They
will head up teams doing vital research
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| Bethany Jenkins, associate professor of cell and molecular biology in the College of the Environment and Life Science at URI. Photo courtesy of GSO |
Three women scientists at the University of Rhode Island
will lead expeditions to Antarctica this year, thanks to winning highly
competitive grants from the National Science Foundation.
The
expeditions aboard the research vessel, Nathaniel B. Palmer, reflect
URI’s successful initiative to recruit more women to science faculty positions
and create a welcoming environment for them.
The
scientists are: Tatiana Rynearson and Rebecca Robinson, both professors at the
Graduate School of Oceanography; and Bethany Jenkins, associate professor of
cell and molecular biology in the College of the Environment and Life Science
who also teaches at GSO.
The women were hired under NSF’s Advance program,
which supports female science professors.
All
three URI expeditions will study aspects of diatom biology. Diatoms are
microscopic ocean plants, or phytoplankton, that make the planet habitable.
They are essential to the ocean’s role in regulating global climate, the air
people breathe and marine food webs.
Jenkins will lead a 37-day expedition that departs from Punta Arenas Chile Sept. 7. The expedition will travel to the Southern Ocean near the Antarctic Peninsula—the tail of the Antarctic continent closest to Chile.
Her
13-member team includes three URI doctoral students and a local public high
school teacher, Cara Pekarcik, of Quincy, Mass., who will communicate with
her students while at sea.
Jenkins’
team also includes two other women assistant professors from Old Dominion
University and the University of South Florida and their students and research
technicians.
“I’m
super excited that this scientific expedition is being led by three female
scientists in partnership with a local teacher,” says Jenkins. “This is an
opportunity for us to serve as role models for the next generation and to show
that the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Antarctic Program support
broad participation in polar research.’’
Jenkins
and her team will study the roles bacterial communities play to help diatoms
grow in the Southern Ocean. The Southern Ocean is an area of the global ocean
with some of the lowest iron concentrations that present a challenge for diatom
growth.
“Just
like we need iron for health, diatoms also have a nutritional requirement for
iron,’’ says Jenkins. “We are investigating the hypothesis that bacteria living
in association with diatoms produce special molecules that help them acquire
iron.
’To test this hypothesis, the scientists will isolate lab spaces from all
the surrounding metal on the ship that can contaminate samples. “We will
literally have people and sea water in plastic bubbles that we build.”
These
“bubble environments’’ allow the chemists on board to cleanly measure iron in
sea water to determine how much iron is in organic molecules that may be made
by bacteria.
Her
team will bring diatoms and bacteria into a culture on the ship. Back at URI,
the scientists will use advanced genome sequencing methods similar to those
used by forensic scientists to identify diatoms and bacteria, and the genes they
may use to share compounds.
 |
| Tatiana Rynearson, an oceanographer at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography. Photo courtesy of GSO |
This
research will help Jenkins and colleagues understand how ocean chemistry and
biology interact and help scientists predict food web functioning and ocean
carbon uptake in future oceans affected by changing climate.
Rynearson’s team will depart from Punta Arenas, Chile Dec. 24 and arrive at McMurdo Station in Antarctica Jan. 20. The seven-member team includes a former GSO graduate student; two graduate students at GSO; a GSO technician; and a URI undergraduate student.
Rynearson
will examine how Southern Ocean diatoms—a group of algae with key roles in the
marine food web and the biogeochemical cycles of that ocean—adapt to
environmental change.
Diatoms
will be sampled from different areas of the Southern Ocean, including the Drake
Passage, the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean and the Ross Sea, and
examined to determine the range of their genetic variation in and between those
regions.
The
information on the genetic diversity of those samples, combined with details on
adaptability and changes in their genetic diversity, will provide insight about
how polar marine diatoms respond to environmental changes that might occur in
surface oceans or have occurred during past climate conditions.
The
URI student scientists “will learn the fundamentals of experimental
evolution,’’ says Rynearson. “That’s a skill set being sought in the fields of
biology and oceanography.’’
The
project also includes a collaboration with the Metcalf Institute for Marine and
Environmental Reporting. Rynearson’s research is expected to be presented to
journalists at a later date.
 |
| Rebecca Robinson, an oceanographer at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography. Photo courtesy of GSO |
After
pushing off from McMurdo Station in Antarctica Jan. 23, Robinson will travel
across the major regions of the Southern Ocean, from near the ice edge in the
Ross Sea to the subtropical Front.
She’ll
be joined by a research technician, a graduate student and an undergraduate
student—all from URI. A five-member group from the University of California,
Santa Barbara, will also participate.
Robinson
and her team will examine the relationship between the nutrient forms of
nitrogen and silicon that diatoms use, and the isotopic composition of nitrogen
and silicon in a diatom’s shell, called frustule.
“Diatom
frustules are a major component of Southern Ocean sediment and if the chemistry
of these important nutrients is reflected in the fossils, then we can use
variations in the fossils to study these nutrients in the past,’’ Robinson
says. “Because diatoms need nitrogen and silicon to take up carbon, we can
study changes in the carbon cycle by extension. Understanding the natural
operations of the carbon cycle is critical to predicting how it will change
under human-induced stresses.’’
During
the cruise the group will collect water, particles, and seafloor mud from 13
sites, which will be stored for work back on land. They head home March 5.
Over
the years, GSO and CELS have worked successfully to hire more women faculty.
The last four hirings at GSO, for example, have all been women: Melissa Omand;
Jaime Palter; Colleen Mouw; who will start this fall; and Roxanne Beinart, who
will start in the fall of 2017.
Omand
received the Outstanding Young Scientists recognition from Sciencemagazine
this year. She was among 10 selected from a pool of young scientists nominated
by Nobel laureates and members of the National Academy of Sciences.
“I
am very excited about all of the research and outreach initiatives and
accomplishments of GSO’s faculty, marine research scientists and staff members,’’
says Bruce Corliss, dean of GSO.
“It is truly impressive to witness the results
of their hard work each year. It is particularly rewarding to see the efforts
of Tatiana Rynearson and Rebecca Robinson being recognized by the National
Science Foundation through the funding of these most recent
projects. Their successes are highly reflective of the successes of all of
GSO’s faculty, marine research scientists and staff in their commitment to
advancing understanding of the world’s oceans, as well as maintaining GSO as a
world-leader in ocean research and outreach. We are very lucky to have them as
key members and leaders of the GSO community.”
Gail
Scowcroft, associate director of URI’s Inner Space Center, agrees: URI
professors Tatiana Rynearson, Rebecca Robinson and Bethany Jenkins “are top
shelf and are conducting ground-breaking ocean science research. GSO is
fortunate to have all three on our faculty. The National Science Foundation’s
ADVANCE program has given young women scientists a tremendous opportunity to
enter the research workforce across the U.S., and with NSF’s support, URI has
been able to recruit several remarkable scientists.’’