My job is to create a website promoting the marine sciences here at Oregon State University. I created an outline for how the website would be organized and then met with Jenna Borberg to determine whether or not I was on the right track. I struggled a little bit to figure out what the focus should be for this site, but after meeting with Jenna I came to the conclusion that I am going to make research features a top priority. I spent the rest of the week reading the content of the latest Terra magazine for ideas about what to include in the site. I have created a ROUGH outline of what categories the site might include. I used DrupalGardens to do this, but I am planning to attend a Drupal training session in a week or two because I still have a lot to learn about web design and management. To see the categories I hope to include in the site you can visit:

http://marinescience.drupalgardens.com/

This week I hope to read up on current projects going on in all of the departments and institutes represented in the Marine Council. I will then compile a list of potential researchers to feature. I hope to meet with Pat Kight later in the week to get her feedback before I pursue emailing people about interviews. I anticipate spending a good chunk of time working on writing new features, finding existing features to pull from, and creating short 30 second readable news feed items. Outreach, education, and an events calendar will be the second tier of items I will focus on.

Hope everybody has a fun and productive week!

~Shealyn Friedrich

Oysters, Crabs, and Clams!

 

My name is Betty Mujica and I am working as a Sea Grant Summer Scholar in Newport, OR until August! I’m excited to share my adventures, both at work and play.  I took a road trip with one of the other scholars all the way from Louisiana to arrive in the fine city of Newport, which took about 6 days.  We stopped in Arlington and Amarillo, TX; Buena Vista, CO; Salt Lake City, UT; and Boise, ID (where we got to fly in a little private plane!).  Finally we arrived in Corvallis, then Newport, to get down to business.

My project this summer focuses on the transportation of live seafood—Dungeness crab and oysters—from the Oregon coast to a growing Chinese market.  Working under the mentorship of two advisers, I will conduct interviews with seafood producers along the coast of the Pacific NW to figure out what shipping and handling practices are most common and most effective.  Furthermore, I will be conducting an economic analysis of these transportation systems to analyze what methods are the most beneficial.  Hopefully by the end of the summer, we will have a comprehensive guide to harvesting and transporting seafood for any newcomers into the seafood market.

Tuesday of last week marked the first official workday for all the Sea Grant Scholars.  I met with one of my advisers who gave me some literature to read up on about seafood transportation and a background of the industry in the NW.  Coming from Louisiana, I’m somewhat familiar with seafood; however, the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico are pretty different in terms of what seafood they yield, so reading up on background information is pretty important.  While most of my week was spent reading and researching, I was able to do a few interactive things to enhance my understanding of the industry.  I went down to Newport’s historic bay front area and checked out the local seafood shops and restaurants, enjoying a delicious order of fish and chips (made with local lingcod).  Another evening, I went to Local Ocean, a sustainable seafood restaurant.  I decided since I was studying how to harvest and ship Dungeness crab, I should probably try eating one.  I ordered a 2 pounder and getting the meat out was exhausting, but worth it.

In my free time, I started researching how to dig clams.  This is something completely foreign to me, but apparently quite common to those who grew up around these parts.  I went out one day with two other Scholars and dug around to find some clams—no one told us it wasn’t that simple.  The next day I did some in depth research, watching YouTube videos and learning all the regulations.  I also bought a shellfish permit, which allows me to harvest between 12-20 clams per day, depending on the type of clam.  Then my friends and I went out again, this time with tube-shaped sand removing contraptions and started to dig.  This time we had major success, finding several different types including a pretty big gaper clam.  Unfortunately, we didn’t look into how to store clams correctly and by the next day they were dead.  But no worries, I’ll continue to research and figure out how to clam efficiently and eventually I will be a clamming master!

This week should be filled with much more reading and research, but hopefully I’ll start visiting oyster farms and some commercial crabbers to get a first-hand look at how the industry works.  My one hope for this week is that we have less rain and more sun– what can I say, I’m a dreamer!

Bondia from Corvallis

Bondia tur hende! (Good morning to all in Papiamientu)

My name is AnnaRose Adams and I will be the returning Sea Grant veteran posting on this summer’s Scholars blog. Last summer, I was a Sea Grant Scholar doing marine policy work with the Governor’s Task Force on Nearshore Research. This summer, I have decided to return to Sea Grant again to do more work related to marine policy (more on that in a bit).

