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Announcements Dear Colleagues, Five courses at the upper undergraduate level/graduate level are planned. Courses carry 2 graduate credits from the University of New England. Applications will be accepted beginning 1 January 2003; be sure to note the application deadline for each course. Course participation will be limited to 8 - 12 individuals in order to provide maximum exposure for the student. Participants will be chosen based upon application materials and the date the deposit is received, so early application is encouraged. To register for any of the courses, or for further information, please contact Ms Jane Gardner (Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, POB 475, W. Boothbay Harbor, ME. 04575; Tel. 207-633-9600; email- jgardner@bigelow.org) or see our web site at http://www.bigelow.org/course/ . Thank you very much. Phytoplankton Culture Techniques The Provasoli-Guillard National Center for Culture of Marine Phytoplankton will offer an intensive seven-day course covering basic and advanced techniques for isolating, growing and cryopreserving marine phytoplankton. The course is designed for academic graduate students and faculty members as well as aquaculturists. Isolation methods include direct single-cell isolation by micropipette, agar plating and flow cytometry and indirect methods such as dilution techniques and enrichments. Preparation and sterilization of various culture media will be described. Instructors will provide methods for culture purification, including physical (e.g. single-cell "washing"), chemical (e.g. antibiotic treatments) and automated (e.g., flow cytometry) approaches. Students, in groups no larger than 5-6, will participate in flow cytometric laboratory exercises for isolating and purifying culture strains and in cryopreservation laboratory exercises. Cryopreservation will include discussion of cryoprotectants, methods for freezing (simple techniques to computer-assisted control-rate freezers) and methods for thawing frozen cells. Other topics will include factors affecting culture health, such as light, temperature, salinity, nutrients and aeration. Mass culturing will also be addressed, and numerous species from the CCMP collection will be available for study. Small-Scale Physical-Biological Interactions in the Plankton The adaptations of planktonic organisms, from viruses and bacteria to larval fish, can be understood only in the context of the immediate physical and chemical environment in which they live. Nutrient uptake, motility patterns, feeding and encounter rates, signal transmission and perception are all constrained by often non-intuitive interactions between organism biology and small-scale physical and chemical characteristics of the fluid environment (e.g. viscosity, fluid motion, diffusion). This course will examine the life and interactions of planktonic organisms in their small-scale world through lectures and laboratory and computer exercises and demonstrations. Macroalgal Diversity: Modern Practical Approaches Students in this course will become familiar with the tools and skills needed to accurately identify and document the macroalgae (seaweeds) within the marine environment. Excursions to seaweed habitats will be followed by intensive laboratory sessions in which the principal techniques for algal identification will be taught and used, and their strengths and limitations discussed. Preservation and vouchering strategies appropriate for recording diversity, and for subsequent use of specimens in morphological, culture-based, and molecular-based investigations, will be demonstrated. The course is designed for persons who are interested in marine floristic or biodiversity studies, or are engaged in marine environmental monitoring, and have some prior knowledge of phycology or marine botany. Ecology Of Harmful Algal Blooms The quantitative ecology of harmful algal species and their blooms will be the theme of this lecture series. Topics to be covered will include: competitive strategies, distributions, life histories, selection of bloom species, their phylogenetic, growth, production & nutritional features, plus global patterns, population dynamics, environmental control and trophic impacts of harmful blooms. Emphasis will be placed on the ecophysiology of harmful species, and on the ecological principles involved in bloom dynamics and regulation. Advanced Aquatic Cytometry Workshop This workshop will focus on advanced topics in aquatic cytometry. Emphasis will be on new methods in flow and imaging cytometry applicable to problems in the aquatic sciences, especially in the field of marine plankton. The use of different fluorochromes, functional probes, immunological probes, in-situ flow cytometry and cell sorting will be covered. A variety of sorting applications will be discussed and tested including the use of molecular methods as a tool for identifying new or previously isolated species. In addition, microscope imaging and imaging-in-flow will be demonstrated. Applicants should have a basic understanding of flow cytometry, such as operating experience or an instrument course. Individual student projects will be emphasized with hands-on operation opportunities with a BD FACScan analyzer, a DakoCytomation MoFlo sorter, a Cytopeia, Inc. InFlux sorter, and a FlowCAM. The resources of the Center for Culture of Marine Phytoplankton (http://ccmp.bigelow.org) will also be available for individual student projects. For more information on any of these courses, please contact Ms Jane Gardner, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, POB 475, W. Boothbay Harbor, ME. 04575; Tel. 207-633-9600; email- jgardner@bigelow.org |