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This post has been a long time in the making.  No matter how hard I try to stay on top of things early in the quarter, November and December always end up being a bit of a whirlwind.  I have (finally!) finished the quarter, and I have moved on to regular 40 hour work weeks.  It almost feels like vacation.

This quarter was a particularly busy one.  In addition to my classes, I was presenting my research at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, a weeklong conference in San Francisco that gathers more than 20,000 researchers from a range of fields. The conference very inconveniently occurs during finals week, but it’s an incredible opportunity to interact with fellow scientists and to learn more about the work being conducted in the field.

A bit of background: I am an MS candidate at Oregon State University and one of three Robert E. Malouf scholars for 2014.  I work with Dr. Merrick Haller in the Coastal and Ocean Engineering group on the effects of offshore Wave Energy Converter (WEC) arrays on the nearshore wave field. This research is part of a large and multidisciplinary effort to understand the potential environmental impacts of WEC devices.  The Malouf Fellowship allows me to be more active in the scientific community through conferences such as AGU and the Marine Energy Technology Symposium (METS) (where I will be presenting my research in April 2014) and it has given me insight into other Sea Grant related work being done at a more local level.  I am very grateful for the support of the Oregon Sea Grant and for the opportunity to be part of the Sea Grant community.

More specifically, my research focuses on how the presence of WEC arrays changes the waves at the shoreline, and the potential impacts of these changes on nearshore processes.  WEC devices extract energy from the waves, which results in a low energy area behind the devices, referred to as the WEC shadow.  The extraction of energy results in a reduction in wave height and a change in wave direction in the WEC shadow.  Wave height and direction are important parameters in nearshore processes, and are especially important in the generation of rip currents and longshore currents that drive sediment transport.  Coastal erosion is a serious problem on certain parts of the Oregon coast.  Could the deployment of offshore WEC arrays increase erosion in vulnerable areas? Could it result in the generation of rip currents that pose serious risks for swimmers and beach users?  If so, where?  It is important to understand the potential impacts of WEC arrays in order to choose the best size, design, and location for arrays before they are deployed.

To address these issues, I am using the numerical model SWAN to simulate the changes on the wave field resulting from each individual device.  The past few months I have spent developing a technique for representing the WEC arrays in the model, and then applying this technique on an idealized coastline to make a few general conclusions about the effects of WEC arrays on the nearshore zone.  In the upcoming months, I will be using this same technique to simulate arrays at two permitted wave energy test sites off the coast of Newport, the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center (NNMREC) North Energy Test Site (NETS) and the South Energy Test Site (SETS), using high resolution bathymetry and directional wave spectra from a 2011 hindcast.  This will allow us to gain insight into the effects of WEC arrays on a more realistic coastline, and to see how the deployment of a WEC array could potentially affect the nearshore environment and communities in the Newport area.

I am happy with the progress I’ve made in the past few months, and I’m really excited to continue.  At the moment, though, I am very ready to enjoy winter break.  Happy 2014!

4th Quarter Report

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Well, my time at OEM has come to an end. I was extremely lucky to work on so many interesting projects throughout this past year.  From meeting with Congresswoman Bonamici to presenting at the OAPA conference to helping with the NOAA/DLCD Coastal Community Resilience Network pilot project, I have learned so much this past year.  I want to thank everyone at OEM for their support.

However, I will be continuing to work with OBDD in 2014.  This past month, we held the first SRGP committee meeting since the SRGP had been moved from OEM to OBDD.  Jay Wilson, Chairman of OSSPAC, spoke at the beginning of the meeting and explained the importance of the SRGP relative to other statewide seismic efforts.  He explained that the work being done by the SRGP committee is vital to reaching the safety goals that the State of Oregon has in mind.  For more information on how the SRGP helps make Oregon a safer place, check out my next blog post.

I have reached the point where I know exactly what I don’t know.

