GoShoals Summer 2010

Interesting Marine Biology Job

GoShoals — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:57:33 +0000

Through the Woods Hole e-mail grapevine:

…we are always looking for good Marine Biologists, as part of the team in our Beach Resorts, where the Marine Biologist takes guests snorkeling and also assists with environment issues at the Resort. We ideally like to find people who have just graduated or with a few years experience, as they seem to enjoy life in an island republic and are not quite ready to settle down yet.

Contact Laurie Burr at laurie@sixsenses.com if you’re interested. The company is called Six Senses; they run a chain of sustainable eco/spa-resorts primarily in southeast Asia.

Graduate Research @ Shoals

GoShoals — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:41:14 +0000

Joe Simonis, a graduate student in ecology and evolutionary biology, studies predator-prey interactions in supratidal pools — pools above tide level — at Shoals, which is managed by Cornell and University of New Hampshire staffers. Specifically, he collects data on the foraging habits of water boatman insects — the top predator in these little pools among the island’s coastal rocks — and the critters they prey upon.

SEEES Speaker Series

GoShoals — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:25:17 +0000

Cornell University is sponsoring the Sustainable Earth, Energy, and Environmental Systems (SEEES) speaker series for Fall 2010, featuring all new topics and speakers. The theme for this year is: the interwoven challenge of energy, climate, and the environment in the human and natural world. The series is designed especially for college freshmen and sophomores, but we are extending the invitation to all area college and high school students, and surrounding communities. No registration is required. The series is co-sponsored by the Cornell Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future.

The series meets Monday nights, every other week, 7:30-8:45pm in 101 Phillips Hall on the Cornell Campus (TCAT #10, Sage Hall bus stop), and starts on Monday August 30th.

For more information: Louise P. McGarry (lpm3@cornell.edu or 607-342-0628)

2010 Sustainable Earth, Energy, and Environmental Systems (SEEES)
exploring the interwoven challenge of
energy, climate, and the environment
in the human and natural world.

PRIMERS: Energy, Society, Climate, and Life Systems
Aug 30: Carbon Energy and Society
Sep 13: New Energy Opportunities and Challenges
Sep 27: Changing Climates and Life Systems
THE CHALLENGE: Intersection of Energy and Ecosystems
Oct 4: Terrestrial – Marcellus Shale Case Study
Oct 18: Marine – Energy and the Marine Environment
ENGAGING the CHALLENGE: Intersection of Science and Society
Nov 01: Role and Response of Policy and Business
Nov 15: The Nature of Science and Science in the Media
RESPONDING to the CHALLENGE: Student Projects
(SEEES first-year writing seminar students)
Nov 20: (Saturday) Natural History at Noon – Museum of the Earth
TAKING ACTION
Nov 29: Cornell: Energy and the Environment

The Shoals Experience

GoShoals — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:14:38 +0000

Molly Smith ’12, a natural resources major at Cornell, is no stranger to Shoals. She is the granddaughter of the lab’s founding director, John Kingsbury, and has traveled to Appledore with her parents — who met there decades ago — all her life. But this summer, for the first time, she arrived on the island as a student. “Before, I was an observer but now I’m a participant, but both experiences have been invaluable,” Smith said… Read More!

The beautifully brutal life of gulls

GoShoals — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:10:17 +0000

From Carl Zimmer: This week I’m on the Island of Science Writing. Today we wandered rocky coves with Tufts University biologist Julie Ellis, an expert on gulls. She showed us how to catch and band juvenile herring gulls–and how to recognize the matted remains of juvenile herring gulls coughed up by their great black-backed gulls predators. Life here is pretty, and yet not so pretty. But always interesting for writing about… Read More, Read Carl’s older post on science writing, or visit the 2009 science writing blog.

I Am Cornell

GoShoals — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:27:10 +0000

To those of you still out on the island now… or SML alumni… post an I Am Cornell picture and send us a link?

(Ken Stuart)

Gull Chicks

GoShoals — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:16:48 +0000

Here’s a very cute video with a gull chick breaking out of its egg – a learning moment for Shoals students.

(Thanks Amy Warren!)

Animal Behavior Society 2010 Film Festival

GoShoals — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:01:30 +0000

Signals for Survival, produced by Marc Dantzker & David Brown, won a competition at the Animal Behavior Society’s 2010 Film Festival. Footage was taken on Appledore Island, our favorite gull nesting colony! Signals for Survival is a documentary on the communication systems used by Great Black–backed Gulls and Herring gulls. Here’s the Amazon link and the Society’s website.

Shoals class experiment analyzes seaweed harvested

GoShoals — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:47:11 +0000

As part of a year-long experiment on Appledore Island, six miles off the southern Maine coast, students and instructors cut rockweed, a brown seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum) that anchors to the rocks where the ocean meets the island. Some strands were shorn at their holdfasts on the rocks, others were cut at 16 inches, and yet others were left to grow as controls… Read More!

Shoals in CALS News

GoShoals — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:34:34 +0000

On June 30, student interns at the Shoals Marine Lab activated 15 new solar panels, bringing the remote marine facility another step closer to energy independence. The panels, purchased through grant and donor funds, will generate electricity for Cornell’s teaching island… Read More or View Photos.