Although some of us grad students feel like we’ve “been here forever”, the Marine Science Center is a relatively recent addition to East Point. (East Point is the name of the eastern tip of Nahant and is the site of the Marine Science Center.) East Point, and Nahant in general, has gone through many changes over the past few centuries – transitioning from an island used by farmers to graze their cattle in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, to a vacation spot for the wealthy in the 19^th century, to a military defense sight in the first half of the 20^th century, to the sleepy and quiet community it is now. All of these phases and transitions have certainly left their mark on the land where the Marine Science Center now resides.

To those of us who work here now, the most apparent ‘historical marks’ at East Point are those left by the military. In 1917 the US army purchased East Point from Henry Cabot Lodge (US Senator) to build a defense site for the Northeast coastline to guard against possible attacks. The defense site here at East Point included an indicator loop receiving station, a bunker which housed guns and ammunition, triangulation towers, and eventually the development of a Nike missile site during the Cold War. The gentleman I had crossed paths with did not know that the base had been sold to Northeastern University in 1967. Nevertheless I think he was still happy to see many of the prominent features from his time still remained and enjoyed seeing some of our ‘renovations’ such as the bright blue paint and electric lighting that are now in the bunker. Although I don’t have his first-hand perspective, I do appreciate and enjoy learning about the history of East Point and seeing the changes it has undergone. Just before Christmas I received a letter which included copies of some of his pictures he had taken during his post at East Point.

Walking around the property it is easy to see what has changed and what still remains…

Prior to it hosting a military defense site, East Point first held a hotel (1823-1859) and then the homes of the Lodge Family.

Unfortunately for us, the home was burnt down by a few teenagers in the late 1960’s but the military used it as a bunk house and the gentleman who gave me the photos stayed in the room indicated by the arrow. Today the site is covered by sumac and other plants; I’ve been told you can find remnants of the home’s foundation and cellar but I have not ventured through the shrubbery to find these.

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The bunker was built in 1942 and had two gun ports on either end. Prior to the bunker, East Point was actually flat; they poured thick concrete walls to form the bunker then covered it with dirt which makes it look like a hill.

On the left you can see four of the 6-inch (?) guns in position and the two radio antennae which were controlled via systems in the white hut which is next to the opening of north gun port. On the right is that same area today; you can just see the opening to the gun port through the trees. Today the field is being used by graduate student Sean Kent as an experimental site testing the effects of invasive plant species on native species interactions. You can also see the addition of the solar observatory. Do you notice any other features that are the same? The houses on Nahant Rd. and one of the radio towers are still present.

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Another pre-military feature is the ice house. Originally built to hold ice for the hotel, we now use it for storage of various odds and ends.

You’ll notice many of the trees are down/damaged which was due to Hurricane Carol which came through in 1954. If you look closely through the trees in the 1954 picture you can see one of the three triangulation towers that still remain today. The blue building in the recent picture was built in the around the time of the Nike missile installation and was used as a bunk house and office building for the military. Today we use it as office and laboratory space.

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So what does the future hold for East Point?

The Marine Science Center is expanding both its infrastructure and its intellect. We’ve already seen some of these changes with the hiring of Dr. Jon Grabowski as our fisheries biologist, the renovation of lab space, and the ongoing modernization of our flow-through seawater system. Over the next five years we’ll be seeing many more changes with more renovations, new buildings, and new faculty… So stay tuned!

Some interesting websites and wikipedia pages on the military history of East Point:

http://indicatorloops.com/eastpoint.htm

http://fortwiki.com/East_Point_Military_Reservation

http://www.coastdefense.com/east_point.htm

Hiking in the New Hampshire White Mountains

Each year prospective students visit Northeastern University to interview with the Biology Department faculty and learn more about this program. I remember my ‘Interview Day’ vividly. It was very intimidating! It was also really helpful because I was able to speak to current graduate students also, and get a feel for what life is like as a graduate student here. I still remember some of my conversations with students on that day, some of whom I am now pretty good friends with.

Volunteer Scientist with The Science Club for Girls

This year I was faced with the challenge of having to give a talk to the prospective students and give them the highlights of life here at Northeastern. I emailed all of the current graduate students to send me photos of the activities they’ve participated in, and I was pretty surprised by the responses I received. I ended up getting several dozen photos of students snow tubing, attending NEU hockey games, visiting local breweries, running in marathons, volunteering with local youth science programs, learning to make dumplings, hiking 5,000 ft mountains, iceskating at the Boston Commons, and the list goes on. I’ve put up a couple of my favorites for you to check out!

