To establish a baseline for measuring and predicting the biological impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a LSU ichthyologist and an Ohio biomedical informatics researcher are using Ohio Supercomputer Center, or OSC, systems to help map data on the extent of the spill and chemicals and the distribution of various fish species.
“We know very little about deep-sea life and even less about the interactions between this biota and these toxic chemicals,” said Prosanta Chakrabarty, curator of ichthyology at LSU’s Museum of Natural Science. “The northern Gulf of Mexico is home to more than 600 species of fish, and new ones are being described every year. Through our efforts and by making the informatics tools available over the web, our aim is to map baseline data about nearly every northern Gulf of Mexico species that may be impacted.”
Several universities and federal agencies, including NASA, NOAA and USGS, are focused on tracking the oil and dispersants on the surface of the Gulf and in shallow waters and marshes. To complement these efforts, the researchers are repurposing a computer application that was designed to track infectious diseases to collect and reinterpret data for oil, dispersants and fish, including those at great depth.
“We have developed DEPTHMAP (depthmap.osu.edu), a web-accessible mapping application for historical species collection records, to combine baseline information about the range of these species with respect to data on the extent of the spill,” said Daniel Janies, associate professor of Biomedical Informatics at The Ohio State University. “From museum records, wildlife and fisheries collections data, we can measure the impact of this spill on marine species with various habitats, life histories and ranges.”
Janies has created several applications to track the avian influenza virus (H5N1) — and, more recently, to monitor the H1N1 virus — on a real-time geographic information system. Janies and his colleagues teamed up with OSC staff to tune these codes to run on the center’s IBM Cluster 1350 Glenn system, which features 9,500 cores and 24 terabytes of memory.
Now, wildlife data are being mapped onto a similar real-time geographic information system to show researchers which species’ habitats are located in the region of the Gulf affected by the spill over time.
“Without historical baseline data like that we are mapping, future faunal surveys will not illustrate the impact of this deep-water oil spill,” said Janies. “We will make the maps and underlying informatics tools we develop available to a wide community of users via the web, such that other resource managers and researchers can leverage our efforts for a wide variety of species of interest.”
The species being tracked will include commercially important grouper, snapper and croaker species, as well as ecologically important species near the bottom or top of the food chain, including batfishes and sharks. Data collected at intervals since the spill began is being incorporated and compared to show changing distributions, deaths, lost spawning seasons and year classes, and, potentially, extinctions.
“Unfortunately, the deployment of an unprecedented amount of dispersant at the well-head a mile below the surface has created plumes of oil microdroplets that are known to be toxic,” said Chakrabarty. “The majority of the millions of gallons of oil that was introduced to the Gulf environment resides subsurface. While treatment of the surface oil can be conducted by burning and skimming, there is no treatment for subsurface oil and no plans from BP or the federal or state government to treat subsurface oil.”
Chakrabarty and Janies hope to collect and integrate several types of information during this project:
- How the expanding spill will affect migrating and spawning organisms that travel through the Gulf. This information will help wildlife officials better manage these situations (e.g., saving vulnerable eggs and larvae of blue-fin tuna);
- Which species of organisms migrating at great depths will be most severely impacted by concentrated plumes of sub-surface oil and dispersant (e.g., pancake batfishes that feed on the vulnerable layer of plankton now covered in chemicals);
- The interaction between important fisheries and non-commercial and commercial fishes in sites of subsurface oil plumes (e.g., deep ocean coral species in Louisiana and Florida that are in the path of the plumes);
- How the plumes might affect the life-history stages of different fish species.
“Although the toxic effects of oil and dispersants and how they break down with sunlight are well understood, their effects below the surface are not known,” said Chakrabarty. “Oil and dispersants break down in contact with sunlight and the rich microbial community of the warm waters near the surface. However, the deep sea is very cold, under high pressure and extremely dark. We don’t know how oil and dispersants break down under these conditions, but evidence suggests that it will be incredibly slow.”
