When advising students about their career goals, paths forward, and expectations; I often recommend that they consider learning a program language. While the language itself depends on the goals and background of the person, being able to work directly with data is powerful. Today’s project is a good example of just such a case. A […]
NGA Phase 2 Process Studies
Transitioning from the first funding cycle of an LTER site (phase 1) to the second come with a lot of considerations and opportunities. Phase 1 has largely focused on survey and monitoring work where the emphasis was clearly on maintaining and expanding existing time series (e.g., Sewardline). While there were some process studies, those activities […]
INDITUN Kick-Off
INDITUN: Trophic ecology of southern bluefun tuna larvae in the North-eastern Indian Ocean INDITUN is a collaborative project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to compile and synthesize data collected over the past few years on Bluefin Tuna Larvae growth and survival. This project connects naturally with BLOOFINZ-GOM (Gulf of Mexico) and […]
NSF Postdoc Fellowship
Last year the OCE directorate at the National Science Foundation reinstated their postdoctoral research fellowship program whereby applicants vie for two years of postdoctoral salary and a small research budget. This program supports a wide range of early career researchers (ECR) and allows many to pursue exciting, and potentially novel research. I am proud and […]
NGA LTER Summer Voyage: Biogeochemistry Section Report
Optical Instruments Two rosette-mounted optical instruments were used during the cruise: the underwater vision profiler (Hydroptic UVP5; sn009) and the laser in situ scatterometer and transmissometer (Sequoia LISST-200x; sn2167). Both instruments measure particle abundance and size spectra during the downcast. The UVP5 was used on almost all casts (n = 68) and assesses particles between […]
Lateral Advection Supports the Oligotrophic Ecosystem of the Open-Ocean Gulf of Mexico
In contrast to its productive coastal margins, the open-ocean Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is notable for highly stratified surface waters with extremely low nutrient and chlorophyll concentrations. Field campaigns in 2017 and 2018 identified low rates of turbulent mixing, which combined with oligotrophic nutrient conditions, give very low estimates for diffusive flux of nitrate into […]
NGA LTER Spring Voyage: Biogeochemistry Section Report
During the cruise 6 deployments of the surface-tethered sediment trap arrays were completed with a target duration of 24h. Deployments were conducted across a representative set of pelagic stations (KOD5, KOD9, MID10, GAK4, GAK8, and GAK15) in order to measure gravitationally settling organic matter quantity and quality. Each array was outfitted with 2-3 cross-frames placed […]
About Thorium
This is a short blurb put together for the participants of a research voyage down to Antarctica, which I participated on in Jan 2020. I wanted to share one of the projects I was completing with a relatively general audience. About Thorium Thorium-234, an isotope of Thorium, has found popular use as a tracer of […]
Lateral Transport and Connectivity in the GoM
To test hypotheses and to characterize lateral processes, there is perhaps no better region than the Gulf of Mexico; for it’s small size and it’s quick surface currents (both relative to ocean basins) are coupled to strong spatial gradients in nutrient inventories, Chlorophyll concentrations, and biomass. This connectivity can be best seen through a series […]
Programming for the rest of us: Introducing a new R package to help solve problems
As a self trained, informal, fly by the seat of my pants programmer, I am hardly the “best” person to give advice about teaching other how to program. I have no formal background in computer science and have never had anyone teach me to program, it’s just been something that I’ve played around in by […]
Faster Gridding in R
So all oceanographers are familiar with the results of gridding, even if they are not so familiar with the process. Gridding is, in general, any method that will take observations and output interpolated (and sometimes extrapolated) data that is placed onto a regular, well-behaving grid. Below is a simple illustration of just such a process […]
Building Sediment Traps
Sediment traps are an oceanographic tool used to collect sinking material from the water column, much like how a rain gauge catches falling water droplets. Previously I’ve described some of the history of the sediment trap (link) as well as how they work (link), but now I’m going to share with you a brief overview […]
Some Frightful Freight Fun
Primarily for logistical reasons I was put in charge of the Stukel lab’s cruise preparation for the upcoming CCE LTER process cruise (P1908). Overall the cruise prep went smoothly except that we’re still waiting for a few last minute order to come in. Since out lab group is taking on a lot more responsibilities for […]
And so life happens
It has been quite a while since I’ve published anything on here, so in order to get back into it I’ve decided not to write a “catch-up” article about what I’ve been up to for the past year. Instead I just want to note that it’s been an extremely busy summer and I am excited […]
Linking conceptual models with laboratory experiments
