Potential impacts for the Organizational Member

Shannon Point Marine Center (SPMC) of Western Washington University has hosted the AAUS/ Our World Underwater Scholarship Society (OWUSS) scientific diving intern for the past two years.  Under the direction of Diving Safety Officer (DSO) Nathan T. Schwarck, both interns were given the opportunity to present at the annual OWUSS meeting in New York City.  Schwarck was invited and able to attend the 2012 meeting and watch Annie Thompson (2012 intern) present her internship experience.

Thompson’s underwater research demonstrated population recovery of the pinto abalone, Haliotis kamtschatkana, in the San Juan Archipelago and highlighted SPMC’s involvement in the restoration efforts of this species of concern. The presentation also focused on how Thompson’s AAUS training facilitated her development as a scientific diver, and concluded with a description of her current scientific work at Friday Harbor Laboratories. This representation of AAUS is exactly what Dr. Lee Somers is looking for, a way to generate awareness of scientific diving and underwater research within the Scholarship Society. Dr. Somers served as the first president for AAUS, was a founding member, and is the current sponsor of the scientific diving internship.OWUSS is an organization dedicated to fostering leaders in the underwater world.  Comprised of Rolex scholars from North America, Europe, and Australasia, interns with experiences ranging from photojournalism to dive medicine, corporate and hosting sponsors, instructors from all aspects of diving, patrons, and a global network of diving’s elite.  The Scholarship Society supports these scholars and interns and provides a highly sought after enviable experience.  But what does this mean for an AAUS organizational member, beyond international recognition and an opportunity to share important underwater research projects from the scientific diving community?  It gives scientific divers greater exposure to the Scholarship Society.  This was recently demonstrated by Jeff Hester, the dive buddy and research partner of the 2011 scientific diving intern Jenna Walker.  Hester was recently announced as the 2013 North American Rolex Scholar.  “My summer at Shannon Point positively influenced the trajectory of my life. Completing the AAUS training with Schwarck and Walker gave me the confidence to continue on in diving-related disciplines which ultimately lead to this incredible opportunity as the North American Rolex Scholar,” stated Hester.

Starting this year Walker will be acting as the AAUS/OWUSS Internship Coordinator on behalf of the Scholarship Society and is currently the assistant DSO for the Oregon Coast Aquarium, which will be hosting the 2013 scientific diving intern.  Both Walker and Schwarck would love to share more, feel free to contact them and learn more about this scientific diving internship program.

Contact Information: jenna.walker@aquarium.org and nathan.schwarck@wwu.edu

I am a doctoral candidate finishing my fourth year of Ph.D. work at the University of Alabama under the direction of Julie B. Olson, Ph.D. The graduate program here has a broad focus in biological sciences reaching from molecular and cell biology to ecology and evolution. Our lab is a marine microbial ecology lab, and my dissertation focuses on the bacterial communities associated with the invasive lionfish in the Caribbean and Western Atlantic and in their native Indo-Pacific region. The funds I received through the Kathy Johnston Scholarship Fund awarded by AAUS are allowing me to travel to the Smithsonian research island of Carrie Bow Cay, Belize in June. The work I will complete while there, will allow me to analyze the chemical composition of lionfish mucus for antimicrobial activity as a potential chemical defense mechanism against disease. I am also testing the lionfish-associated bacteria for antimicrobial activity against known fish pathogens. Results could have implications for explaining the success of lionfish in the invaded range as well as potential host-microbe interactions. This project stemmed from previous work of ours, which showed that lionfish harbor a significantly different bacterial community than native Caribbean fishes.

 Photo of Julia Stevens and a lion fish by Cheih-wen Wang

My name is Alexander Modys, and I'm from Fort Myers, Florida. My interests are freediving, SCUBA diving, spearfishing, and surfing. I am currently a graduate student at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, where I am working on an MS degree in Geology in the Department of Geosciences. My degree focuses on Marine Geology and Paleoceanography. I became interested in marine science at a very early age, exploring the estuary and Gulf of Mexico waters where I grew up and snorkeling the reefs of the Florida Keys. 

My AAUS funded research focuses on a relict Holocene reef system off the coast of Boynton Beach, Florida, constructed from Acropora palmataand Acropora cervicorniscorals. Using a combination of reef coring, stable isotope analysis, and remote sensing, I am working to reconstruct the Holocene reef environment at its northermost termination during the Holocene. Specifically, I am working on determining Holocene reef zonation patterns, paleo-temperatures, and exact age of the reef termination. Using this crucial new data, I will compare Holocene shelf-edge acroporid reef growth at this site to modern shelf-edge acroporid reef growth throughout the Florida Keys. Ultimately, our findings will reveal information on the long-term ecological stability of shelf-edge acroporid reefs in the southeastern Florida.

I am a second year PhD student in the Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology department at The Ohio State University. My laboratory studies the evolution of sociality and my research focuseson the formation, structure, and fitness benefits of social networks. Being well connected within a social network provides several advantages, including increased offspring survival, greater mating opportunities, and higher social rank. However, social networking has not been widely explored outside of primates, and we do not know to what extent individuals in other taxa make decisions on the basis of networking opportunities. My research uses Neolamprologus pulcher, a species of African cichlid with a highly complex social system, to better understand how social networks function in fish. This past spring, I traveled to Lake Tanganyika to examine how colony density affects the ability of individuals to interact with their neighbors. Specifically, I explored how density affects how often males are able to mate with females on other territories and how easily subordinates are able to move between groups in the colony. Social network structure has important implications for information flow, disease spread, mate choice, and social stability, and this project will help elucidate the extent to which spatial patterns and social interactions align, which will provide valuable insight into the evolution of social structures and group organization.

 Photos by Susan Marsh-Rollo

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