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This being my first blog post, I thought it would be appropriate to start with a little about me. I’m originally from Massachusetts, but find myself in the beautiful state of Oregon working towards a Masters of Environmental Management. I am a candidate at Portland State University under the excellent guidance of my advisor, Dr. Elise Granek. I came back to school after some time working in the solar energy industry in order to better understand how best to bring scientific knowledge into policy action. In doing so, I study coastal ecosystem services knowledge gaps in the policy and management community in Oregon. My research will form a framework for connecting data needs of coastal policy makers and managers with scientific research with matching interests in the near future and long-term. I hope this will provide a methodology for effectively connecting the scientific community with policy makers and managers in other coastal states. I suspect that due to its strong focus on outreach in the marine environment, I was fortunate to be awarded the Robert E. Malouf Marine Studies Scholarship for this work! I look forward to applying my background and education to a career in coastal and marine policy creation and management implementation.
That being said, I’m a year into my work and I’ve hit what seems to be the most critical time, analysis! Since last May I have been interviewing and focus grouping various decision makers on the Oregon coast and have collected a significant amount of qualitative data to work with. Aided by the vast knowledge of Amy Lubitow PhD, an environmental sociology associate professor at Portland State University, and Max Nielsen-Pincus PhD, an environmental public policy and management associate professor at Portland State University, as well as the use of advanced qualitative data analysis software, I will be coding data and evaluating the emergent themes of ecosystem service priorities and research needs in coastal Oregon public policy and management.
Conducting the interviews and focus group research for this project was a learning experience in itself. Every person I spoke with had a unique perspective on marine policy and management practices. Since I was relatively new to this form of data collection, it seemed that the more interviews and focus groups I conducted the better I became at digging deeper into those perspectives. Unfortunately, that also meant that the audio files recording these qualitative data interactions became progressively longer as the project progressed. This made transcribing the data a much more significant task than I ever realized! The length of time required for the transcriptions was longer than I had anticipated, but what’s a master’s thesis without a glitch in the originally planned timeframe?
Now that the transcriptions are finally complete and I have read through them, I am feeling very good about the data that has been collected. The questions are all asked, and the data is all there, now the key is matching qualitative data with questions to come to some conclusions. In short, I am at the stage now where I know exactly what it is I don’t know; but I’m moving in the direction of knowing. This seems to be the most exciting and daunting my project has been since inception.
Where do I go from here? Well, the exact answer to this question depends on the data analysis. Coding and analysis of the data will determine the kinds of scientific informational needs that exist on the coast. From there the synthesis session will, simply put, be planned according to identified needs in order to reach out to the scientific and decision making communities to be the basis for a more iterative process of interactions. However, this is actually not quite as simple as it may sound. There remains a significant amount of work to achieve in a short period of time, but first things first: Analysis!

JTMD Task Force Meeting

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On November 14,  the Governor’s Japan Tsunami Marine Debris (JTMD) Task Force  held a meeting at OEM.  At the meeting, there were presentations by Chris Havel (Oregon Parks & Recreation Department),  Nir Barnea (Marine Debris Coordinator for NOAA), Gus Gates (Surfrider Foundation), Katie Gauthier (Senator Jeff Merkely’s District Aid), Gabriela Goldfarb (Governor Kitzhaber’s Natural Resources Advisor), and others.  The meeting was led by Dave Stuckey, who is the Director of OEM and the Chair of the JTMD Task Force.

The major take-away of the day came from Gus Gates.  While we should of course be concerned with JTMD, we also have to realize that there are bigger issues at play here.  JTMD is just a small part of the general marine debris problem, and marine debris is just a small part of the general problem of over-consumption.  We need policies and plans in place to reduce waste in general; the JTMD issue just contributes to that conversation.

Dave Stuckey also pointed out that we need to think about this issue relative to the Cascadia Subduction Zone event we are expecting to occur here in Pacific Northwest sometime in the near future.  We need to learn from how the Japanese responded to the 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami, and we need to plan for the impacts that these types of events produce.  The JTMD discussion can contribute to natural hazard mitigation plans.

For more information about  this meeting, click here: http://www.oregon.gov/OMD/OEM/public_information/JTMD_PPT_11-14-13.pdf.

A new hat

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A few weeks ago I went to a small luncheon in Corvallis; it was there that I received, as a gift, a new hat.  It’s a blue baseball cap with the words “Oregon Sea Grant” across the front.  As you know, baseball caps are particularly well suited to a number of uses: (1) Baseball playing, (2)  Keeping the sun out of one’s eyes , and (3) Keeping the rain off of one’s face.  Tomorrow when I head out on the ocean my brand new Oregon Sea Grant baseball cap is going to take a beating… and I won’t be playing baseball.