Ice Skating in the Boston Commons

Traditional New England Clambake

Finally once they are done a huge burden is thrown off all of their shoulders and I can physically feel the relief in the room. Whether they think they aced it or did horribly, everyone is simply happy its over with. And I am too, because now comes the the best part for me, they help put the microscopes away!

La Jardinera del la Esperanza, Punta Nizuc, Mexico. Photo: Jason deCaires Taylor. Acropora cervicornis colonies were planted around the statue.

The marine environment is vast – but only a small fraction of it contains the habitat where most people want to dive and most animals want to live.  Coral reefs are one such habitat – the corals and sponges provide crags and crevasses for swarms of fish and invertebrates to seek refuge, and in turn for people to use for fishing and tourism. Unfortunately, healthy coral reefs are less abundant than they were 50 years ago for numerous reasons: overfishing, pollution, disease and bleaching, and destruction by boats and overuse.

One man’s solution to this last problem is to create new beautiful or interesting sculpture gardens where people can go for diving and recreational use, which will also attract the corals, fish and invertebrates traditionally associated with natural reefs. The figures sculpted by Jason deCaires Taylor are made of concrete – which provides a settlement substrate for algae and coral recruits. Some sculptures, like the VW bug (see below), have been designed with invertebrate-attracting features, such as hideouts for lobster – and one human figure has holes into which staghorn coral fragments have been placed to grow into new colonies (these fragments were apparently the result of a previous coral garden – not removed directly from the reef – since this is an endangered species*). The artist has ‘installed’ two sculpture museum parks in the Caribbean, one in Moliniere Bay, Grenada, and one off the coast of Mexico, near Isla Mujeres/Cancun. Apparently I missed the memo last year about this, because the Grenada sculptures were listed by National Geographic as a ‘wonder of the world’, and I only learned recently through the npr blog.

Holy Man, Mexico. Photo: Jason deCaires Taylor. Unfortunately, this isn't likely to be an efficient way to grow A. cervicornis... they need more room - but I will be interested to see how this looks in 1-2 years.

I am captivated by this creative idea, but with the caveat that such projects should only be taken on with careful planning to promote conservation effects and minimize any negative impacts on natural reef communities. As with much art, some of the results are more beautiful to my eye than others, and some express more social commentary than others. One of the aspects of this art that intrigues me is that the sculptures are ephemeral – intended not to exist forever as the artist made them, rather to be lost over time, and perhaps like Phoenician amphora, they will be rediscoverd after thousands  of years…

*check out the cervicornis growth in La Jardinera del la Esperanza.

Anthropocene, habitat plan. Jason deCaires Taylor.

Anthropocene, Cancun/Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Photo: Jason deCaires Taylor.

I’m not sure if this is information is particularly helpful for someone agonizing over their relationship with a loved one… but it certainly caught my scientific interest on Valentine’s Day!

Here are some more articles on the biological basis of ‘love’:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/hottopics/love/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4498764.stm

http://www.ted.com/talks/helen_fisher_tells_us_why_we_love_cheat.html

Portrait of Charles Darwin in pencil by George Richmond. From darwin.amnh.org

Today is Charles Darwin’s 203rd birthday and you can celebrate in all kinds of ways:

Check out Darwin Day events in your area or browse through the more than 45,000 of Darwin’s scientific documents made publicly available by the American Museum of Natural History’s DarBase.

Express your inner naturalist: take a short sailing trip around South America, or if you’re not up to that, just go for a walk outside.

I will personally celebrate by sitting down with my data in a cafe and thinking real hard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2rJoIhgWmw

so, i think it’s justified

This day is an important opportunity for not only the Department to get to know the potential new graduate students but also for the potential students to get to know the Department. Graduate school is a big investment for both parties involved and it is important to know what each has to offer before signing on. Mingling with the prospective students today got me thinking about my own path to graduate school and what my criteria was for selecting a program to apply to and eventually join. These criteria are definitely going to vary person to person and, more so, among disciplines. Below I offer my suggestions of what to evaluate when making that big decision (in order of importance in my opinion):

#1 – The advisor; subject and style. In ecology and evolution, joining a graduate program really comes down to the advisor. The person you’ll be working with for the next 5+ years of your life and the person who will likely have great influence on you during ,and even possibly after, those 5 years. There are two really important things to consider when choosing an advisor – subject and style.

