AWARDS AND HONORS
Dr. Carlos Zarikian (IODP) has a new ostracod species named in his honor, the Rugocythereis zarikiani. "Ostracods are tiny crustaceans that live in all aquatic environments and many species have particular environmental preferences," Zarikian explains. "Ostracods secrete a calcareous bivalve carapace that easily fossilizes after the animal dies. Because of the ostracod environmental preferences, the fossilized valves or carapaces can be used to reconstruct past oceanographic conditions."
The authors of an article in Palaeontology cited Zarikian's contributions to deep-sea ostracod studies as the reason for naming the species in his honor: Moriaki Yasuhara, Gene Hunt, Hisayo Okahashi and Simone N. Brandao. 2013. "The Oxycythereis Problem: Taxonomy and Palaeobiogeography of Deep-Sea Ostracod General Pennyella and Rugocythereis." Palaeontology, Vol. 56, Part 5, 2013, pp. 1045-1080, doi: 10.1111/pala.12035
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The Rugocythereis zarikiani, a new ostracod species, was named after IODP scientist Carlos Zarikian.
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Tony Reisinger (TXSG), Cameron County coastal and marine resources agent, received the 2013 Texas Master Naturalist Chapter Advisor Award. Reisinger is advisor to the Rio Grande Valley Chapter. He was honored at the annual Texas Master Naturalist annual conference, held Oct. 25-27, in New Braunfels.
The Texas Master Naturalist program is a partnership between Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas Sea Grant and some 300 local partners. The program currently has trained 6,000 Texas Master Naturalist volunteers in 42 local chapters across the state.
Dr. Mona Behl (TXSG) successfully graduated from the National Sea Grant Extension Academy held in Duluth, Minn., Oct. 7-12. In addition to leading Texas Sea Grant's research program, Behl accepted a new role as Texas Sea Grant's Climate Change Specialist.
The Texas Coastal Watershed Program's WaterSmart Demonstration Rain Garden at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, led by Chris LaChance, received a Keep Houston Beautiful Mayor's Proud Partner Award on Oct. 28. At the same ceremony, Marissa Sipocz, Wetland Program Manager for the TCWP, received a Keep Houston Beautiful Mayor's Proud Partner Award Honorable Mention for her wetland restoration work with students at Sheldon Lake State Park. The TCWP is part of Texas Sea Grant and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.
EXPEDITIONS AND FIELD WORK 
The Oceanography and GERG Glider #307 is gliding in the Gulf of Mexico and reporting data every three hours or so, reports Dr. Steve DiMarco (OCNG). The glider was deployed on the R/V Ferrel (sailing from Freeport, Texas) during a GERG GoWind/TABS Servicing cruise. The glider went into the water Oct. 2 at 27.127W, 95.7312N.
You can follow the trajectories and see the vertical sections ("Profile Plot" link on the left hand side of page under project description) on the GCOOS site.
GERG Glider Pilot is Karen Dreger (GERG) with assistance from Dr. Ruth Mullins-Perry. The GERG onshore glider team includes Dr. Joe Kuehl, Andrew Dancer, and Eddie Webb. On shore operations are being supervised by John Walpert.
Diligently working to serve the data in real time on the GCOOS website are the data team members Dr. Matt Howard and Dr. Shinichi Kobara.
The mission is scheduled for soon. "We expect to recover the glider near TABS Buoy F, weather permitting," DiMarco said.
Armchair oceanographers can use the link to Dr. Rob Hetland's numerical model output of the northern Gulf of Mexico (funded by the Texas General Land Office) to see the wind-driven circulation.
The glider pilots are using these and other resources for planning and operations.
Special thanks to Drs. Lisa Campbell, Piers Chapman, Rob Hetland, Matt Howard, and Ann Jochens (OCNG) for special assistance with this deployment.
Visit the GCOOS and TABS sites regularly for updates.
CONFERENCES AND PRESENTATIONS
Dr. Pamela Plotkin represented Texas Sea Grant at the Sea Grant Association meeting in Mobile, Ala., Oct. 21-23.
Dr. Piers Chapman (OCNG) attended the annual meeting of SACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) Oct. 4-5, in San Antonio to help recruit students for Oceanography.
Texas Sea Grant co-sponsored the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association National Coastal Conference, with the theme "Responding to the Waves of Change," Oct. 22-25 on South Padre Island. As part of the conference, Heather Wade (TXSG) presented a "weTable and CHARM 101" workshop that explored new tools for participatory GIS and tabletop planning. Wade presented a similar workshop in partnership with the University of Texas-Pan American, also on South Padre Island, Oct. 23.
