MES Thesis and Internship Defense announcements for Spring 2012 are listed here.

January 13
Friday

Fort Johnson Marine Science Seminar
Title:                 Utility of Early Life History to Management of the Bering Sea Walleye Pollock
Speaker:           Tracey Smart, SCDNR
Time:                Friday, January 13, 2012, 4 PM
Place:               Auditorium, MRRI/SCDNR at Fort Johnson

Walleye Pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) comprise the vast majority of commercial fishery catches in the Bering Sea. Early life history studies (from spawning through the first winter) have provided indices for assessments and helped guide predictions and management strategies through identification of spawning activity and effort, population connectivity from larval distributions, and year class strength estimates from larval and juvenile surveys.

Regarding the eastern Bering Sea stock, several key assumptions employed by management have come under question following recent studies of environmental variability and regime shifts. Specific to early life history, questionable assumptions include the relationships between egg abundance and female spawning biomass, larval and juvenile indices and year class strength, and oceanography and habitat use by critical early life stages.

Dr. Smart will provide an overview of how recent work has attempted to reconcile these assumptions with environmental change and long-term ecosystem monitoring.

See http://grice.cofc.edu/fjseminars.htm for complete seminar schedule.

January 13
Friday

This is an opportunity to get to know the staff of the Graduate School Office, and other students in our graduate programs. Don't forget to return a signed copy of the New Student Information Packet to the Graduate School Office!

MESSA Welcome Back Party - Saturday 1/14

The MES Student Assocation invites you to attend the MESSA Welcome Back Party!

It will be held Saturday, January 14th at 7:30 p.m.

Southend Brewery - 3rd floor
61 East Bay Street
Charleston , SC 29401

http://southendbrewery.com/

Light appetizers will be provided.

Per the students, this is usually a more formal event, and they plan to dress to impress!

Thirty-seven students from across the Graduate School were selected to participate in the Sixth Annual Graduate Research Poster Session, including eighteen MES student presenters.

Congratulations to Michael Griffin (advisor: Timothy Callahan) and Keith Hanson (advisor: Eric McElroy), chosen as two of the top poster presenters!

More information about the Poster Session is on the Graduate School website at:

http://blogs.cofc.edu/gradschool/2012/01/30/sixth-annual-poster-session-declared-a-success/

MES Student			Poster Title
Lowell Atkinson			Socioeconomic and Ecosystem Benefits Derived from Coastal Restoration Projects in Southern Louisiana
Lauren Brown			Impacts of Environmental Disaster on Social Conflict
Elise Clopton			Everything Going Against Them: The Difficulties in Monitoring and Protecting the Interior Least Tern (Federally Endagered) on Private Registry Lands
Megs Eichorn			How do People Perceive Scientific Information? A Study of the Communication of Science Using the Local Food Movement in the Lowcountry
Justin Greenman			A Characterization of Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Interactions with the Commercial Shrimp Trawl Fishery of South Carolina
Michael Griffin			What Goes Down Must Come Up: The Role of Groundwater in Lowcountry Flooding
Keith Hanson			Anthropogenic Impacts on Herpetofaunal Diversity and Community Structure on Kiawah Island, SC
Brooke James			How Will Tidal Freshwater Forested Wetlands Respond to Sea Level Rise?
Jarrod Loerzel			Social Valuation of Ecosystem Services in the ACE Basin, South Carolina
Matt McCalley			Biogeographical Assessment of the Ecological Vulnerability of South Carolina Marsh Hammocks to Sea Level Rise
Dylan Murphy			Development of a New Technology for the Advancement of a Citizen Science Project: Clean Marine Smartphone App
Sarah Rollins			Residential Stormwater Pond Maintenance and Outreach in the Lowcountry
Jennifer Saunders			Growing Connections: Understanding the Role of Higher Education in the Urban Agriculture Movement
Liz Symon			The Transect Program: The Role of Undergraduates Utilizing At-Sea Data for Quality Oceanographic Research
Andrew Wynne, Laura Mudge, Melissa Strickland, Adam Brunelle			The Peace Corps Master's International Program (PCMI) at the College of Charleston

Fort Johnson Marine Science Seminar

Title:                 Applying Electrochemistry to Microbial Degradation and Synthesis
Speaker:           Hal May, MUSC
Time:                Friday, January 20, 2012, 4 PM
Place:               Auditorium, MRRI/SCDNR at Fort Johnson

Microorganisms have been transforming compounds for eons and humans have been leveraging those reactions, for good and evil, for millennia.  Today, more than ever, we need to understand how microbes cycle natural and anthropogenic compounds in the environment and how we may use or avoid those reactions for our benefit. 

