Volume 2019 Number 2 September 19, 2019

AERS Spring Meeting 2019 at the Potomac Science Center

Kim de Mutsert, Host 2019 Spring Meeting

The AERS Spring 2019 meeting, hosted by George Mason University's Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center, was a great success! From April 4-6, 126 attendees filled the newly opened Potomac Science Center, scenically located on the Oc-coquan River in Woodbridge, VA. With conference theme “From the head of the tide to the edge of the shelf” we emphasized the breath and spatial scale of estuaries and coast. Topics ranged from freshwater tidal ecosystems to coastal oceans, and the connec-tions and exchange between these systems.

New to the AERS meeting was the addition of a full-day career workshop on Thursday, which was part of The Coastal Society’s Margaret A. Davidson Coastal Career Development Program. With over 20 participants and 14 invited speakers from NGOs, gov-ernment, and private industry, the workshop provided a meaningful career development opportunity for stu-dents and early career professionals.

On Friday and Saturday, three keynote speak-ers covered the breath of estuarine science, from phys-ical processes (Dr. Courtney Harris, VIMS) to species invasions (Dr. Mary Fabrizio, VIMS), and local suc-cess stories of water quality improvements (Dr. Chris Jones, PEREC, GMU). Especially exciting was the number of students represented at the conference, which comprised of over half of the attendees.

We had a very successful silent auction and raffle to supple-ment the student travel fund, which concluded during the wonderful din-ner at Harbour Grille. We like to thank all our sponsors, contributors, volunteers and attendees in making this another successful AERS meet-ing!

Topic Page

Recap AERS Spring Meeting 2019 Kim de Mutsert

1

President’s Corner, Joe Luczkovich 2

Rising Tides, Treda Grayson 3

Venerable Clam Award: Gulnihal Ozbay 3

AERS Instagram TAKEOVER C.J. Schlick and Sarah Bouboulis

3

AERS SP 2019 Sponsors 3

Profiles of Students Receiving Presentation Awards

4-5

Margaret A. Davidson Coastal Career Development Workshop, Sarah Marriot

6

Biographies of Honorary Members on AERS Website, Judith Stribling

6

Student Travel Awards, David Yozzo and C.J. Schlick

6

AERSNews Inside this Issue

The meeting was hosted by the De Mutsert Fish Ecolo-gy lab. From left to right: Beverly Bachman, Tanya Ramseyer, CJ Schlick, Peter Jacobs, Sara Marriott, Amanda Sills, Sammie Alexander, Chris Bodner, Treda Grayson, Casey Pehrson, and Kim de Mutsert.

Dr. Mary Fabrizio providing her keynote on the Blue Catfish invasion in the Chesapeake Bay.

AERSNews Editors Julie Ambler & Elizabeth Lacey

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AERSNews President’s Corner

Joe Luczkovich Professor of Biology,

East Carolina University

The AERS Spring 2019 meeting (4-6 April) was a huge success, being held

at the Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center (PEREC) hosted by George Mason University. Our very first electronic voting for AERS officers, over-seen by Danielle Kreeger as Nominations Chair, result-ed in new AERS leadership. Ben Fertig (Irvine Nature Center and Fertig Coastal Sciences) is the new AERS President-Elect and will lead AERS beginning in Spring 2020. Ben is an excellent estuarine scientist, has a great deal of experience leading non-profit groups, has been a long-time member of AERS, and wrote the AERS meet-ing manual. He will also serve as the AERS representa-tive at the CERF Board meetings. Welcome to the Pres-ident’s Corner, Ben! The new AERS Secretary is Erin Reilly (Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, UMCES, University of MD), who has done a great job as web-master during the transition to Wild Apricot. Gulnihal Ozbay (Delaware State University) was named the Venerable Clam. I appointed Frank Reilly (The Reilly Group) as Parliamentarian, Tom Wazniak (YSI/Xylem) as Member-at-Large to replace Ben, and Spen-cer Tassone (Virginia Commonwealth University) as webmaster to replace Erin. At this same meeting, AERS and The Coastal Society partnered to host the Margaret A. Davidson Career workshop on 4 April 2019. The field trip following the meeting on the Occoquan River was a success as well. Our heartfelt thanks go to the organizers led by our program chairs (Treda Grayson and Angela Padeletti) and Kim deMutsert, CJ Schick and Chris Jones at George Mason and PEREC.