Note: Co-developers of the application and its use cases include Jori Hardman, The Ohio State University, Biomedical Informatics; and Calvin Lam, The Ohio State University, Biomedical Informatics.
- ScienceDaily
]]>Editorial
Each environmental disaster is unique, with health consequences that depend on the intersection of the event, the geographic setting, and the characteristics of the local population. Yet, all environmental disasters require the identification of health consequences and strategies to mitigate them and provide lessons for how to do better in future disasters (1–6). The Prestige oil spill and the rigorous health effects research that has followed (7–9) have direct relevance for the affected population but are also part of the broader body of disaster epidemiology that includes study of chemical explosions in Bhopal, India, and Seveso, Italy; the Chernobyl nuclear disaster; and the World Trade Center attack. In this issue, the report by Rodríguez-Trigo and colleagues of health effects in fishermen who helped clean up the Prestige oil spill (7) provides an opportunity to consider practices that will facilitate study of health effects among the 50 000 workers and others exposed during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill and future incidents.
Photo Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images
THE FOLLOWING IS A SUMMARY OF THE FULL REPORT WHICH CAN BE FOUND HERE.
Recommendation 1:
Collect exposure and medical histories from workers as early as possible.
Ideally, investigators studying health effects of environmental disasters would collect biological samples and histories from workers before the start of clean-up work, but such data are seldom available. Consequently, these data should be obtained as early as possible after the work begins and preferably before any work-related symptoms appear. Rapid field data collection requires partnerships among various stakeholders, including workers, industry, local universities, and government agencies…
Recommendation 2:
Conduct detailed exposure assessment.
The urgency of immediate needs (such as saving lives and containing oil) can hamper efforts to methodically assess exposure, and opportunities for exposure assessment in the Deepwater Horizon spill are now largely retrospective. Developing job- or task-exposure matrices that encompass the broad spectrum of clean-up activities will help epidemiologists more accurately estimate exposure….
Recommendation 3:
Consider a broad range of health issues.
Studies in the Gulf of Mexico should investigate acute symptoms reported previously as well as delayed conditions such as cancer. Leukemia, multiple myeloma, and melanoma are of particular interest, on the basis of evidence from occupational studies of petrochemical workers (15, 16). Evidence of genotoxicity and chromosomal damage from the Prestige spill (7) demonstrates the importance of examining biomarkers, such as genetic, epigenetic, immune, and inflammatory alterations because some diseases…
Recommendation 4:
Plan research to guide immediate public health interventions and advance science.
Researchers should strive to generate information of immediate value to the affected community. Opportunities to identify health service needs, suggest interventions to ameliorate the ongoing effects of the disaster, and to disseminate clear information need to be pursued…
Recommendation 5:
Recognize and work within the political context.
Controversy, litigation, and economic consequences follow most environmental disasters, and data from research on the health effects of the disaster will be used as ammunition in the battles that ensue. In the Deepwater Horizon spill, tension has already developed between the desire to fully investigate the health consequences of the spill and the desire to provide reassurance that will reinvigorate the region’s tourism and seafood enterprises. In the face of such conflicts, results will inevitably be seen as supportive of one view and counter to another…
- David A. Savitz, PhD; and Lawrence S. Engel, PhD
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The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign hosted the Illinois Green Governments Coordinating Council’s (GGCC) Symposia on Friday. The mix of workshops, panel discussions, and networking opportunities enabled educational institutions, professors, students, architects and engineers to discuss their challenges and progress in creating more sustainable campuses.
The highlight of these discussions was the signing of the 2010-2015 Illinois Campus Sustainability Compact signed by Governor Pat Quinn, UIUC president Michael J. Hogan, and UIUC Chancellor and Provost Dr. Robert Easter.
The compact signed in 2005 currently has 88 colleges/universities making strides to greater sustainability. Quinn, Hogan, and Easter were the first to sign the new compact.