My name is Michelle Fournet.  I’m a PhD student in Oregon State University’s department of Fisheries and Wildlife, and a proud recipient of a 2013 Robert E. Malouf Fellowship.  My lab, the Oregon State Research Collective for Applied Acoustics, or ORCAA for short, uses sound (acoustics) to study marine organisms.  My research in particular is centered around the cetacean species that inhabit Oregon’s near coastal oceans.  The order Cetacea includes whales, dolphins, and porpoise- and we have many of them here in Oregon.  How many exactly? We’re not yet sure.

Part of my PhD research is aimed at identifying what cetacean species regularly use Oregon’ near coastal ocean, and when they seem to be here.  To answer this question I’m taking a two prong approach that, at first glance, sounds a lot simpler than it really is:  I’m going to look for them and I’m going to listen for them.

I’m conducting visual surveys along Oregon’s continental shelf with a team of observers, binoculars, float coats, and cameras.  We’re hopping on board with other labs as they take cruises to collect biological and oceanographic data out of Newport Oregon.  We perch ourselves on the bow of OSU’s R/V Elakha and spot whales, dolphins, and porpoise whenever the vessel is underway- rain or shine, wind and waves, if the boat goes out we try and get on it!  We’re using a line transect sampling protocol and hope to be incorporating photo identification into the project.  Both of these methods allow us to ultimately identify what species are present and to calculate species abundance.  If we are able to sample throughout the year we can also address questions about seasonal and diel variability, ask questions about larger scale processes, and paint a more comprehensive picture of our whale, dolphin, and porpoise communities.

This is only part of the method, however.  While looking from the bow of the boat can be a very effective method for documenting mammals, porpoises and dolphins can be difficult to spot under even the best conditions.  To compliment our visual surveys we have plans to launch multiple hydro-acoustic platforms that will record oceans sounds for analysis.  Cetaceans are highly vocal.  Baleen whale species produce some of the loudest calls on the planet, that may be capable of traveling across ocean basins.  Odontocete species utilize echolocation for navigation and foraging, and produce whistles under various social situations. However, high frequency odontocete calls may only be detected in the range of meters, and low-frequency baleen whale calls may be masked by anthropogenic or ocean noise.  What we have in the wings, is a few technologies that will help us work around these problems to get clear recordings of cetacean vocalizations.

Our hope is that the combination of the two methods will yield sufficient data to form a comprehensive understanding of who is really out there.  Why do we want to know?  Well… I’d love to tell you all about it (and I’m sure I will in my next post!).  But for now, I have a rainy  boat ride to prepare for, and I need to find my hat.

October Summary – Oregon Coastal Community Resilience Networks

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This past month, I had the opportunity to continue helping the Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience (OPDR) with two projects focused on building resilience networks for Oregon’s coastal communities.  The first was the North Coast Community Network Pilot Project.  As I’ve explained in previous blogs, the purpose of this this DLCD-led NOAA funded project is to help build a resilience network for communities on Oregon’s north coast.  Specifically, we are focusing on the cities of Seaside, Cannon Beach, and Gearhart, as well as Clatsop County.  This past month, we held a technical work group meeting at the DLCD office  in Salem to discuss the results of our public outreach.  Mostly, the conversation focused on how we should think about the edits made to the USAID benchmarks as a result of input by local residents.  We also discussed the role that interactive mapping will play in this project.  Our hope is that we can build a website that allows local residents to input their own information onto a map so that other residents can be aware of potential hazards.  The next step of this project is to create specific measures that would allow us to analyze whether the communities are meeting their benchmark goals.

I also helped OPDR with a workshop pertaining to a South Coast Socio-Economic Resilience Network they are working on.  The purpose of this Ford Family Foundation funded project is to create a resilience network amongst the local businesses on Oregon’s southern coast.  This past month, we held a meeting at the Culinary Institute in Coos Bay to engage local business owners.  OPDR invited a number of speakers to join a panel discussion about the natural hazards that face the area, and they led a workshop to get feedback from the business owners.  In the end, this project hopes to focus on socio-economic gaps that many times are forgotten by planners who are working to create resilience networks.

