The University of Georgia Marine Institute (UGAMI, https://ugami.uga.edu/), located on Sapelo Island, Georgia, seeks an Assistant/Associate Director for Operations to assist with departmental oversight, staff management, and facilities planning. The candidate will report directly to the UGAMI Director and will be involved in developing major policies and procedures, establishing Institutional priorities, and budget allocation. The Director for Operations provides daily oversight of UGAMI, represents the Institute to multiple partners, and ensures that the needs of visiting researchers, students, and other UGAMI users are met. Candidates with previous experience at a research field station and significant facilities and managerial experience are preferred.
An advanced degree in Marine Science or a related field is suggested for this position. A complete description and application materials can be found on the university’s faculty job portal https://www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/303202. Applications received by March 17, 2023 are assured full consideration. The position has a target start date of May 2023. Inquiries should be directed to Dr. Merryl Alber, Chair of the Search Committee (ugamidir@uga.edu), with the subject line: Director for Operations.
The Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research Program (GCE LTER) is recruiting for five paid summer internships in coastal ecology for summer 2023! Note that some opportunities are limited to current undergraduate students. All interns will be paid a stipend. Most internships last ~8 weeks between May and August, however, start and end dates are flexible based on the schedule of the intern and supervisor. Please read the position descriptions carefully as some positions have different requirements, dates, and/or locations. Follow the link for more information about the internships and to access the application. Applications are due March 5th, 2023.
The University of Georgia Marine Institute on Sapelo Island is seeking to hire an Academic Professional to develop and provide oversight of the Institute’s residential instructional programs for University students. The candidate will also serve on the UGAMI leadership team as the Assistant Director for Academics, mentor students conducting independent research, and teach field courses in their area of specialization. The position is based primarily at the UGA Marine Institute on Sapelo Island, with travel to the UGA main campus in Athens and other destinations around the state (approximately one trip per month). Although it is possible to commute to Sapelo via ferry, residence on-site is required when programs are in session (including some weekends). Housing is available at the Marine Institute.
A Ph.D. in Marine Science or a related discipline is required for this position. A complete description and application materials can be found on the university’s faculty job portal https://www.ugajobsearch.com/hr/postings/296508. Applications received by February 23, 2023 are assured full consideration. The position has a target start date of May 2023. Inquiries should be directed to Dr. Merryl Alber, Chair of the Search Committee (ugamidir@uga.edu), with the subject line: Academic Professional.
Our new Scientist-in-Residence, Dr. Emlyn Resetarits
We are very excited to announce Dr. Emlyn Resetarits will be joining UGAMI as our inaugural Scientist-in-Residence. Dr. Resetarits has been teaching as part of our Marine Biology Spring semester for several years and will be joining the UGAMI faculty full-time in Spring 2023. She has already begun setting up her research in a dedicated space in the newly renovated north wing of the main lab. We welcome Dr. Resetarits and her research to UGAMI and are truly excited about the research opportunities and wealth of knowledge she brings to our students and research community.
A little bit more about Dr. Resetarits:
She received her PhD from UT-Austin where she investigated how environmental variables influence parasite community assembly across spatial and organizational scales, focusing primarily on salt-marsh ecosystems. She continued her research at the Odum School of Ecology at UGA in the Byers Lab where she combined field surveys with lab and field manipulations to quantify the role that parasites play in aquatic ecosystems.
Dr. Resetarits’ work provides valuable insight into how parasites interact at the ecosystem level and how behavior and community-level dynamics may contribute to those interactions.
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Resetarits to our community! We look forward to hearing more about what she uncovers in the marsh.
The beach pavilion stairs at Nanny Goat beach were damaged during Tropical Storm Nicole on 10 November 2022.
Sapelo Island was hit by the storm surge from Tropical Storm Nicole last week, which came in about two feet higher than predicted. GA DNR reported 12” of water in the lighthouse and water over many roads, including the Marsh Landing parking lot.
UGAMI was very lucky during the storm, but we did have minor flooding in both the carpenter’s shop and first floor labs. When the ferry resumed on Friday morning UGAMI commuters were able to get back to the island for an all-hands clean-up, and the flooded areas were cleaned up by noon. We are counting ourselves fortunate that things were not worse and are grateful to the entire staff for rallying so quickly.
The rest of the island did not sustain substantial damage aside from the beach pavilion on Nanny Goat Beach, which lost an estimated 15’ of dunes on top of substantial loss from Hurricane Ian in October. Pictured above are the stairs that washed up some ways south of the pavilion, which remains roped off until repairs can be made.
Let’s hope that this was the last storm for a while!
The new cohort of PhD students from the Odum School of Ecology visited this month for a whirlwind tour of everything UGAMI and Sapelo Island has to offer young ecologists!
This post comes to us from the trip’s organizer and faculty member at Odum, Dr. Ford Ballentyne:
ECOL8000 Field trip
The field trip is an integral component of ECOL8000, the only required class for PhD students in Ecology. It is an intense, but fun, long weekend during which students conceive and conduct research projects, and present their results. All attendees (students, faculty, and teaching assistants) travel together, stay in the same accommodations, and cook and clean up together. One of the goals is for the students to bond and develop a sense of a cohort early on in their graduate careers. In prior years, the class went to Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, but we decided to try Sapelo/UGAMI this year.