Knowing what subject area they research is pretty easy; you’ll likely know this already based on the literature and/or interactions at conferences. It’s awesome if an advisor is flexible about the exact nature of your dissertation but it is best if there is some overlap in subject area such that your advisor can actually give you advice about your research topic.

Before deciding on a particular advisor it is best to know what kind of advisor you want. At one extreme there are those advisors that are constantly looking over your shoulder and asking you what you’ve accomplished from one day to the next; at the other end of the spectrum there are advisors you’ll see at the start and end of your dissertation but never in between. The right advising style for you really comes down to how much independence you want and what environment you work best in. The only way to find out how someone advises is to ask their current and former students – hopefully they will give you an honest answer.

#2a – Location, location, location. This has just as much to do with your quality of life as it has to do with your research. If you are a city person and the thought of life in the countryside gives you hives don’t apply to universities in rural areas and vice versa. Doctoral programs are long and hard and you might as well be happy in the place you are living. For those of you in ecology/evolution fields you also have to consider where your research will take place – do you want to be able to do field work in your backyard or are you willing (or want) to travel?

#2b – Your potential peers. As stated above, doctoral programs are long and hard, you will need friendship and support and often it is best from those who are going through the same thing. When choosing a program find out how the peer dynamics are in the program; that is, do people get along, hang out outside of work, help each other academically, etc.

#2c – Resources and requirements. Read the fine print (or the entire handbook) before signing on the dotted line. How will you be supported during your time as a graduate student? Do you get an RA or TA? How much of a stipend will you get and for how long will you be guaranteed that stipend? Is there health insurance? Is there money available to conduct your research? What will your course and other requirements be to get a degree?

Other than that, for me, I wanted to be in a collaborative environment. It was important that there were other labs or PIs that I could work with to have an interdisciplinary dissertation. My decision to join the Marine Science Center (once they accepted me) came down to the fact that it offered the best blend of all of the above. Because I started this journey knowing exactly what I wanted out of a program I have been really happy with my decision.

Do you have any other criteria for making your big decision?

Good luck to all those prospective students out there! This time next year I hope you’re in the first year of the program that’s just right for you!

Massachusetts Sea Level Curve from USGS. Click image to go to source.

Last night’s public lecture was a big success with a full house of students and visitors alike. Much of the talk by Dr. Rosen was focused on the dramatic changes in landscape since the Laurentide Ice Sheet receded from the area about 13-14 thousand years ago. The Boston Harbor Islands as well as many of the hills in the area are the result of drumlins, produced as the ice sheet formed and revealed only after the glacier had melted. Due to the weight of the ice, the relative sea level just as the glacier was melting was actually about 30 meters higher than it is today – but over about 2000 years, the land rebounded, and relative sea level dropped to about 40 meters below today’s sea level. As the land gradually settles back down, relative sea level has risen again. With global climate change and rising sea levels, it is interesting to consider the historical processes that have determined what our coastline looks like today, and how they continue to affect what it will look like in the future.

How the Nahant tombolo was formed by transport of sediments by currents on either side of the original island.

In the lecture, one of the curiosities of my daily commute was also answered – that is: how the Nahant causeway was formed. It is a naturally formed feature, called a tombolo. Although it has been stabilized so that we can generally get on and off the island without incident – it’s position was determined by currents carrying sediments around the island and depositing them on the downstream side of Nahant. Longshore drift/transport took care of the rest.

The lecture is scheduled for 7 pm on Tuesday, Feb. 7, with refreshments served 1/2 an hour before. The lectures are held in the Murphy Bunker and are open to the public. No reservation is required. The Bunker is ADA accessible.

On a personal note, I am not sure how much of the lecture will actually focus on human development of Boston Harbor, but I thought the comparison of the maps below was interesting. For a better view and to see the sources, click on the images. The map on the left is Boston Harbor during the American Revolution, c. 1775. The one on the right is modern day Boston Harbor. I’m still trying to figure out what corresponds with what. I may know better after Tuesday.