The compact has three levels of participation; bronze, silver, and gold. The participating university or college must achieve all the level-dependent goals within the five year life span of the compact. Examples include:
Bronze:
- endorsing a written statement acknowledging support for sustainability
- providing opportunities for students/faculty to provide suggestions for advancing sustainability
Silver:
- set measurable objectives/targets
- establish a system to monitor progress
Gold:
- integrate sustainability into campus operations
- endorse at least one national/international campus sustainability program
The symposium was produced, in partnership, with the Illinois GGCC, UIUC’s Office of Sustainability, and the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability.
]]>Executive Vice-President of Animal Collections and Animal Training
Ken Ramirez, executive vice-president of animal collections and animal training, develops and supervises animal care programs, staff training and development as well as public presentation programs for the entire animal collection at Shedd Aquarium. He joined Shedd Aquarium in 1989.
A 30+ year veteran of animal care and training, Ramirez is a biologist and animal behaviorist who served nine years at Marineworld of Texas. During his time in Texas he became coordinator for the live animal Stranding Network for the 625 miles of Texas Gulf coast – he continues to serve as an advisor to the Stranding Network today. He also was a trainer and coordinator at Ocean Safari in South Padre Island, Texas, as well as acting as a consultant to many zoo and aquarium programs throughout the world. He began his training career working with guide dogs for the visually impaired and has maintained a close affiliation to pet training throughout his career. He hosted two successful seasons of the pet training television series Talk to the Animals that compared pet training to the important work done with training and caring for animals in zoological facilities. He has also recently worked closely with several search and rescue dog organizations as well as with bomb and narcotic dogs.
Ramirez has been active in several professional organizations, including the International Marine Animal Trainer’s Association (IMATA), of which he is a past president. Ken has been on the faculty of Karen Pryor’s Clicker Expos since 2004.
Ramirez has written for numerous scientific publications and popular articles and has authored the book ANIMAL TRAINING: Successful Animal Management through Positive Reinforcement, published in 1999. He also teaches a graduate course on animal training at Western Illinois University.
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Prior to her position at the Shedd Aquarium, she was the Vice President of Biological Operations and Veterinarian at The Florida Aquarium in Tampa, Florida. She was with the Aquarium for over 12 years and was responsible for husbandry, animal health, dive programs, and conservation and research programs. She has also helped established The Florida Aquarium’s Center for Conservation.
Dr. Berzins holds both a Bachelor and Masters Degree in Biology from Stanford University, a PhD in Zoology from University of California, Berkeley, and a DVM from the University of California, Davis. She also completed a three-year fellowship program in Comparative Pathology from The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore.
Research opportunities have taken her to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, the Guyana National Zoo in South America in conjunction with the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., and the Bodega Marine Laboratory, UC California.
She has held several teaching positions including visiting Assistant Professorships at the University of Hawaii, University of California, Davis, Northeastern University’s School for Field Studies program, St. John’s University/College of St. Benedict, and the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. Currently she holds a Courtesy Faculty appointment with the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences at the University of Florida.
Dr. Berzins is actively involved with several significant committees for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums including the Aquatic Advisory Committee, the Accreditation Commission, and the Research Coordinators Committee. She is also a member of the American Association of Zoological Veterinarians, the American Veterinary Medical Association, and the International Association of Aquatic Animal Medicine. She has authored/co-authored numerous publications and book chapters, and currently is working as a co-editor of a book on fish medicine.
She enjoys outdoor activities, traveling, reading and cooking (she also holds an Intermediate Diploma and Advance Level Certificate in Cooking from La Varenne in Paris….oo la la).
]]>Listen to Bob Edward’s Weekend report HERE.
Bob Edward – This week in our series NO PLACE LIKE HOME, we’ll focus on wildlife. While oil was still gushing out of the broken well in the Gulf of Mexico, and even now that the well is sealed, birds, turtles and many other animals are coated with goopy brown crude.