I am looking forward to the Mobile, AL CERF 2019 meeting, where we will once again gather for the AERS business meeting (5:30 – 6:30 PM on Tuesday 5 November, room TBA in Mobile Convention Center). Please remember that on the opening night (3 Nov) of CERF 2019 there will be a Mardi-Gras party, in which we will enter the Mobile Convention Center in a “Second Line Procession” dressed as our favorite es-tuarine organisms (masks and costumes are required) and parade though the gathered attendees in route to the opening Presidents’ Reception. The name for the AERS

krewe is “The Mystick Krewe of Venerable Venus”. Think of ancient clams. We will carry the AERS banner, and our current Venerable Clam, Gulnihal Ozbay, will be front and center in cos-tume wearing the VC Valve. AERS will provide the “throws”, beads with the AERS clam logo, cups, and other throws for spectators. A parade route and details are on the CERF 2019 web-site.

The AERS Board was presented with a proposal from Monmouth University by Jason Adolf and Tom Herrington to hold the Spring 2020 AERS meeting in Wilson Hall on their campus (March 26 – 29, 2020). The

venue is the lob-by for posters and breaks and downstairs audi-torium for presentations in Wilson Hall. I visited the ven-ue today and the facilities and meeting rooms

are historic, ornate and more than adequate. There is the mansion’s original dining room for our banquet, poster space in the lobby of Wilson Hall, and the oral presenta-tions in the basement Theater that seats 125. Wilson Hall, formerly called Shadow Lawn when it was built by the head of the Wool-worth’s retail chain, is a Beaux-Arts Neoclassical style structure National Historic Landmark that once served as Woodrow Wilson’s summer home (if you watch the trailer for the 1982 movie “Annie”, it was Daddy Warbucks’ mansion, https://youtu.be/Tg7JWB2SR7E ). Monmouth University, in Long Branch, NJ, has a growing undergraduate degree (B.S.) program in Marine and Environmental Biology and Policy and the Urban Coast Institute, as well as access to nearby estuarine (Sandy Hook Bay, Navesink and Shrewsbury river estu-aries, Barnegat Bay) and coastal environments and ample space and services for meeting events that will make this meeting a success. The meeting committee has selected the theme “Estuarine Science in a Changing Climate”; they have lined up some potential keynote speakers, TBA) and workshops are planned on environmental DNA and coastal resilience. There are field trips planned: 1) walking tour of Sandy Hook and James J. Howard Marine Lab; 2) boat ride on the R/V Heidi Lynn Sculthorpe – Sandy Hook Bay / NY Harbor. While I was a MS student in the Ecology Program at Rutgers Univer-sity, I worked at the NOAA/NMFS Fisheries Lab at Sandy Hook, so I know the estuarine science done in this area well, and can help lead the trips, perhaps stopping for a visit to Matawan Creek, in my hometown, the site of the famous estuarine shark attack in July 1916. This campus is also right on the Jersey Shore in the heart of Springsteen Country. The AERS Board has approved this proposal and I will present the venue at the Fall AERS business meeting at CERF 2019 in Mobile. The Monmouth University meeting looks to be very exciting, and as Little Orphan Annie says in the movie, “I think I’ll like it here!” Get ready to present your estuarine and coastal science results and have a great time at the next two meetings of AERS, at CERF 2019 in Mobile, AL, and Spring 2020 in Monmouth University in Long Branch,

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AERS Instagram T A K E O V E R

C.J. Carroll Schlick and Sarah Bouboulis

Social Media Co-Chairs

Do you enjoy posting to social media? Feel like sharing your science, interest, hobbies, cool finds, etc to a larger audience? How about helping AERS stay better connected to our members and commu-nity? Then sign up to take over the AERS Insta-gram account for a week. Our goal is to have more engaging content on the AERS social media in or-der to garner year-round interest in AERS and to recognize the work that AERS members are doing every day! We want this to be a fun experience where you can post what you are passionate about. Post about your work, your students work, articles you find fascinating and want to share, or other are-as of interest that better introduce you to the AERS audience. If you are interested in signing up, please email the AERS social media team with the dates that you are available.

Rising Tides Supports Students Attending CERF

Treda Grayson, Rising Tides Program

CERF is excited to welcome the 2019 Cohort of the Rising TIDES (Towards an Inclusive, Diverse and Enriched Society) Conference Mentoring Pro-gram! This conference year a total of 40 applica-tions were received for this program designed to broaden participation of underrepresented minorities in coastal and estuarine sciences and CERF. Four-teen (14) students-mentor pairs were selected to par-ticipate in the 2019 program, which includes confer-ence registration and travel support, a welcome re-ception, Sunday morning and afternoon workshops, conference mentoring activities, and the CERF In-clusion Luncheon. Please stay tuned for the official announcement of the 2019 participants and also plan to attend broadening participation-related activities at the conference: the Sunday afternoon workshop on Identifying, Understanding, and Addressing Im-plicit Bias and the Inclusion Luncheon "What's in Your Gumbo: Ingredients for Putting Diversity, Eq-uity, and Inclusion into Practice".

