CCPO Speaker to Discuss Seal-Aided Water Column Research

October 09, 2012

Sensors attached to deep diving Weddell seals in the Ross Sea near the South Pole are transmitting new hydrographic data from the water column and giving scientists such as Old Dominion University oceanographer Andrea Pinones new avenues of study. Pinones will present a public seminar about this work on Monday, Oct. 15.

Pinones will deliver the talk "Temporal and Spatial Variability in Hydrographic Conditions and Transport of Euphausiid Larvae in the Ross Sea" beginning at 3:30 p.m. in Room 3200 of the Research Innovations Building 1 at 4111 Monarch Way. The talk, which is part of the fall seminar series of ODU's Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography (CCPO), is free and open to the public.

Using seals with sensors, scientists have been able to extend the times of the year when they can gather data about the upper water column in the Ross Sea. Pinones will discuss data about water temperature and specific water masses that have been identified in the Ross Sea. She will also talk about water circulation, and the transport in these waters of Antarctic krill, an important component of the food chain.

Pinones received her bachelor's degree from Catholic University of Valparaiso in Chile and her master's and doctoral degrees from ODU's Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. She currently is a research associate with CCPO, but will leave at the end of 2012 to take a post-doctoral appointment in the Yale Climate Energy Institute at Yale University.