My career has been dedicated to the microbial production of fuels and the biodegradation of pollutants.  These areas of research may appear to be disparate, but from a microbial standpoint they are not.  It all has to do with which way the electrons go, or microbial electrochemistry, our latest research endeavor. 

I will present a synopsis of what we have done on bioremediation and bioenergy and where we intend to go.  This path includes investigations on the physiology, diversity, electrochemistry, and now metagenomics of environmental microbes including those from marine and coastal environs.

See http://grice.cofc.edu/fjseminars.htm for complete seminar schedule.

Natalie Rosenfelder
University of Hohneheim , Germany
Tuesday January 24th
11:00 am
HML Auditorium ( Fort Johnson)

“Novel Gas chromatography - Mass Spectrometry Approaches for the Determination of Environmental Polyhalogenated Compounds”

Polyhalogenated organic compounds are distributed throughout the environment. This generic term includes different classes of anthropogenic compounds and a range of naturally produced polyhalogenated compounds. Due to their lipophilicity, their tendency to bioaccumulate and their persistency, polyhalogenated compounds were recognized as serious environmental contaminants. The occurrence of known polyhalogenated compounds in the environment is well-documented but understanding their global distribution and environmental fate is still incomplete and seldom analyzed or unknown compounds are often underrated or even not detected.

For this reason, different gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry (GC/MS) approaches were developed for a more comprehensive analysis of polyhalogenated compounds in environmental samples. This included the application of nitrogen as reagent gas for GC/electron capture negative ion (ECNI)-MS, the development of a GC/electron ionization (EI)-MS-selected ion monitoring (SIM) screening method with usual quadrupole systems and the application of GC-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) for the determination of polyhalogenated compounds and their fate in the environment.

The Office of Sustainability Presents:
Occupy Earth:  Lessons from the Occupy Movement for Individual Environmentalism
Wednesday, January 25th at 12pm in Stern Ballroom

This third Green Bag Lunch Series, Occupy Earth: Lessons from the Occupy Movement for Individual Environmentalism, will look at the issues surrounding individualism and individual action in environmentalism and the sustainability movement. 

Do individual actions make a difference?  Is a collectivist mindset necessary for structural, global change?  How do we make a substantive impact?  These and other questions that affect all social movements are being tested on the ground right now by the various Occupy groups around the world.  What can we learn from their experiences and how can we apply them to other social movements, like environmentalism and sustainability?

On the panel will be:
 Dr. George Hopkins, Emeritus Professor of History
 Dr. Timothy Callahan, Director of the Masters in Environmental Sciences Program
 Dr. P. Brian Fisher, Director of the Office of Sustainability  
 Nick Rubin, Occupy Charleston Representative

This informal panel will give a brief presentation to be followed by a discussion and Q&A period.
All faculty, staff, students and Charleston community members are welcome!  Invite your friends!
Drinks and snacks will be provided, but bringing a bagged lunch is strongly encouraged.

RSVP Here: http://www.facebook.com/events/207650702644882/

Join the Graduate Urban Studies Club for a showing of
The Unforeseen: A Film about Sprawl, Greed, and Profits over Preservation

Wednesday, January 25th
6:00 pm
Communications Building – 2nd Floor ( 9 College Way, next to Randolph Hall)

Free pizza and drinks – Everyone welcome!
http://blogs.cofc.edu/gradschool/2012/01/23/the-unforeseen/

Fort Johnson Marine Science Seminar
Title:                 South Carolina Climate Report Card:  Understanding South Carolina Climate Trends and Variability
Speaker:           Hope Mizzell, South Carolina State Climatology Office, SCDNR
Time:                Friday, January 27, 2012, 4 PM
Place:               Auditorium, MRRI/SCDNR at Fort Johnson

This seminar will provide an overview of South Carolina’s climatic trends and variability over the last century.  It is important that we better understand South Carolina’s climate in order to monitor the significance of the State’s climate signal and identify measurable trends.  The presentation will provide an overview of how several climatic variables have behaved since the early 1990s.  This will include the variability of the system on annual, seasonal and decadal scales and the use of threshold approaches to assess SC climate patterns.

See http://grice.cofc.edu/fjseminars.htm for complete seminar schedule.

On January 31st, Charlie Sneed, of Charleston, a presenter for The Climate Reality Project, will be facilitating a special program, Climate Reality, in the auditorium of the new Science and Mathematics Building at the College of Charleston from 7-9 pm*. The Climate Reality Project – founded by former Vice President Al Gore - is a global consortium of over 3,000 dedicated volunteers committed to preserving the climate balance upon which humanity depends. The Project aims to engage the public in conversation about the multiple sources and problems of climate change and foster collective participation through which substantive solutions to these problems can be realized and pursued. The presentation itself - Climate Reality - should include discussion of salient environmental topics such as but not limited to: clean energy as a necessary alternative to fossil fuels, the severity of recent natural disasters and their connection to altered global climatic conditions, and sustainable development.