Gulnihal Ozbay receives Venerable Clam Award

Gulni Ozbay was awarded the Venerable Clam at our 2019 spring meeting. Dr. Ozbay is a Professor and Extension Spe-cialist of Natural Resources in the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Dela-ware State University. Her re-search interests include habitat restoration, aquatic ecology and health, water resources, sustain-able marine aquaculture and fisheries. An ecosystem ap-proach has allowed her to under-stand how land use stressors like nutrient runoff af-fect population ecology and restoration of the blue crab and eastern oyster, ecologically and economi-cally important species in the Mid-Atlantic region. Dr. Ozbay has been a member of AERS since 2003 and always looks forward to attending meetings with her students, and communicating with peers and experts at meetings. She loves the people, venue, meeting content and what AERS stands for. “The people attending AERS Meetings are very ded-icated, friendly and supportive and also humble sci-entists, teachers, and advocates. Everyone is readily available to assist the students. Constructive criti-cisms of students’ research and travel award support provide great motivation for our students. “

Thank you to our Full Sponsors for the AERS Spring 2019 meeting !

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AERS Student Presentation Awards Fall 2019 Woodbridge, VA Meeting Four students received awards for their outstanding presentations. Two students tied for the outstanding un-dergraduate presentation: Brittany Appuza (Suny Cortland) and Evan Heit (UNCW). Graduate students Rikki Lucas (VCU) and Mingli Zhao (UMBC) were awarded outstanding poster and outstanding oral presentations, respectively. The AERSNews Co-Editor Julie Ambler asked awardees about their research, career goals and hobbies. The following profiles from award winners are “in their own words.”

Brittany Apuzza (SUNY Cortland) Outstanding Undergraduate Student

Presentation Award

Title: Identification of Sex-specific Candidate Gnes in the Potandric Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea virginica )

I am an undergradu-ate in the Biology Department at State University of New York College at Cortland (SUNY Cortland). I have always been interest-ed in molecular ge-netics, and loved to perform DNA ex-tractions and run PCRs during my genetics course. When I heard about Dr. Laura Eierman’s research on oysters, it seemed like the perfect fit. I would be performing RNA extractions and synthesizing cDNA. I would run PCRs and rt-qPCRs, and I would analyze all the data in excel. Not to mention, I would be helping to answer an ecological question re-garding oyster exposure to plastics in our oceans. Dr. Eierman became by mentor and research advisor. It has been a blast! Research challenges my brain to think outside the box. When something doesn’t work, you analyze all the possible reasons why, then you brainstorm possible solu-tions, and then you get to test them out! It’s like a big complicated puzzle, and it’s so satisfying and rewarding when things work out. Dr. E definitely challenged me to think critically and taught me a lot about troubleshooting. After I finish my degree, my ultimate plan is to attend medical school, and hopefully become a reproduc-tive endocrinologist. It is important to me to continue to do research, whether it’s clinical or not. After graduating with my B.S. this spring, I am taking a gap year or two. However, I am applying for research assistant jobs and am looking into becoming a medical scribe. People might be surprised to learn that I am a huge procrastinator. Even though I get my work done on time, I always leave it for the last minute. Dr. E can defi-nitely attest to that! I enjoy several hobbies. I play the ukulele. I have my own dog, a pit bull named Ace, who I adore taking care of. I enjoy reading science nonfiction, and have just finished reading “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” I highly recommend it!

Evan Heit (UNCW) Outstanding Undergraduate Student

Presentation Award

Title: A Comparative Resiliency Analysis of Zostera ma-rina Meadows within North Carolina and Virginia.

I graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, in the Marine Biol-ogy Department. I first got inter-ested in seagrass research after meeting with Dr. Jarvis. I had never even heard of seagrass before, but the more I read about it, the more interesting it became. Also, the fact that the Wilmington area is the southern-most limit for Zostera marina makes it a fascinating research environment! Additionally, seagrass is a super versatile species with tons of ecosys-tem services, which makes it fun to study because there are many different types of approaches to researching them! The fact that Zostera was responding to stressors within North Carolina differently than in Virginia made a comparative study really attractive.