A little about me:

  • Just graduated from Oregon State with an Honors BS in BioResource Research, focusing in marine ecology and policy
  • During fall of 2010, I traveled to the Caribbean island of Bonaire (hence the reference to Papiamientu above) to attend a field school for marine ecology and complete my undergraduate thesis.
  • My passion is integrating marine science and policy. I love serving as a “translator” between both fields in order to make scientific discoveries become a political reality.
  • In the winter, I will be traveling to Fiji to do socioeconomic research on alternative incomes for local fisherman that are impacted by Marine Protected Areas.

So what will I be up to this summer?

My main role this summer will be doing a lot of event planning. I will be helping to head up the creation of a workshop on Coastal Marine Spatial Planning (CMSP). This workshop is one of the current goals of Oregon State’s Marine Council. The purpose of the event will be to bring together key individuals that have expertise in CMSP to help identify goals and priorities for how Oregon can meet the Obama administration’s new goals for creating spatial maps of US territorial waters. Much of my work will involve research into current work being done in the field, identifying gaps, making lots of phone calls, going to meetings, and organizing the structure for the CSMP workshop.

A final FYI…

I keep a regular blog AnnaRose and the Sea that will provide greater insight and detail into my thoughts about my internship experience. My blogging with most likely continue as I go to Fiji (so long as I have internet access). When I post on here, I will be updating short summaries. I encourage you to check out my personal blog if you want to follow my work. It is also located on the Blogroll links of this page on the left side of your screen.

Over and out,

AnnaRose Adams

 


ODFW Adventures: Part I

Hello everyone! My name is Lauren Dimock, and I am going to be a Junior at Willamette University this coming fall majoring in environmental science. Over the summer, I am going to be blogging with weekly updates about my experience as a Sea Grant Scholar at the Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC). I arrived at HMSC knowing only that I would be working under my Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) mentor Greg Krutzikowsky on two separate projects: estimating the spawning biomass of Pacific Herring in the Yaquina Bay and updating ODFW’s Nearshore Strategy. After a day of orientation at Oregon State University and settling in at the small but cozy dorms at HMSC, I began to find out the details of my internship.

My first day of work was a special treat, as I was lucky enough to go deep sea fishing as part of the Black Rockfish Pit Tagging Crew of ODFW for their last day on the ocean. Having only gone deep sea fishing one other time, I was no expert at catching ocean fish, so I was lucky that two very experienced and kind fishermen on the boat helped me out. They even risked their own catch to make sure my rod was in good working condition and the fish I caught made it on board safely to be quickly measured and tagged before being let go to swim back down to their homes at the bottom of the sea. From this experience, I learned to identify several types of nearshore fish, including Black, Canary, Copper, and Yelloweye Rockfish, as well as Lingcod. It was also very interesting to observe and participate in a different project from my own that will also attempt to estimate the health of a fishery by tracking their locations throughout the coming year.

My second day at work, which was really my first day of work, I was introduced to everyone around the office and given several thick documents to read and familiarize myself with, including the Nearshore Strategy and the Oregon Conservation Strategy. This is my homework to become adept enough to begin working with the Nearshore team to update the Nearshore Strategy and begin the process of combining the document with the Oregon Conservation Strategy. In my first of many weekly meetings, I learned several tasks that were aimed to update the document, including the addition of a section about estuaries, comments on the progress made from the 16 original recommendations given, general editing of minor formatting issues of the document, and the creation of a separate document about the current and future effects of climate change on strategy habitats and species. I am currently signed up to begin research for the base of the climate change document, but we have not yet carved a clear path for the layout of this document . Therefore, until our next meeting I will simply be finishing reading the Oregon Conservation Strategy so that I can better understand and participate in our next meeting.

I began the herring project on Thursday, where another member of Greg’s team named Aly drove me around the Yaquina Bay and estuary and showed me where she did her daily surveys looking for roe from February to April, which allowed me to familiarize myself with the names of the places where the roe was collected. On Friday I began counting samples. The roe are all attached to a algae named Fucus , and after measuring the entire sample size I measured out 1-2 gram sub-samples, and counted all of the eggs on both sides of the Fucus. After doing 10 of these, I checked the CV, and if it was below 0.3, then I moved to my next sample. I actually find this work to be slightly entertaining, with my clicker ready to go in my left hand and the radio singing in the background.