The Geology Club and MESSA group (Master of Environmental Studies Student Association) – two College of Charleston student associations – will host the event as well as provide a reception with food and drinks after Mr. Sneed’s talk, and several local environmental groups will be present to discuss their resources and role in the Charleston community. This event is open to all College of Charleston students, faculty, and staff as well as the general public.

*The event will consist of the presentation from 7-8pm and the reception from 8-9 pm. The physical address of the new Science and Mathematics Building is 202 Calhoun Street and sits at the corner of Calhoun and Coming.

Fort Johnson Marine Science Seminar
Title:                 What Makes A Good Egg? – Ovarian Gene Expression Profiling Via Artificial Intelligence Predicts Egg Quality In Striped Bass
Speaker:           Craig Sullivan, North Carolina State University
Time:                Friday, February 3, 2012, 4 PM
Place:               Auditorium, MRRI/SCDNR at Fort Johnson

Ovary biopsies taken from striped bass before the breeding season were subjected to microarray analysis.  The relationship of ovarian gene expression (transcriptome) profiles to the quality of eggs spawned was assessed using artificial neural networks (ANNs) and supervised machine learning.  Production of well-formed, mid-blastula stage embryos was the primary measure of egg quality.  Collective minor (usually < 0.2-fold) changes in the expression of a limited suite of genes (N=232) representing < 2% of the transcriptome queried explained > 90% of the variance in egg quality, whereas expression of individual gene transcripts explained very little (< 1%).  When ovarian transcript profiles from new fish were input to the ANN models, they predicted egg quality with nearly 80% accuracy. 

Analyses of the inherent correlation of transcripts performed by modulated modularity clustering, followed by the construction of gene relevance networks, indicated that collective dysfunction of the ubiquitin-26S proteasome, COP9 signalosome, and subsequent control of the cell cycle may be the primary cause of embryo developmental incompetence in striped bass.  To our knowledge, the combined differences in the expression of discrete clusters of genes involved in these and related processes exhibited the most powerful molecular relationship to egg quality and, hence, reproductive fitness that has ever been described.  Our findings emphasize the need to evaluate collective subtle changes in gene expression when exploring the genetic underpinnings of biologically-complex traits, a task to which the application of artificial intelligence appears to be especially well suited.  Implications of these findings for aquaculture and fisheries management will be discussed.

If you are planning to graduate this May, you MUST apply for Spring 2012 graduation (even if you do not plan to attend the ceremony) by

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10th

If you miss the February 10th deadline, you will have to apply in person in the Graduate School Office and pay a $25 late fee, for a total of $50.

You can also find complete graduation information from the Graduate School Office online, including what you will need to do if you plan to take part in the Commencement Ceremony on Friday, May 11th:

http://gradschool.cofc.edu/currentstudents/commencement/checklist/index.php

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Also - remember that your final, completed theses or internship reports must be submitted by the close of business on Monday, April 23rd. This means that you should plan to hold your defense by April 9th at the latest, in order to leave time for final corrections, etc. And don't forget to turn in your "Defense Notification Form" two weeks in advance of your Defense date!

http://www.cofc.edu/~environ/MES-8.pdf

The appropriate paper for the Internship Reports can be found at the CofC Bookstore. You turn in your Internship copies, already bound, at the MES Office.

The Thesis copies are submitted electronically. Note that the electronic copy of the thesis title page should not have signatures or signature lines on it, and that a completed “Thesis Release” form must be submitted with the signature page. Please see http://dissertations.umi.com/cofc/ to begin the online submission process.

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How to format your Internship report? http://spinner.cofc.edu/~environ/intern.htm

The MES Program Internship Preparation Guide is online at http://spinner.cofc.edu/~environ/MESInternshipGuide.pdf

An internship timeline to keep you on track is at http://spinner.cofc.edu/~environ/intern.htm#time2

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How to format your Thesis? http://spinner.cofc.edu/~environ/thesis.htm

The MES Program Thesis Guide is online at http://spinner.cofc.edu/~environ/mesthesisguide.pdf

A thesis timeline to keep you on track is at http://spinner.cofc.edu/~environ/thesis.htm#time2

For additional information, contact:

Mark McConnel
Program Coordinator
Master of Environmental Studies Program
College of Charleston
66 George Street
Charleston, SC 29424
Phone: (843) 953-2000
www.cofc.edu/~environ