The primary focus of the field trip is the research project. In groups, students must make some initial natural history observations in an unfamiliar setting, and then translate their observations into research questions and data collection schemes in a matter of hours. They present their proposed projects to the rest of the class and receive feedback shortly thereafter. Incorporating this feedback, the groups refine their questions and plans for data collection, and begin collecting data the morning after formulating their plans, having a single day to collect data, with minimal technology. The aim of the research project is for students to design projects that address an interesting ecological question or observation, collect data that will address the question with rudimentary techniques (simple measurements and counting) and significant time limitation, and then synthesize, analyze (with minimal computation and statistical analysis), and present their data and conclusions. They have to balance the quality of their questions with the constraints on data collection and analysis to arrive at some clear and, hopefully, compelling patterns and conclusions.
During the 2022 field trip to UGAMI on Sapelo Island, two groups focused on snails and one group focused on birds. One snail group was interested in characterizing the relationship between snail density, radulation scarring, and plant performance. The other snail group was interested in characterizing how the height at which snails were found on spartina stalks was impacted by snail density, distance from tidal creek, and snail body size. The bird group was interested in characterizing how patterns of relative abundance of birds differed between maritime forest, marsh, and beach habitats. The snail groups tromped around the high marsh with measuring tapes, meter sticks, and calipers to collect their data, and the bird group used both visual and audio surveys in the three habitats of interest. The radulation snail group found an interesting pattern of increased total radulation scarring at an intermediate distance from the tidal creek, the snail height group found that snail body size was significantly higher with distance from the tidal creek, and the bird group found very different patterns of relative abundance and species richness across the three habitats sampled.
Because of the history of human interactions on Sapelo Island, and especially those between scientists, primarily associated with UGA, and long-term residents, we had Nik Heynen, Professor of Geography at UGA, speak to the class prior to the field trip about his work with Hog Hammock residents, which resulted from involvement with the Georgia Coastal LTER site at UGAMI. While on Sapelo, we were fortunate to have Josiah ‘Jazz’ Watts talk to the class about race, power, discrimination, and science on Sapelo and the GA coast more generally.
The sole broadband connection to Sapelo Island consists of a microwave link that exchanges data with the mainland, approximately 9 miles away. The microwave radios that had been on the tower since 2012 were installed as part of a partnership between UGAMI and Darientel, which is the network provider for the Island. The system was showing its age and was frequently at capacity, as the bandwidth shared by the entire Island was only 300 Mbps (150 Mbps in each direction). This resulted in bottlenecks and disruptions in internet service. However, that has now changed!
This past month we again partnered with Darientel and replaced the old system with modern radios that use new technology. The upgrade increased the bandwidth by 8-fold, to 2,400 Mbps. This makes a huge difference for us: for example, instead of taking ~2 hours to upload drone imagery it now takes more like 12 minutes. It also means we can support internet use and video conferences without interruptions. The increased capacity benefits not only UGAMI but also broadband users throughout the Island. We are very grateful to the UGA Office of Research, which provided the UGA portion of the funds for this improvement.
The microwave tower is located on South End Creek on the UGAMI campus.
After four weeks of buzzing activity in the field and lab, UGA’s Coastal Summer Semester just wrapped up! The students left this past weekend having completed their independent projects under the supervision of Drs. Chuck Hopkinson and Emlyn Resetarits.
This summer’s projects took students to diverse habitats all across the island, from tagging along with the GADNR to track turtle nests to getting chest-deep in marsh mud to collect mud snails! The range of topics covered by this year’s cohort spanned microplastics to thermal tolerance, fish diversity to parasite prevalence.
The students ended the semester with a showcase of their work at the Coastal Summer Symposium held in UGAMI’s auditorium. Working with undergraduates is an important part of the UGAMI mission, and the energy and insight they bring is inspiring. It always makes it difficult to say goodbye.
If you would like to get involved with undergraduate research or know of any students who are interested in our experiential learning opportunities, we are currently accepting applications for our Marine Biology Spring Semester. Apply here! For more information or questions contact us.
It’s going to be a busy summer at UGAMI! Last week, we hosted our annual barbecue to welcome our summer visitors.
Drs. John Schalles (Creighton) and Steve Pennings (UH) are back for another summer, as are graduate students Matt Pierce (UGA), Harrison Currin (GSU), and Tommy Pudil (GSU) .
We also have a group of interns joining us to work with GCE investigators. They hail from institutions across the US including Creighton University, University of Houston, University of South Carolina, Eckerd College, and University of North Florida.
We are also looking forward to the arrival of a new cohort of students for UGA’s Coastal Summer Semester, who will be here this weekend along with Drs. Emlyn Resetarits and Charles Hopkinson. We’re looking forward to a productive summer, and it feels great to see so many new (and returning!) visitors.
Graduate Student Matt Pierce (UGA) and Summer Intern Addie Band (Eckerd College) measuring water quality parameters. Summer Intern Gabby Gagnon (U of South Carolina) learning how to use the RTK.
The Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research program (GCE LTER) seeks a Research Professional to assist with coastal ecology research on the Georgia coast. This person will serve as lead technician and manager of a field crew in performing research in a wide range of disciplines including water quality, remote sensing, soils, climate, and wetland plants and animals. The Research Professional will serve as the primary contact for visiting researchers, oversee maintenance and operations of equipment, manage data submissions, and perform other research administration tasks. The position requires at least a baccalaureate in a related field but those with a master’s degree and relevant experience will be the most competitive. Ideally, the candidate will have prior experience with small boat operations, field research, scientific instrumentation, drone piloting, and personnel management. Physical Demands: The position will occasionally require strenuous physical activity and irregular hours. Much of the work is done outdoors in hot, muddy, and buggy conditions. The position is based at the University of Georgia Marine Institute on Sapelo Island. Work Hours: Generally, 8:30 – 5:00 M – F; although field work may require early or late hours and occasional weekends. Apply by May 31 for full consideration.
