Former Intern, Will L., was accepted to UNC Chapel Hill for the next academic school year! The Paerl lab is glad Will could further his marine science interests and experiences while interning last summer and hopes to see Will again as he pursues his degree! Best of luck, Will!

*Opportunity!*  PAID_SCICOMM_INTERNSHIP_2022

To anyone interested in a paid Science Communication internship for Summer 2022,

• The Paerl Lab at UNC’s Institute of Marine Sciences is seeking a *PAID* science communication intern to join us in North Carolina in Summer 2022 (start and end date flexible).
• We are seeking an enthusiastic individual with an interest in science communication, visual storytelling, and environmental science.
• One intern will be selected, hired, and given the opportunity to work on diverse projects in North Carolina, Ohio, and California.
• People with any background but interest in the field are encouraged to apply.
• See the attached flyer for more details, and instructions on how to apply. Contact Haley Plaas at hplaas@live.unc.edu with any questions, and check out this awesome site featuring #SciComm work by a previous intern!
• Deadline to apply is March 20^th, 2022

Contact details:

Haley E. Plaas (she/her) 

PhD Student | Environmental Science & Engineering | UNC-Institute of Marine Sciences

Phone: (913) 634-9176 | Twitter: @HABhaley

Dr. Hans Paerl was featured in a local news article celebrating the Institute of Marine Sciences turning 75 years young and the noteworthy research and achievements during these years.

Click here to read the article

Hi all,

Happy New Year! I hope everyone is having a good one so far and staying healthy.

After a progressively dryer fall and early winter, rains in the first week of the year have put Neuse River flows at near normal levels (at least based on flows at Kinston, the USGS gage at Fort Barnwell is still not reporting). The salt wedge had been upstream of station 0 at Streets Ferry Bridge back in December but is now somewhere just upstream of New Bern between stations 20 and 30. This location for the tip of the salt wedge is still unusually far upstream for January, and the estuary in general is still much saltier than normal with downstream salinity at about 20. Suspended sediment from the high river flow is apparent as a region of elevated turbidity (> 20 NTU) at the upstream, freshwater stations that gradually diminishes in the surface waters downstream to station 70. Dissolved oxygen conditions were normoxic or supersaturated throughout most of the estuary. A slight dissolved oxygen sag was evident in the bottom water at the tip of the saltwedge at station 30 but the levels of ~6 mg/L are sufficient for estuarine animals. Generally, chlorophyll fluorescence was low (<10 ug/L) but a subsurface zone of elevated chlorophyll (~20 ug/L) occurred at stations 60 and 70 at ~ 1 m depth. It’s likely that this is the beginning of the annual Prorocentrum minimum bloom, a dinoflagellate that is considered harmful to some shellfish but hasn’t been shown to cause problems in the Neuse. With the recent nutrient inputs from elevated flows, the bloom size and intensity will likely increase over the next couple of months. Next time I’ll look at samples and take some pictures.

-Nathan

Welcome to Leah as the newest research technician in the Paerl lab! Leah first started working with the Paerl lab as an undergraduate IE student this past semester.

ModMon and FerryMon have been refunded on the State’s biennial budget, continuing the decades of water quality research on the Neuse River and surrounding areas. Please contact Karen (krossign@email.unc.edu) for data requests.

Lat month Dr. Paerl spoke with Grist, a nonprofit magazine focused on environmental news, about the Environmental Protection Agency’s lack of strategy for dealing with freshwater harmful algal blooms in Report No. 21-E-0264.

Read the article here

Drs Paerl (EMES, IMS, ESE) & Bruno (Biology, IMS) are quoted in a story run by the Fayettville Observer on toxins in seafood.

Attorney General Josh Stein awarded a $133,000 Environmental Enhancement Grant (EEG) to Renzun Zhao, Ph.D., at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. The funding will support research that explores how dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) found in liquid waste generated from landfills might impact water sources in the eastern part of the state. Zhao will collaborate with Hans Paerl and Christopher Osburn, Ph.D., at North Carolina State University.

Many more bioassays are in store for the Paerl lab beginning in 2022! Article here

This month, Dr. Hans Pearl presented at the Water Adaptation to Ensure Regional Success (WATERS) Summit in Greenville, NC and can be viewed here.