It has been frustrating to read the several hundred page documents I’ve been given, but understandably necessary. But the lab work is keeping things interesting, and with two projects to juggle for the next nine weeks I don’t think I will need anything extra to do. Next week I will continue counting samples and reading documents, but I will hopefully gain a solid understanding of what my role will be in the updating of the Nearshore Strategy. I’m excited to be working on these important projects at ODFW, and look forward to providing more updates next week!

Sea_Gil’s Blog

Hello! My name is Margaretmary Gilroy and this blog will be used to document my experience as an Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholar.

Before coming out here, I had a vague idea of what I would be during for the summer. I knew that I would be gathering information concerning the vulnerability of certain coastal species to climate change. This information would then be put into an extensive database (PICES) started by the EPA.

Now that I’ve spent a week actually working at the EPA station in Newport, I have a better understanding of what I will be doing during these upcoming weeks. I will be looking at how various species with calcium carbonate shells may respond to the problem of ocean acidification based on things such as shell composition and larval stages. I am excited to be a part of the project because this type of research is a fairly new undertaking and not much is known about how certain marine species will respond to ocean acidification, so it will be interesting to see what we discover through the information we are trying to capture for the database.

At work this past week, I spent most of my time reading over relevant literature in order to learn more about ocean acidification and bivalves, since I have not had much in-depth experience with either subject. I have a feeling when the summer is over, I will have become fairly versed in shellfish characteristics and the problems that arise from the ocean taking in more and more of the carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere. This upcoming week, I will be trained on how to input the information I gather into Excel spreadsheets so that it can be easily translated over into the database. I’m looking forward to doing some meaningful work for the EPA over the next couple months.

Estuaries Guided…extended version (week 1)

Hello! My name is Diego Martin-Perez, and I just graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a BS in Biology. I am so excited to be working at the Visitor Center (VC) here in Newport, Oregon.
I am going to be responsible for giving some tours and presentations over at the VC, talking about the estuary, the Ocean Quest findings in the deep sea, and Dr. Markus Horning’s work on sea lions and the Life History Transmitter.
This past week, I basically got settled in the VC, met a bunch of awesome people that showed me around the place and told me what to do. On Tuesday, I met with the volunteer coordinator at the VC and she taught me how to open the place up (and how to close it). During that day, I spent the time helping in the “wet labs”, where a Sea Granter gave hands on lectures to kids of 6th grade, as well as 2nd grade. I won’t lie, I learned a bunch in these “elementary” lectures, mostly about the ecology of the rocky intertidal, clams, and how to handle sea stars (aka the sneak attack). Wednesday, I met another volunteer coordinator and worked in the VC for a few hours, until I went on my tour of the estuary adjacent to the VC, where I learned about clam diggin’, ghost shrimp, medicinal plants found in this location, and other cool things about the tides. I really enjoyed my little tour, so much that I took my other Sea Grant intern friends on the same tour the day after!
Thursday, I met the former Sr. Aquarist at the VC, who showed me almost everything I needed to know about how to take care of fishes and tanks containing them. He also taught me how to touch an octopus, which I did! Then, I met with someone in charge of curriculum design for kids, who placed upon me the challenge of designing an experiment with modeling clay, water and ice, and a thermometer (definitely a challenge, but a fun one). Later that day, I went clamming and got several clams (mmm clam chowder anyone?)!!!
Friday, I met my mentor, and started the extreme, painful challenge (the biggest of the week) of buffing the “chaos wheel tank”. I had never done that before, and it was hard on my body… I am still hurting from it… Then yesterday, sea grant friends and I went thrift shopping, farmer’s marketing, and ice cream/taco devouring outing! Today, I took a bike ride to the beach, ate lunch picnic style on the beach volleyball court, and read my book… oh and am writing this entry!
This upcoming week, I will meet more interns at the VC, start organizing schedules for the summer, and learning our tours and presentations, among other surprises (like finishing the buff action with the chaos wheel)…
Come visit me at the VC! I am the one with the mustache and the orange vest… Regards… Deegs

Aloha!

Aloha everyone!

My name is Sara Duncan and I say ‘Aloha’ because I am currently a senior at Hawaii Pacific University studying Environmental Science.  For Summer 2011, I am partaking in the Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholars Program where I will be working for the EPA to study nutrient removal of the Yaquina Estuary in Newport, Oregon.  Essentially this means as dirty water comes into the wetland, clean water comes out and we are trying to figure out the amount of nutrient that is removed by the whole system as well as how this is accomplished.  As part of my internship, I have been instructed to answer three questions in this blog once a week.  The questions are:

1.) What did you do the previous week?
2.) What did you learn? What was new? and what were the challenges you faced?
3.) What are you going to do this week?

