Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education

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The Center for Microbial Oceanography (C-MORE) is a research and education organization established in 2006 as a National Science Foundation funded Science and Technology Center. [1]

Contents

Objectives

It has been said that more is known about the surface of the Moon than about the Earth’s oceans. [2] C-MORE was designed to explore the largely unknown world of microorganisms in the sea and to educate the public and other scientists about these organisms. The motto of the center is “From genomes to biomes” meaning that the researchers want to look at how the diversity of microbes in the ocean influences the structure and function of the world’s largest biome, the ocean. [3]

Background

The center was initially proposed, and is now directed by Professor David Karl, of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. C-MORE has affiliated researchers working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Oregon State University, the University of California, Santa Cruz, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. C-MORE is the only one of NSF’s 17 Science and Technology Centers that focuses on microbial oceanography. [4]

Research

C-MORE scientists want to understand biological processes that begin at microscopic scales and are expressed in vitally significant issues such as climate change. Areas of research range from genomic surveys, to studies of the genetic basis of marine microbial biogeochemistry to building ecosystem models. [5] One of the strengths of the Center is its seagoing capability, as well as the long term studies that have been conducted by the Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) Program in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. In addition to extensive laboratory experimentation, C-MORE also stages cruises to examine marine microbes in their environment. One example was the SUPER HI-CAT cruise, which was the first effort to study the microbiology associated with the plastic particles in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Education

C-MORE is active in increasing scientific literacy about microbial oceanography among the general population, as well as training microbial oceanographers. C-MORE has undergraduate internships [6] as well as a summer graduate training course (the Agouron Course). C-MORE also provides resources for K-12 educators, such as training workshops, science kits, and a teacher at sea program. [7]

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The University of Hawaiʻi System, formally the University of Hawaiʻi and popularly known as UH, is a public college and university system that confers associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees through three universities, seven community colleges, an employment training center, three university centers, four education centers and various other research facilities distributed across six islands throughout the state of Hawaii in the United States. All schools of the University of Hawaiʻi system are accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The UH system's main administrative offices are located on the property of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in Honolulu CDP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa</span> Public university in Honolulu, Hawaii, US

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is a public land-grant research university in Mānoa, a neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii. It is the flagship campus of the University of Hawaiʻi system and houses the main offices of the system. Most of the campus occupies the eastern half of the mouth of Mānoa Valley, with the John A. Burns School of Medicine located adjacent to the Kakaʻako Waterfront Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo</span> Public university in Hilo, Hawaii, US

The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo is a public university in Hilo, Hawaiʻi. It is one of ten general campuses of the University of Hawaiʻi System. It was founded as Hilo Center at Lyman Hall of the Hilo Boys School in 1945 and was a branch campus of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. In 1970 it was reorganized by an act of the Hawaiʻi State Legislature and became a campus within the newly created University of Hawaiʻi System.

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C-MORE: SUPER HI-CAT

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anita L. Lopez</span> NOAA official

Anita L. Lopez is a former officer of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps. She last served as the deputy director of the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps and deputy director for Operations of NOAA's Office of Marine and Aviation Operations. She previously served as the commanding officer of NOAA's Marine Operations Center–Atlantic in Norfolk, Virginia from June 2012 to January 2014. Lopez retired form the NOAA Corps on March 1, 2018. Since 2018, she has been serving as the Director of Research Vessel Operations at the University of Hawaii and the Interim Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST).

Katrina Jane Edwards was a pioneering geomicrobiologist known for her studies of organisms living below the ocean floor, specifically exploring the interactions between the microbes and their geological surroundings, and how global processes were influenced by these interactions. She spearheaded the Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigation (C-DEBI) project at the University of Southern California, which is ongoing. Edwards also helped organize the deep biosphere research community by heading the Fe-Oxidizing Microbial Observatory Project on Loihi Seamount, and serving on several program steering committees involving ocean drilling. Edwards taught at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and later became a professor at the University of Southern California.[1][2]

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Rosanna "Rosie" ʻAnolani Alegado is a Kanaka ʻōiwi/Native Hawaiian Associate Professor of Oceanography at the Daniel K. Inouye Center for Microbial Oceanography as well as director of the Hawai‘i Sea Grant’s Ulana 'Ike Center of Excellence at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Alegado studies the evolution of host–microbe interactions and the microbial ecology of coastal estuarine systems.

David Michael Karl is an American microbial biologist and oceanographer. He is the Victor and Peggy Brandstrom Pavel Professor of Microbial Oceanography at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and the Director of the University Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education.

Angelicque E. White is an American oceanographer. She is an associate professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology and director of the Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) program.

Elizabeth Kujawinski is an American oceanographer who is Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where she works as Program Director of the Center for Chemical Currencies of a Microbial Planet. Her research considers analytical chemistry, chemical oceanography, microbiology and microbial ecology. She is interested in what controls the composition of organic materials in aquatic systems.

Margo Helen Edwards is a marine geologist known for mapping of the seafloor and hydrothermal vents. She led the 1999 SCICEX and was the first women to live aboard a United States' Navy submarine while doing under-ice research.

Richard W. Murray, a geologist and oceanographer, is the Deputy Director and Vice President for Research at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Murray was previously a professor of earth and environment at Boston University (1992-2019), where he served as Chair of the Department of Earth Sciences (2000-2005), and Director of Boston University's Marine Program (2006-2009).

References

  1. ↑ NSF: Science and Technology Centers Program
  2. ↑ Kettlewell, Julianna."Ocean census discovers new fish", BBC, October 23, 2003
  3. ↑ Stephens, Tim."UCSC collaborates in interdisciplinary center to study marine microbes", UC Santa Cruz Currents online, August 14, 2006
  4. ↑ "NSF: Science and Technology Centers Program". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  5. ↑ AP."Hawaii gets $19 million for oceanography center", Boston.com, August 3, 2006
  6. ↑ http://cmore.soest.hawaii.edu/education/undergraduates/scholars_program.htm C-MORE: Undergraduate Internships
  7. ↑ "MBARI scientist leads cruise to study how changing ocean conditions affect marine algae" Archived June 30, 2009, at the Wayback Machine , MBARI News Briefs 2008, July 31, 2008
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