MESA Archives: The Corals Cruise Science Team

(PLEASE NOTE: These web pages are for archival purposes only and are no longer maintained. For current information please refer to the MESA homepage.)

Robert Stone Fishery Research Biologist National Marine Fisheries Service, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Auke Bay Laboratory, Juneau Bob.Stone@noaa.gov	An expert in seafloor habitat, deep-sea life and the effects of fishing disturbance on them, Robert Stone is the chief scientist responsible for field research and coordinating the activities of the science team. He has been the chief scientist on eight research submersible cruises in Alaska, including the three previous Delta cruises to the central Aleutians, and will be the lead scientist involved with seafloor video interpretation.
Jon Heifetz Fishery Research Biologist National Marine Fisheries Service, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Auke Bay Laboratory, Juneau Jon.Heifetz@noaa.gov	An expert on deep-sea environments who has been studying the effects of fishing gear on seafloor habitat, Jon Heifetz will participate in field operations and project administration. He will also be responsible for assessing the relationship between coral distribution, geologic features and fishing intensity.
Phil Rigby Groundfish Program Manager National Marine Fisheries Service, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Auke Bay Laboratory, Juneau	"Basically, this cruise is a chance to go to sea and help out and an opportunity of a lifetime. Species new to science are being discovered, while we have a chance to view them in their natural habitat. Understanding the links to habitat, the basic biology of corals and sponges, and their species associations will add to our limited understanding of the marine ecosystem."
Doug Woodby Chief Marine Fisheries Scientist Alaska Department of Fish & Game doug_woodby@fishgame.state.ak.us	Alaska fisheries expert Doug Woodby will lead the creation of a model (using information collected from this cruise and others) to help predict under what conditions coral habitats are likely to occur.
Jennifer Reynolds Science Director West Coast & Polar Regions, Undersea Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks jreynolds@guru.uaf.edu	Geologist Jennifer Reynolds oversaw the task of mapping the ocean floor and, along with Gary Greene, is responsible for interpreting the geologic maps in terms of seafloor habitat to guide the dives. The information will help researchers explore relationships between corals and surrounding substrate (the rocks and other material making up the seafloor).
Gary Greene Professor of Marine Geology Head of the Center for Habitat Studies Moss Landing Marine Laboratories	Gary Greene was instrumental in developing the methods the science team will use in relating geology to habitat. He has more than 15 years of experience in constructing habitat schemes and co-authored "A Classification Scheme for Deep Seafloor Habitats," a much-cited standard among fisheries biologists.
Scott C. France Assistant Professor Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette	Scott France, who has studied the evolution of deep-sea invertebrates since 1986, is collecting coral tissues for genetic analysis that will aid in the identification of these species. He has visited the deep-ocean floor off the Mariana Islands, Hawaii, Galapagos, California, and in the North Atlantic. Dr. France�s current research focuses on patterns of genetic variation in deep-sea octocorals and black corals.
Sarah Gerken University of Alaska, Anchorage Department of Biological Sciences	Biologist Sarah Gerken is spending much of her time on this cruise in the lab, where her role is to preserve specimens for electron microscopy for investigations into coral reproduction.
Gordon Hendler Curator of Echinoderms Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County	Marine biologist Gordon Hendler is working in collaboration with Bob Stone, Les Watling and Scott France to study the biology of the invertebrates that live symbiotically with deepwater corals. The biology of sea stars and related animals has been the subject of his research for 30 years. "Fieldwork has taken me wherever these animals live," he says, "from the Antarctic to the tropics, SCUBA-diving in shallow water and using submersibles in the deep sea." He has published books and papers on all aspects of their natural history, including their taxonomy, ecology, behavior and physiology.
Les Watling Professor of Oceanography University of Maine's Darling Marine Center	Les Watling is generally interested in benthic communities and the smaller invertebrate fuana that lives there. He has published more that 100 scientific papers and previously traveled the world in search of new species of crustaceans; he is now working with octocorals. This is his first research cruise in Alaskan waters. His role on the cruise is to provide tentative identifications for octocorals that are collected, and to describe the small invertebrates living as commensals on the corals. His work with respect to the impacts of mobile fishing gear on the benthos won him a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation in 1998.
Lena Krutikov Graduate student (M.S. candidate) University of Alaska Fairbanks	Geology graduate student Lena Krutikov is developing a thesis project topic. Her main role during the cruise is to assist with the creation of diveplans and navigation.
Sean Rooney Graduate student University of Alaska Fairbanks (fisheries program, Juneau campus)	Sean's main role during the cruise is to lead the mapping portion of the cruise. His interests include habitat mapping, and how habitat impacts fish populations. Prior to the cruise, he worked for the 6 years in NOAA's nautical charting program.
Adak Canyon/geology science team:
Gene Yogodzinski (not pictured) Assistant Professor of Geological Sciences University of South Carolina Co-Chief Scientist in Charge of Adak Canyon Dive	Gene Yogodzinski is chief scientist for the "geology science team" aboard to study Adak Canyon. His research interests are in the origin of magma and the evolution of subduction magmatic and tectonic systems.
David W. Scholl (not pictured) Geophysicist / Geologist Stanford University and Moss Landing Marine Laboratory	A member of Gene Yogodzinski's science team, David Scholl's main role on the cruise, he says, is as "pathfinder," to locate and sample the oldest exposed rocks constructing the Aleutian Islands. "What it is all about for me is determining the birthday of the Aleutian Ridge or arc and reconstructing the conditions and setting of the birthing. In brief, how come there's an Aleutian Arc way up here in the North Pacific?"
Dayton Dove Graduate student University of Alaska Fairbanks	Dayton Dove describes his role aboard as �watchstanding, bathymetry data post-processing and rock-smashing.� His goal, he says, is to learn as much as possible from the geologists on board.
Brian Jicha Graduate student (Ph.D. candidate) University of Wisconsin-Madison	Brian Jicha will be determining the ages of the volcanic and plutonic samples collected during the Adak dives. New age determinations will hopefully provide constraints on the timing of Aleutian arc formation as well as indicate the "true age" of some of the oldest material in the arc.
Chris Wyatt Graduate student University of South Carolina	Chris Wyatt is responsible for Multibeam sonar mapping and Jason II sampling of the geology of Adak Canyon. Chris is a graduate student at the University of South Carolina, where he will study with Gene Yogodzinski. He completed an M.S. in geology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he works as a remote sensing and GIS technician at the Geophysical Institute.

|| |