I will use this blog to more or less reflect solely on my internship itself, but I have also set up a personal blog at sarasoregonadventure.blogspot.com to keep you updated on my fun and adventure as I spend this summer in the great state of Oregon.

Sunday night, I arrived at the Oregon State University Campus in Corvallis, Oregon.  The next morning, my fellow summer scholars and I met up for orientation where we ate breakfast and conversed about expectations for the summer.   It was great to meet everyone and I’m excited to spend the summer with a good group of people.  After our meeting, we went out to lunch and headed to Newport – my home for the next two months.  The biggest shocker to me was how cold it is here even in the summer, but that is something that I will have to get used to.

My first day on the job was Tuesday.  I met my mentor, Ted DeWitt, and he briefed me on the project that we will be doing over the summer.  So basically, what I’m going to be doing is setting up these chambers made out of 6 inch diameter PVC pipe attached to a cubitainer, which you can probably guess is a plastic container in the shape of a cube.  The cubitainer is filled with water with a known nutrient concentration and attached to the PVC pipe with a hose and is placed below the chamber in the estuary.  As the tide rises over the cubitainer, the pressure forces the water out and into the chamber and when the tide falls, the water drains into the cubitainer again.  After a tidal cycle, we can analyze the nutrients in the cubitainer to see if there were any changes.  As you may know, wetlands are extremely good at removing nutrients to clean the water, so we are trying to find out what is removing it and how much it is removing.  Unfortunately nature is not cut and dry, so this is way easier said than done.

Nutrient chambers that we will be setting up.

This afternoon, I got to experience my first day of field work.  I went out with the chemical technician here, Jody Stecher, to set up the bases for the chambers.  Dealing with tides is never something that I had to do before, so that was a new experience for me.  In Hawaii the difference between high tide and low tide is about one and a half feet while here it’s usually eight feet or more.  So timing is everything when it comes to the tides.  In order to get to the spot where we set up the chambers we had to cross a small stream.  By the time we got done, the small stream was turning into a large creek.  I’m afraid that I won’t pay attention to the tides enough and get stuck somewhere!  So, what we were doing today was preparing for Monday when we are going to be out on the estuary all day to deploy the chambers and run the experiment.  My coworker Caitlin explained to me all we do is, “Prepare for field work, do field work, and recover from field work.”  I found that to be funny.

As you know, the organization that I was paired with was the famous (or infamous, depending on how you view it) Environmental Protection Agency.  As a scientist, there are three main job markets that I can go into: government, industry, or academia.  Being a student, I have a lot of background in academia while this internship lets me dally in the government sector of the work force.  I’ve heard many different stories about what it’s like to work for the government, so I’m excited to take a stab at it myself for the summer.   The first thing that I noticed when I walked into the door was a picture of Obama and Biden in the entry way.  I was also surprised to find out that our mail is x-rayed before we get it and that our computer network is under constant attack from intruders that would love to get a hold of the information here.  I never realized how many people are trying to take the EPA down.  Working for EPA involves a lot of protocol that we have to go through on a daily basis.  If something goes wrong with my computer, I can’t just run down the hall to grab the tech guy, I must call the helpdesk which is somewhere in the U.S. and then they walk me through the problem remotely or they contact the tech guy to help me.  Thankfully I haven’t had any problems yet.  Since I will be involved with field and lab work, I had to take an online safety training course that is supposed to last 24 hours from start to finish.  Thankfully, I got it done in less than a day but most of it was regarding things that I will never have to do here.  So far I haven’t had much of a problem with anything.  As I have learned, working for the EPA involves extreme organization.  Everything must be planned and recorded which I think is overall a good thing.

Sitting at my new desk ready to get started.

So far my week has been exciting and I have learned a lot.  I am asking as many questions as I can from as many people as I can.  I can’t wait for Monday when I get to be out in the field all day.  I’m not a fan of sitting at a desk staring at a computer, so I’m so glad to have gotten this opportunity.  I hope that this experience is overall a positive one.  Stay tuned to learn about what I am doing every week.  I will keep you as updated as I can!

Sara Duncan