Dr. Frederick M. Chester (GEPL) is a 2013-2014 Ocean Leadership Distinguished Lecturer. He will be speaking about the findings of the IODP Expedition 343/343T to the Japan Trench, for which he served as Co-Chief Scientist. For the first of five trips to 10 institutions, he presented the talk Sampling the Source of the 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami at San Francisco State University (Oct. 8), Stanford University (Oct. 9) and UC Berkeley (Oct. 10).
Dr. Frederick M. Chester (GEPL) gave a plenary talk, Insights into subduction thrust structure and mechanics from drilling the rupture zone of the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake, at the Annual Meeting of the Southern California Earthquake Center held in Palm Springs, Calif., Sept. 8-11. The Meeting was attended by more than 500 scientists and engineers, including Drs. Judith S. Chester and Ben Duan (GEPL).
Dr. Tony Knap (GERG) presented "Climate Change and Shipping: What do Shipowners need to Know," at the Singapore Shipowners Association 2013 shipping conference, Sept. 26 in Singapore.
Dr. Mona Behl (TXSG), presented a talk, "Scientific Peer Review," at Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers, Fla., Oct. 17.
Dr. Mona Behl (TXSG) presented "Science at Work for Texans: The Texas Sea Grant College Program," at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Oct. 24.
Dr. Matt Schmidt (OCNG) presented a webinar for Gaia Geothermal. Geothermal engineers and people in the industry from around the country and in Canada were invited to attend.
Dr. Chris Houser (GEOG) was an invited speaker at a NSF Workshop on Landscape Response to Climate Change, Oct. 24-28, hosted by the University of Arizone at Biosphere 2. He was also an invited speaker at the Binghampton Geomorphology Conference on Coastal Impacts in Newark, N.J., Oct. 11-20.
GRANTS
Dr. Judith Chester (GEPL) received a grant from the National Science Foundation (EarthScope) to manage the physical samples taken from the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD). This three-year project, "SAFOD Management Office for Physical Samples," is funded for $443,691. As part of this project, Dr. Chester will oversee the curation, distribution, and long-term storage of physical samples recovered from the SAFOD to provide uninterrupted access to the samples by the scientific community, and manage the office to facilitate long-term use of SAFOD samples for independent PI-driven Earth science research. As part of the new management office activities, the PI will work with an independent web programmer to update, manage, and maintain the Core Viewer, the primary tool for recording, reviewing, and executing physical sample distribution, and with the GCR SAFOD staff to foster education and outreach activities, and with the scientific community to promote the integration of SAFOD results with those of the broader scientific community studying earthquake fault mechanics.
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STUDENTS
Students in Geography 309-900 (Energy) went on a field trip to Sweetwater, Texas, to collect data for one of their required writing assignments Oct.10-12. Nolan County has approximately 2,000 MW of wind power capacity (Texas leads the U.S. with 12,000 MW of installed capacity). Their host was Sweetwater Enterprise for Economic Development.
Students visited Texas State Technical College to discuss training of wind technicians with Keith Plantier, then met with Russ Petty, a landowner and business owner who has contracts with wind firms, and Logan West of Cape & Son, a logistics firm that will partner with BNSF in a large investment to create a transload facility in Sweetwater that may support oil and gas production in the Cline Shale.
Students also visited Infigen Energy's Sweetwater wind farms. The trip was led by Dr. Christian Brannstrom, instructor of Geography 309, assisted by Drs. Michael Ewers and Erik Prout. This was the third field trip that Brannstrom has led to Nolan County for Geog 309.
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Students in Geography 309-900 learned about wind energy in Sweetwater.
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Miles S. Sasser, Jr., a master's degree student in geology, received a $2,000 scholarship from the Sipes Houston Chapter. The Sipes Foundation administers the scientific, educational charitable programs of the Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists. Ten geosciences students were chosen nationwide.
Oceanography graduate student, Jennifer Hertzberg, published a paper with her professor, Dr. Matthew Schmidt: Jennifer E. Hertzberg and Matthew W. Schmidt (2013). Refining Globigerinoides ruber Mg/Ca paleothermometry in the Atlantic Ocean. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 383, 123-133.
SERVICE
Dr. Kate Miller, dean, has been elected as an executive committee at-large member of the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors for the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE). The NCSE is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the scientific basis of environmental decision-making. It seeks to be bridge that spans the divide between science, its applications, and policy.