I also organized a meeting for the Oregon Sea Grant Marine Debris Coordination Group.  This time, we asked a number of external partners to join us: Kim Lippert (OEM), Nir Barnea (NOAA), Alicia Lyman-Holt (Hinsdale Wave Center), and Mary Donohue (Hawaii Sea Grant).  A lot of great projects were discussed, and a number of new connections were made.  For example, Kim Lippert’s work as OEM’s Public Information Officer seems to be a great fit for a number of Sea Grant partners.   As a result of this meeting, some of her work will be promoted through the Sea Grant. Another meeting is tentatively scheduled for January.

There is a lot coming up next month.  Stay tuned.

NOAA Coastal Management Fellow update

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Greetings,

It has been too long since my last post! I have been very busy here at the WA State Dept of Ecology with my Fellow’s project. I have made great strides creating Soft Shoreline Stabilization guidance for local jurisdictions in Puget Sound. I spent a long spring and summer writing, and my guidance is now undergoing review from local jurisdiction staff. It is very important to me that my audience, local jurisdiction staff, have the opportunity to review and comment on my guidance.

Creating this guidance has been a great learning experience, and I have had wonderful experience talking with local jurisdictions, state employees, and other stakeholders in soft shorelines. I am looking forward to wrapping up the review process, incorporating comments, and completing my guidance by Spring 2014! I am planning to spend my last couple of months as a fellow participating in outreach and training related to my guidance.

In addition to writing, I’ve also been able to attend forums, conferences, and other meetings where I have been a part of the soft shoreline discussion. Last week, I presented at the National Coastal Conference held by the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association. I also lead a field trip as a part of a training for real estate professionals on soft shorelines put on by the Coastal Training Program and Washing State University Extension in early October.

On a separate note, I, along with some partners at Oregon Sea Grant, were awarded a grant from OSG to create a mobile website that will host the NOAA Trust Species and Aquatic Pesticides Toxicity Database I created while completing my M.S. at OSU. It has been a great experience so far, and I’m excited that my database will be publicly available in a user-friendly format!

That is all for now. Next week I am attending the Coastal and Estuarine  Research Federation’s annual conference in San Diego. Hoping to catch up with some current and past OSG’ers while I’m there!

Until next time,

Kelsey Gianou

3rd Quarter Report

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With only a few months to go, I have a lot of work to do before the end of the year to make sure all of my projects get completed.

For OEM, I’ve been helping Cory Grogan (OEM’S PIO) create a social media policy document. Members of the community increasingly utilize social media, smartphones, and other electronic technology devices to access, capture, and share emergency information.  Therefore, OEM believes it is vitally important to also utilize these resources in case of an emergency in order to effectively engage with the public.  Being involved with social media is a key factor in terms of emergency resilience and preparedness. This document will describe OEM’s policy and procedures related to the use of social media.

For the Oregon Sea Grant, I’ve been helping Joe Cone (OSG’s Assistant Director) coordinate meetings with OSG staff members who are currently working on projects pertaining to Japan tsunami marine debris (JTMD), or marine debris in general.  The purpose of these meetings is to discuss the work each person is doing and discover whether there are any opportunities for collaboration.  For the next meeting, we will also be inviting external partners from OEM, NOAA, and Hawaii Sea Grant to discuss the marine debris work they are currently doing.

I’ve also continued to help the Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience (OPDR) coordinate meetings for the Coastal Community Resilience Network Pilot Project.  Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) received grant funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to implement a two-year pilot project that focuses on implementing a natural hazard risk-based approach to increasing community resilience known as RiskPlan. As a sub-recipient of funds under this DLCD-led NOAA funded project, the Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience (OPDR) generally provides research and technical planning assistance for risk, vulnerability, and resilience assessments. OPDR helps to co-chair the Resilience Technical Work Group and assist in the compilation and development of materials to be used in subsequent hazards and resilience planning efforts.  A major part of the project focuses on engaging with planners, policymakers, and community members from Oregon’s northern most county, Clatsop County.  Specifically, these meetings include planning commissioners, city administrators, and residents from the cities of Seaside, Cannon Beach, and Gearhart.  Using an USAID guide as a template, the purpose of these meetings is to build a resilience plan and social network that can be effectively utilized in the case of a natural disaster along Oregon’s coast.

