{"id":59800,"date":"2015-02-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/new-uri-oceanography-professor-works-at-intersection-of-physics-biology\/"},"modified":"2015-02-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-02-12T00:00:00","slug":"new-uri-oceanography-professor-works-at-intersection-of-physics-biology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/02\/new-uri-oceanography-professor-works-at-intersection-of-physics-biology\/","title":{"rendered":"New 溏心vlog免费B站 oceanography professor works at intersection of physics, biology"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tNARRAGANSETT, R.I. \u2013 February 12, 2015 \u2013 As an undergraduate studying physics at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Melissa Omand wrote software that simulated X-ray emissions from Mars rocks that was later used as part of one of NASA\u2019s Mars Lander missions. It was a turning point for the newest faculty member at the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Graduate School of Oceanography.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s when I realized that I wanted to combine physics and earth science,\u201d said Omand, a native of Toronto who now lives in Falmouth, Mass., and began work at 溏心vlog免费B站 in January. \u201cMy physics training up to that point hadn\u2019t been applied. I realized that I wanted to apply it to improve our understanding of Earth systems.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tIt led her to pursue a doctorate in physical oceanography and become involved in interdisciplinary projects combining ocean physics and biological oceanography. Motivated by the effects of harmful algal blooms and red tides on fisheries and swimmers, she conducted a series of experiments that examined how currents, tides and other physical forces in nearshore waters affect the movement and distribution of phytoplankton.<\/p>\n


\n\tShe continued that work as a postdoctoral researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where she studied a large plankton bloom that appears every year south of Iceland. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cVertical circulation induced by eddies brings whatever is at the surface down to depth,\u201d Omand explained. \u201cPhytoplankton grow at the surface, so any process that moves water vertically also brings phytoplankton carbon down with it.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPhoto submitted by Melissa Omand. <\/p>\n


\nWhen she heard about the opportunity to work at the Graduate School of Oceanography, she jumped at the chance. She was attracted by the collaborative nature of the faculty, access to the University\u2019s research vessel Endeavor, and the enthusiastic students. She looks forward to teaching interdisciplinary topics that give students training and a depth of understanding at the intersection of disciplines.<\/p>\n


\n\tAs for her research, she plans to examine in greater detail the physical processes that alter the export of particulates and dissolved organic material from the sea surface to the deep ocean. \u201cThere are a lot of exciting tools for doing that,\u201d she said, \u201cfrom submersible microscopes to underwater gliders that can provide a high-resolution context for processes that are happening across global basin scales. The physical dynamics that are controlling these processes may happen on very small scales, so it\u2019s important to make observations that can resolve these.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tAlthough her research may seem inconsequential to some, it is vital to understanding the changing climate. Omand notes that some of the vast quantity of anthropogenic carbon in the environment could be stored away for thousands of years if only it sunk or was transported by water circulation to at least 600 meters below the ocean\u2019s surface. Her studies of marine snow \u2013 phytoplankton and decaying organic matter raining down in the ocean \u2013 could help determine whether that carbon makes it deep enough.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe size of marine snow particles has a lot to do with their sinking rate, and the processes that lead to the aggregating or break-up of those particles is not well understood,\u201d Omand said. \u201cWhile they are going down, they are consumed by other organisms. The competition between consumption, sinking and physical transport determines if it will reach that sequestration depth and won\u2019t come back to the atmosphere.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWhen we\u2019re talking about carbon that we\u2019ve added to the atmosphere in the last 100 years, removing it for the next thousand years would be an important step,\u201d she added.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. \u2013 February 12, 2015 \u2013 As an undergraduate studying physics at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Melissa Omand wrote software that simulated X-ray emissions from Mars rocks that was later used as part of one of NASA\u2019s Mars Lander missions. It was a turning point for the newest faculty member at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59802,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}