Dr. Eric Riggs (Dean's Office/GEPL) has been selected to serve a three-year term on the Editorial Advisory Board with oversight in the area of education for EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union.
Drs. Terry Wade (GERG), and Rob Hetland, Piers Chapman, and Ping Chang (OCNG) were in China, Oct. 26-Nov. 1 to lead an oil spill workshop and interview potential recruits from Ocean University.
Drs. Terry Wade (GERG), and Rob Hetland, Piers Chapman, and Ping Chang (OCNG) were in China, Oct. 26-Nov. 1 to lead an oil spill workshop and interview potential recruits from Ocean University.
Rhonda Patterson (TXSG) brought aquatic animals to participate in the St. Francis Festival and Blessing of the Animals Oct. 5 at St. Francis Episcopal Church. She also provided hands-on experiences with the animals and distributed Texas Sea Grant materials to attendees.
Rhonda Patterson (TXSG) made a presentation to the Texas A&M Zoological Society about Aglantis and Texas Sea Grant, and provided a hands-on aquatic animal talk for a local Girl Scout Troop. She also presented the WaterSmart Demonstration Garden Design to the Texas A&M Design Review sub-council. The garden will be installed around the perimeter of the TAES Annex, where the Texas Sea Grant offices are located.
Texas Sea Grant began its Texas Coastal Citizen Planner Program, a non-credit training program for locally elected or appointed officials who work for state, regional, county or local governments or agencies, leading to a "Citizen Planner" certificate of completion. Graduates of the program will become part of a collaborative and ongoing network of local officials for planning and development issues in Texas. Class topics include planning and community-building, the legal foundations of land-use planning, local officials' roles and responsibilities, placemaking and economic development, green infrastructure and economic impacts, coastal hazards and planning for resilient communities, plan implementation and development review, and public participation.
Dr. Chris Houser (GEOG) was invited by the National University of Costa Rica and the National Commission of Emergencies to investigate the rip-current hazard on both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts using a similar approach to the Texas Sea Grant-funded study on rip currents currently being completed by Drs. Christian Brannstrom and Houser. The project took place Sept. 30-Oct. 6. PUBLICATIONS Geography
Dr. Burak Guneralp (GEOG) contributed to the first global assessment of urbanization, biodiversity, and ecosystem services as an editor and author. The assessment, commissioned by the UN Convention of Biological Diversity and Stockholm Resilience Centre, was launched at the United Nations Oct. 7, 2013, World Habitat Day.
The assessment is published as a book and is available as open-access.
Güneralp B, KC Seto and M Ramachandran 2013. Evidence of urban land teleconnections and impacts on hinterlands. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 5: 445-451.
Güneralp B, İ Güneralp, C Castillo, and A Filippi. 2013. Land change in the Mission-Aransas coastal region, Texas: implications for coastal vulnerability and protected areas. Sustainability 5 (10): 4247-4267.
GERG
Drs. Tony Knap and Norman Guinasso (GERG) have a news article on the history and mission of the Texas Automated Buoy System (TABS) in the October 2013 issue of the POGO newsletter (Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans).
Geology and Geophysics
Recent Publications by Dr. Frederick M. Chester (GEPL) associated with JFAST, the IODP Expedition 343/343T to the Japan Trench include the following: Yang, T., T. Mishima, K. Ujiie, F. M. Chester, J. J. Mori, N. Eguch, S. Toczko, and Expedition 343 Scientists (2013), Strain decoupling across the décollement in the region of large slip during the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake from anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility, Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
Rowe, C. D., J. C. Moore, F. Remitti, and
F. M. Chester and other IODP Expedition 343/343T Scientists (2013), The thickness of subduction plate boundary faults from the sea floor into the seismogenic zone, Geology, 41, 991-994, doi: 10.1130/G34556.1
Chester, F.M., J. Mori, N. Eguchi, S. Toczko, and the Expedition 343/343T Scientists (2013), Proceedings of IODP expedition 343/343T, Tokyo (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Management International, Inc.), doi:10.2204/iodp.proc.343343T.2013
Lin, W., M. Conin, J. C. Moore, F. M. Chester, Y. Nakamura, et al. (2013), Stress state in the largest displacement area of the 2011 Tohoku- Oki Earthquake, Science, 339, 687-690, doi:10.1126/science.1229379
Texas Sea Grant Texas Sea Grant published a pictorial identification guide to the marine animals in Aglantis, the 300-gallon saltwater aquarium Texas Sea Grant has installed in the Memorial Student Center. Nine sea creatures are featured on the card, which includes short descriptions about each species.
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