Come back next month for updates on all of these projects.

Policy Update from Oregon Sea Grant’s West Coast Fellow

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Thus far, it has been a fascinating experience serving as a West Coast Sea Grant fellow for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD), and the Office of Governor Kitzhaber.

April 2013 was an important milestone for marine policy, with the issuance of the National Ocean Policy Implementation Plan. This national plan includes overarching, guiding principles for management decisions, with the ultimate goal of sustaining resilient oceans and coasts. In other words, the national plan helps guide decision-makers all over the country, at all levels of government, achieve ocean stewardship for years to come.

Successful ocean stewardship is no small feat. In-fact, it is an extremely complex undertaking involving many different ocean uses, both biological and anthropogenic, coupled with a wide diversity of stakeholders. The ocean is a very busy place. Oregon’s marine waters are used for shipping, fishing, research, along with many other activities, such as planned renewable energy development areas. Biologically, Oregon’s waters contain valuable resources, such as essential habitat, a large diversity of fish species, along with shellfish populations, kelp and eelgrass beds. Furthermore, our coastal ocean contains important shorebird foraging grounds and whale migratory routes.

One way to balance our natural resources with the range of ocean uses is through careful planning. A marine plan helps guide the use of Oregon’s ocean waters, similar to the way city planning guides land use in towns throughout the country. Oregon has been engaged in marine planning for over two decades and recently completed its inaugural marine spatial plan, an amendment to the Territorial Sea Plan, which was specific to marine renewable energy. One key component of a marine plan is spatially explicit data on ocean ecosystems and human uses. Oregon MarineMap was developed to help visualize all the uses and ecological functions that occur in our marine waters.

Many marine issues off Oregon are inter-jurisdictional. That is, they aren’t specific to Oregon, but impact the entire west coast. Some examples of these regional issues are: marine debris, climate change, along with sea level rise and ocean acidification. In 2006, the Governors of Washington, Oregon and California decided to form the West Coast Governors Alliance (WCGA) to address regional issues that have the capacity to negatively impact ocean health. The WCGA provides a platform for regional collaboration in order to address these issues. Action Coordination Teams were formed to serve as region-wide facilitation and coordination groups on specific ocean issues.

My role is to support the WCGA and associated Action Coordination Teams in order to further regional collaboration and sustainable ocean stewardship. Additionally, I am working to advance marine planning efforts in Oregon. It’s going to be a busy, but very exciting year!

This Is It!

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Well, this is it folks! My year as an Oregon Sea Grant scholar has come to a close. Between my last blog and now, I have made great strides in my work.

First off, the chemostat works beautifully! After many false starts, George is finally functioning as it should, readjusting the pH of the culture vessel by bubbling the media with CO2 gas. The LabVIEW program monitors and regulates everything, and I am going to write a function into it that will allow it to send a warning to my phone when something goes wrong, any time of the day or night (I’m not sure if I should be excited about this…).

Aided by my intrepid undergraduate intern, Maria, I ran an experiment this summer to test the effect that a range of pHs would have on saxitoxin production of A. catenella. I compiled growth data, PAM fluorescence data, ran numerous reactive oxygen species (ROS) assays to determine the level of physiological stress in the dinoflagellates, and ran an intracellular saxitoxin ELISA assay. I plan to do the extracellular ELISA in the very near future.

I am still in the process of data processing, statistical analysis, finishing the other ELISAs, doing back-up lab work, etc. However, I can tell you that my preliminary data processing seems to indicate that my original hypotheses are correct: stress induced by low pH is linked with increased saxitoxin production in A. catenella.

For the actual results – well, you’ll just have to read the papers.

I’ve learned a lot this year, and seen much work come to fruition that may not have been possible without this scholarship. I’m very blessed to have had the opportunity and ability to do this research. If the new Malouf scholars have as much fun as I did this year, they will count themselves lucky to be scientists. :)