I love being in the lab and doing all the nitty-gritty chemical analysis. It is the kind of work that you imagine a scientist doing, mixing chemicals in beakers, wearing a lab coat, and getting actual quantifiable results! I had never done any previous biochemistry research, so being able to work in a fume hood and use some of the machines like the UV Spectrophotometer, made me feel like I was on my way to becoming a real scientist! Also, the fieldwork was terrific. I was able to go to the Chesa-peake Bay and meet with Dr. Ken A. Moore, who men-tored Dr. Jarvis at VIMS. Seeing the scope of other seagrass research at VIMS was astonishing, but getting to meet an acclaimed seagrass aficionado was a humbling experience that I will never forget.

I just finished my degree this past semester, and I want to pursue graduate school to study coral reef ecolo-gy. However, I am taking a gap year to travel, work, and find the proper mentor to conduct research. I enjoy scuba diving when I can, and when I can’t I go to the beach. Additionally, I’m a big aquarist, so my fish tank and eve-rything inside takes up the rest of my time. Something that might surprise people about me is how frequently I make terrible jokes and puns. I love them and think they are genuinely hilarious, but I should probably keep my day job of doing research and let the comedians stick to the jokes.

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Rikki Lucas (VCU) Outstanding Graduate Student Post-

er Presentation Award

Title: Characterizing Water Quality and Hydrologic Pa-rameters of Urban Streams in Central Virginia

I received my Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sci-ence from the University of Mary Washington (Fredericksburg, VA), and my Master of Science in Biol-ogy from Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA). After undergrad I began to really dig into freshwater wa-ter quality issues. When I went to grad school I found The Guy for fluvial water quality at VCU and picked up his newest project. It turned out to be the perfect combi-nation of social, political, and natural topics for me and I dove head first into it. In this field, I love looking at the big picture and connecting the dots—how the geology affects the hydrol-ogy, which in turn affects the chemistry, in turn the biolo-gy, and all of the unexpected, cascading changes to the system from the landscape around it, and even the social and cultural aspects of it all. There is always another an-gle to consider and nothing is ever simple! And with streams, the system is usually small enough that you can really, literally, get your feet wet and see every nuance, every change, and every trend up close and personal. I graduated with my Master’s this past spring. I’m looking forward to expanding my skillset beyond academia. I’m interested in learning more of the policy side of stream restoration. As cliché as it sounds, I do enjoy volunteering, especially in river and stream clean-ups and anything to do with education/outreach. You can’t just experience the natural world during field experiments, and you’ll never change anything if you don’t talk to people! Otherwise, reading, gaming, and crafting. Professionally, I don’t often get to express my darker, creepier aesthetic. I love metal music, Halloween, gothic B-movies, etc., and try to always hide a skull or spikes or something grungy/funky in my attire. Even if I’m wearing roses and yellow bangles, my headphones are probably playing something a lot more aggressive

than you’d think!

Mingli Zhao (UMBC) Outstanding Graduate Student Oral

Presentation Award Title: How is the Genetic Variation of a Blue Crab Reo-

virus Affected by Geography and Host Life History?

I got my bachelor’s de-gree in 2014 from the School of Aquaculture at Ocean University of Chi-na, and my master’s de-gree from Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Science. I majored in Marine Biolo-gy with a concentration in fish immunology. I am a second year Ph.D. student of University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

I became interested in my research area after tak-ing courses in marine science and aquaculture. I realized we still know too little about the diseases of marine ani-mals in aquaculture and in the wild. Now I am studying a reovirus disease in the blue crab, which is related to high mortality in soft shell crab producing systems. Studying the different genotype(s) and phenotype(s) of this reovi-rus will help us better understand how pathogens and their hosts are connected across large swaths of ocean and how variability in life history integrates with and drives this connectivity. My favorite part of doing research is to explain interesting points to people. Most people know that the blue crab is a major fishery in the U.S., but they may have no idea about how populations are connected in the ocean. My research might help people gain a better un-derstanding of blue crab populations and hopefully im-prove safety of sea food. I really enjoy teaching. We have summer interns in our lab, and I usually work as a teaching assistant to help them get used to the lab. When I finish my Ph.D degree, I will probably find a position in a university or an institution to continue my research work and also fo-cus on educating the next generation. I feel teaching is a very meaningful and interesting thing for me. In my free time, I love traveling. I have travelled to many states since I came to the U.S. two years ago. I have been to Florida, New York, California, Utah, Arizo-na, Colorado, Texas and of course Virginia. My next des-tination is Niagara Falls. I am really enjoying exploring different natural views and different cultures. Travelling is also a good way to relax. Something that may surprise people is that the presentation I gave at the AERS meeting was my first presentation at a formal conference and I got the best graduate presentation award! It’s such a good experience for me and it really inspired me in my future research work.

