Category: Climate Variability

Palmer Long-term Ecological Research Program: Rise of the Megafauna

[su_nt_image source=”http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2013/02/2013-01-16-LTERBLOGDWJ-2013-01-17-DWJ-IMG_0415.jpg” width=”one_third”] Zach Swaim and I have just returned from a 6-week excursion to the deep south, to further incorporate and expand marine mammals studies into the epic Palmer Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) Program during its annual cruise along the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Through a combination of visual surveys, biopsy sampling and opportunistic acoustic…
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Ice seals and Cachalot in Spring 2012 Duke Environment

[photo size=’small’ align=’right’ link=’http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2012/04/DEimage_preview.jpg’ icon=’zoom’ lightbox=’image’ ]http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2012/04/DEimage_preview.jpg[/photo]The Spring 2012 issue of Duke Environment Magazine is out, and there are two articles that cover work done in the Johnston Lab. The first is the lead story in the research section portion of the magazine (called the Log), and is a recap of the work we published…
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Harp seals and ice: Media and hype

[photo size=’medium’ align=’right’]http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2012/01/Seal-26th007.jpg[/photo]It’s been 13 days since our paper about changing sea ice conditions in breeding regions of harp seals was published in PLoS ONE. It has been incredibly interesting to watch the story propagate through the worlds media channels, both traditional and online. As a scientist, I’m increasingly interested in how science is portrayed to…
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Harp seals on thin ice…

Today we published a paper on the effects of climate change on pagophilic seals in the North Atlantic in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The paper is available to everyone, free of charge here: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029158 This paper is the third in a series of studies published by my lab that examine the effects of climate…
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Abstracts for Upcoming Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals

Our lab has several abstracts accepted for presentation at the upcoming 19th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals. The conference is being held in Tampa, FL during November 28 to December 2, 2011. The theme of the conference is: “Cumulative effects of threats to marine mammals: Challenges to animals, scientists, and managers.” The…
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The HMS Plover Project and the Duke Special Collections Library

We’ve just started working with Dr. Kevin Wood from the University of Washington’s Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO) and his colleagues on an interesting historical climate/ecology project. In partcular, the HMS Plover project seeks to recalibrate temperature observations made by Dr. John Simpson and others aboard the HMS Plover at…
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International Marine Conservation Congress – Ice and Seals

Our lab just got word that two abstracts have been accepted for oral presentations at the upcoming International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) this May in Victoria, BC. I will be giving a talk that summarizes our work on harp seals and sea ice in the North Atlantic and T.J. Young will be speaking about his…
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Getting going with desktop climate modeling

[dropcap4 color=”green”]O[/dropcap4]ver the past 26 hours my 8-core monster Mac Pro has been crunching numbers like never before. I’ve had it running a public domain climate modeling software package called EdGCM. This package, created by scientists at Columbia University, is based on a research-grade global circulation model produced by NASA called GISS II and has…
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