Bob talks with EMILY GUIDRY SCHATZEL of the National Wildlife Federation about how her group is working alongside government agencies. Then, Bob talks with TODD BAKER of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and SHARON TAYLOR of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about the efforts to rescue, clean and relocate animals threatened by the oil spill.
Finally, we travel to the bird rehabilitation center at Fort Jackson, Louisiana where dozens of brown pelicans have been cleaned and nursed back to health. Many have been relocated to safer areas in other states and dozens wait in outdoor pens for their new home to be found.
]]>Dr. Ilze Berzins, panelist for the upcoming C2ST program “Gulf Oil Disaster: An Ecosystem Endangered,” speaks to Fox News Chicago about the effects on wildlife from the Michigan and Gulf Oil spills.
Dr. Ilze Berzins is Executive VP of Animal Health and Conservation Education at Shedd Aquarium. She has 20 years experience in veterinary medicine, doctoral and postdoctoral research, teaching, and establishing and managing conservation programs for public aquariums.
Prior to joining Shedd Aquarium, Dr. Berzins was Veterinarian and Vice President of Biological Operations at Florida Aquarium in Tampa, Fla. During her 12-year tenure, Dr. Berzins reconfigured the organization’s conservation program, creating a separate entity called The Center for Conservation at The Florida Aquarium. She also established the Global Reef Institute, a consortium of institutions dedicated to coral reef restoration, research and action. Research conducted at the Global Reef Institute provides the resources and information to help restore and rebuild Florida’s damaged reefs.
Well respected throughout the zoological community, Dr. Berzins holds a doctorate in Zoology from the University of California – Berkley and earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) from the University of California – Davis. She has worked in Comparative Pathology for the fellowship at Johns Hopkins.
]]>The iCON Award was developed to recognize the important role of education, research, and training in fostering growth and in building the next generation of Midwest biotechnology and life sciences innovators and leaders. This award celebrates the achievements of leaders who nurture education, training, and scholarship in the life sciences in Illinois.
Dr. Elizabeth Babcock, Vice President, Education and Library Collections at The Field Museum in Chicago
Elizabeth C. Babcock, Ph.D. is Vice President, Education and Library Collections. Dr. Babcock is responsible for the development and implementation of education programs, outreach initiatives and digital programming to over 800,000 adults, families, teachers and students each year. The focus of her work is to improve the public’s understanding of natural history and to serve diverse audiences by leveraging the Museum’s exhibitions, collections and scientific research.Dr. Babcock’s work in the Library focuses on increasing the public’s access to and utilization of the Museum’s rare book collection, photo and institutional archives, and general collection of over 300,000 items.
Prior to assuming her current role, Dr. Babcock served as Director of Education and Library Collections, Teacher and Student Programs Director, and Manager of Teacher and Student Programs at The Field Museum. Before joining the Museum in 2002, Dr. Babcock worked in the environmental field as a consultant and program developer, designing community outreach strategies. She worked for several years in the corporate sector, managing user experience research and design projects in the financial, consumer products and technology industries. She has also worked as a program evaluator and visitor studies researcher for museums, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations.
Elizabeth has taught K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and adult students in a range of content areas, including music for special needs students, environmental anthropology, sustainable development, introductory anthropology, and adult literacy.
iCON Innovator Award (University Level):
Dr. Brenda Russell, Professor, Professor of Physiology, Biophysics, Bioengineering and Medicine, and Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, University of Illinois at Chicago
Brenda Russell, Ph.D., Professor of Physiology, Biophysics, Bioengineering and Medicine, and Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Russell’s scientific training, background, experience and productivity encompass a range of disciplines and forge linkages in the continuum between quantitative biology, bioengineering and physiology. Her current NIH support funds two collaborative projects, one on heart failure for regulation of protein synthesis and remodeling of cell shape, and the other for tissue engineering with development of a novel cell culture system using bioengineering and surface chemistry modification. Many of her studies have been done in close collaboration with clinicians (heart failure, muscular dystrophies, urinary incontinence).
