News & Events

News stories posted in the last 30 days.

USGS Scientists Participate in National Park Research Natural Area Science Workshop

USGS scientists Kristen Hart (USGS-Davie) and Ilsa Kuffner (USGS-St. Petersburg) presented their work at the ‘Dry Tortugas National Park Research Natural Area Science Workshop’ in Homestead, FL on January 12, 2010. Dry Tortugas National Park and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission hosted the workshop to review progress in the joint implementation of the Dry Tortugas National Park Research Natural Area (RNA) Science Plan. Hart presented her work on the “Use of protected areas by threatened and endangered marine turtles in the Dry Tortugas” and Kuffner presented her work on “Trophic relationships on coral reefs of Dry Tortugas National Park: inside and outside of the RNA”. Their presentations were part of approximately 15 presentations addressing the Science Plan topics of abundance and size structure of exploited species, immigration/emigration of exploited species, catch composition and rates, benthic resources, egg production/larval dispersal, social sciences and submerged cultural resources.

USGS Scientist Invited to Present Scoping Paper on Ocean Acidification to AMAP

Lisa Robbins (USF-St. Petersburg) has been invited to present a scoping paper on ocean acidification in the Arctic region to the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) 23rd Working Group. AMAP is one of five working groups of the Arctic Council. AMAP’s primary function is to advise the governments of eight Arctic countries about threats from pollution and associated issues. Robbins, along with Richard Feely (NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory), Kim Magraw (DOI Office of Policy Analysis) and Tom Armstrong (Senior Advisor for Climate Change, Office of the Deputy Secretary, DOI) had previously discussed the need for a scoping paper for the AMAP in a conference call in early December 2009. Robbins, Feely, Kim Yates (USGS St. Petersburg) and Vicki Fabry (California State University, San Marcos), then worked together to prepare the document for the group. Robbins will present this paper at the AMAP meeting in San Francisco on February 12, 2010.

Read more about AMAP: Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme

Find out more about the Artic Council: Arctic Council

USGS Scientists to Participate on Sinkhole Public Hearing and Panel Discussion

The Southwest Florida Water Management District has requested the USGS to provide hydrogeologic expertise on a panel they are assembling for a public meeting and panel discussion. The meeting is being held to address the recent sinkhole activity in the Dover and Plant City region of west-central Florida that occurred as farmers pumped unprecedented volumes of groundwater for crop freeze protection in early January. Ann Tihansky (USGS-St. Petersburg) and Patricia Metz (USGS-Tampa) will represent the USGS at the meeting scheduled for February 17, 2010.

USGS Scientists Judge Regional Science and Engineering Fair

Deputy Center Director Jack Kindinger, and Mendenhall Post-Doctoral Fellow Ryan P. Moyer (both USGS-St.Petersburg) will serve as judges for the 2010 Pinellas Regional Science and Engineering Fair on Saturday, 6 February 2010. The science fair will take place in Seminole, FL and is expected to showcase over 200 science projects from Pinellas County middle and high school students. Judges will be responsible for choosing 24 students to represent the Region at the State Science and Engineering Fair in Orlando, FL, and two students who will advance to participate in the International Science Fair in San Jose, CA.