Margaret A. Davidson Coastal Ca-reer Development Workshop

Sarah Marriot, Social Media Co-Chair

On Thursday April 4th, The Coastal Society (TCS) cohosted a “Margaret A. Davidson Coastal Career Development Program with AERS. The Coastal Society (TCS) is proud to honor Margaret’s legacy with a full-day workshop designed to provide valuable skills and information to the next generation of coastal practitioners, students and early- to mid-career coastal professionals. Co-hosted with AERS, over 20 participants heard keynotes and interactive presentations from seasoned professionals in NGOs, government, and private industry. TCS is hosting these workshops all over the country to encourage cross pollination of ideas and provide mentorship to future coastal scientists.

AERS Endowment Pro-vided Student Travel Awards for Spring19

Meeting

David Yozzo and C.J. Schlick, Endowment Co-Chairs

AERS provided travel support (up to $150.00 each) to 23 gradu-ate students to attend the Spring 2019 meeting at the Potomac Ed-ucation and Research Center, Woodbridge, VA. Four of the applicants received an additional $25.00 to defray registration costs for the Coastal Society Workshop on Thursday. Thanks to all the generous meeting sponsors for help in supporting student travel and congratulations to all of the student presenters for your hard work, and commitment to sharing your research with AERS.

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AERS Sp19 Student Travel Awardees: Sammie Alexaner GMU (M.S.), Amy Bartenfelder UNCW (M.S.), Nicole Basenback UMCES (M.S.), Sara Blicken-staff Univ. of Maryland Baltimore Co. (UG), Chris Bodner GMU (M.S.), Ryan Brett Albright College (UG), Julia Czarnecki GMU (M.S.), Sarah Davis CCU (UG), Jessica Flester UVA (M.S.), Evan Heit UNCW (UG), Drew Hobbs UMCES (M.S.), Peter, Jacobs GMU (Ph.D.), Elizabeth Lang GMU (Ph.D.), Arion Leahigh GMU (Ph.D.), Katherine Longmire VIMS (M.S.), Rikki Lucas VCU (M.S.), Sara Marriot GMU (Ph.D.), Jessie Melton GMU (M.S.), Kajsa Newton St. Mary’s College (UG), Casey Perhson GMU (M.S.), Dylan Powell St. Mary’s College (UG), Tyler Scott St. Mary’s College (UG), Mingli Zhao

Biographies of Honorary Members will be on AERS Website

Judith Stribling Honorary Members Chair

AERS has seen members come and go over the years, and many of these have stood out as ex-ceptional contributors to estuarine research or to AERS itself. Each meeting, the board considers nominations for Honorary Member, which confers lifetime membership. The AERS Constitution notes: "Honorary Members shall be recognized for out-standing work or interest in the field of estuarine research. Honorary Members shall not be required to pay dues. Honorary Members shall be extended the same rights and perquisites as Active Members." The AERS website has a list of all Honorary Members, and it will soon contain biographies and photos as well. The accomplishments and overall character of this group are truly inspiring. If you have someone you believe is worthy of this recognition, please contact a Board member and ask them to submit the name for nomination.

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Canoe trip on the Potomac River. Field Trip after Spring 2019 Meeting. Photos by Dave Yozzo.

AERS Governing Board

President Joe Luczkovich

President-Elect Ben Fertig

Treasurer Cassie Gurbitz

Treasurer-Elect Vacant

Secretary Erin Reilly

Membership Shelly Katsuki

Student Affairs LeeAnn Haaf* & Johnny Quispe

Student Awards Dave Yozzo

Member-at-large Tom Wazniak

Member-at-large Kim De Mutsert

Member-at-large Roberto Llanso

Program Committee Treda Grayson* & Angela Padeletti

Communications CJ Schlick*, Julie Ambler & Elizabeth Lacey

*designated voting chair

Non-voting AERS Executive Members Nominations Danielle Kreeger

Students & Endowments CJ Schlick & Dave Yozzo

Webmasters Spenser Tassone & LeeAnn Haaf

Historian Danielle Kreeger

Parliamentarian Frank Reilly