Dr. Russell is former editor of The American Journal of Physiology: CellSection; Cell & Tissue Research and editorial board member of many journals, including Circulation Research and The Journal of Applied Physiology. She has written reviews, book chapters and well over 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Some of her material is now incorporated into textbooks – including the widely used Gray’s Anatomy and Berne and Levy’s Physiology.
Major research often requires collaboration and interdisciplinary resources. Dr. Russell has chaired several cross-disciplinary task forces at UIC including regenerative medicine with stem cells (clinical, basic biomedical and bioengineering), environmental science and policy (public health, political science, pollution and geology), tobacco-related research (prevention psychology, basic biomedical, cancer, clinical treatment), bioinformatics (computer science, genomics, health informatics, biotech entrepreneurs), and structural biology (proteomics, crystallography, molecular biology). She is the UIC Leader for the Chicago Biomedical Consortium fostering interactions with the University of Chicago, Northwestern University to enable and encourage interdisciplinary research that is beyond the range of a single institution and thereby to promote educational, health and commercial developments that will benefit the Chicago community at large.
- iBIO Institute
]]>Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery, Room 1103
900 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL
Thursday, September 16
4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
IGSB Fellows Series: Mary Hendrix, PhD, Children’s Memorial Research Center and Northwestern University.
Stay tuned for more information!
]]>9:30 am – 3:30 pm
Stephen J. Warner Conference Room
Illinois Sustainable Technology Center
This symposium is an opportunity to learn about the latest biochar research in the Midwest, exchange ideas, and discuss ways to collaborate on future projects. The symposium will feature presentations on biochar production, properties, and use in agricultural environments.
This event is sponsored by the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, a division of the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is free and open to the public.
However, registration is required. There will be a cost of $12 for the catered luncheon, or you may bring your own lunch. For those wishing to join us for the catered sandwich/salad buffet luncheon (includes beverage and dessert), please fill in the appropriate box on the registration form. All registrations are due by Wed. August 25, 2010.
Please e-mail Nancy Holm (nholm@istc.illinois.edu) with any questions
Global climate change and uncertain fossil oil reserves are two major energy, economic, and environmental challenges of our time. Fossil fuels as non-renewable energy resources will eventually be exhausted in the foreseeable future due to finite reserves and rapidly increasing energy demands of modern societies. Also, there is growing scientific consensus that the current climate change is attributed to the large emissions of greenhouse gases associated with the extensive use of fossil fuels.
Scientists at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) are exploring an innovative way to off-set fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions: using pyrolysis at low temperatures to convert waste biomass into valuable products.
Biochar can be used as a fuel or as a soil amendment. When used as a soil amendment, biochar can boost soil fertility, prevent soil erosion, and improve soil quality by raising soil pH, trapping moisture, attracting more beneficial fungi and microbes, improving cation exchange capacity, and helping the soil hold nutrient. Moreover, biochar is a more stable nutrient source than compost and manure.
This event is sponsored by the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, a division of the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is free and open to the public. However, registration is required. There will be a cost of $12 for the catered luncheon, or you may bring your own lunch. For those wishing to join us for the catered sandwich/salad buffet luncheon (includes beverage and dessert), please fill in the appropriate box on the registration form. All registrations are due by Wed. August 25, 2010.
Please e-mail Nancy Holm (nholm@istc.illinois.edu) with any questions
ISTC’s biochar studies include: production of biochar from a variety of waste biomass, characteristics of biochar, biochar for sustainable agriculture, and potential environmental implication associated with biochar use. For more information on ISTC’s biochar research, or if you are interested in exploring biochar production at your facility or establishing collaboration on biochar research, please contact Dr. Wei Zheng.
Please e-mail Nancy Holm (nholm@istc.illinois.edu) with any questions
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