A recent project is leading my adviser and I to design and build a large, acrylic tank which will be able to hold several hundred litres of seawater. Since a tank like this will take both time and money to build, it is logical to develop multiple experiments to run in it. These experiments will […]
Daily Dose: Efficiency at Work
Prioritizing goes hand in hand with efficiency and productivity whether it’s extreme (like triage) or the mundane (like paying bills), but how often do we actually stop and think about the process? While at the bar yesterday my friend asked me a question about how I deal with my data. In particular the question was […]
Daily Dose: Correlations in a Warmer Ocean
A recent project, which is still in the very early stages, is looking for changes in patterns in the surface ocean due to el Nino. El Nino is a decadal mode of variability in the atmospheric forcings on the Pacific Ocean leading to anomalously warmer ocean temperatures throughout the eastern Pacific. This water, like a […]
Master Bathroom Remodel
A couple week ago I decided to finally dive into a project that I’ve been thinking about for some time. My master bathroom, like the guest bathroom in my house, was obviously “refurbished” right before I bought the place. Starting at the bottom, the floor was vinyl, the vanity was a 32″ kitchen cabinet base, […]
Story Time or How I Found My House
There I was, standing in the airport terminal introducing my father to my new academic advisor, and wondering what this strange new city would bring. Tallahassee is the forgotten capital of Florida boasting no more than 200,000 people. I had flown down from Boston in order to meet with Stukel and to see first-hand what […]
Daily Dose: Unity in Science
Although all around us, there are few things as universally spectacular as natural phenomena. Whether it is a volcano, the changing of the leaves or, most recently, a solar eclipse; people love spectacles and nature sure can be spectacular at times. So why is this called “Unity in Science” and not “Unity in Nature”? Well, […]
Call me Ishmael: computers, the sea and the stars
While ancient and modern mariners alike look up to the stars for direction, oceanographers look to the sea. Our research in particular involves moving with the water wherever it may happen to take us since we want to measure how a patch of water develops and changes over time. On my latest cruise I found […]
On the Surprising Value of English
Growing up and throughout my traditional education the constant refrain comparing English and other world languages was simple that English is the poor, bastard child of language. Further than that, English was the ubiquitous and difficult system of language, a quality making it a true heroic feat to master as a second language. I do […]
For lack of a better word: Clumpiness
We perceive randomness every day whether it’s the shape that clouds take or the number of red lights we face during our commute, so it is not surprising that our intuition is well suited to some of these phenomena. The human mind attempts to bring order to the chaos as it were, and in doing […]
Daily Dose: Installing solar panels
With the cost of solar panels coming down and with the rise in energy consciousness, I thought it might be time to try out solar panels myself. Just starting out, it seemed to be prudent to get a small, trial size panel kit to see how it works. I opted for a simple 100W monocrystalline […]
Philosophy Monday: Social Implication of Biological Evolution
Novel scientific theories first setout to explain one anomalous phenomenon which the old theory cannot. Whether it’s explaining the production of heat, the formation of the earth, or how society stays intact, the same current of development can be seen working below the surface. Kuhn has developed a theory to explain this commonality over the […]
The world of tools: introduction
I’ve been kicking around an idea for a while to write a series of articles and resources that detail different sets of tools based on the project at hand. Since I’ve used a lot of tools on a menagerie of projects, it seems right to try to share some of what I’ve learned along the […]
Plex media server
As someone with a lot of digital content including movies, TV shows and music, I’ve always been on the lookout for new and useful ways to get the media where I want it. Previously I’ve used a Raspberry Pi computer with KODI to organize and play my media on my main TV, but I was […]
Daily Dose: Let there be light
It is often extraordinary what a simple coat of paint, a touch of color, or a simple alteration can make in the appearance of things to see everyday. Even something as simple as cleaning an oil smudge off of the garage door can make the space feel much cleaner and “put-together”, so today will be […]
Weekend Review: The little things
This weekend I decided to work on the list of those little things around that house that should be done yet are far from a priority. We all have those little miscellaneous jobs that are noticed from day to day and just as readily as they’re noticed they’re forgotten. Let’s get started killing them off. […]
Switching out a garage door opener
About a year ago I drove into my driveway after a full day at work and found my garage door open. Immediately I assumed the worst and my heart skipped a beat. For those of you who don’t know, I keep a lot of stuff in my garage including easily a couple thousand dollars worth […]