At the intersection of oceanographic science and the (re)insurance industry stands the Risk Prediction Initiative (RPI), founded in 1995 by a group of local Bermudian insurers and reinsurers and BIOS.

May 04, 2012 — DeGroote Family donates $500,000 to Dalhousie University/BIOS

Last week three BIOS scientists – Tim Noyes and Dr. Eric Hochberg in the Coral Reef Ecology and Optics Lab [CREOL] and Andrew Collins in the Bermuda Ocean Acidification and Coral Reef Investigation [BEACON] Lab – presented their research at the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium [ICRS] in Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

Earlier this year, scientists wrapped up the second research cruise, as part of a multi-year project investigating a feature of the Southern Ocean known as the Great Southern Coccolithophore Belt (Great Belt). Coccolithophores are a type of phytoplankton with a unique exoskeleton composed of calcified platelets (coccoliths), giving them the appearance of being heavily armored.

When you consider ways to study the process of aging in humans, you might not consider looking to one of the ocean’s most widely-studied invertebrates—the sea urchin—but that’s exactly what BIOS researchers Dr. Jeannette Loram and Dr. Andrea Bodnar did in a recent study published in the journal Mechanisms of Ageing and Development.

A wave of change is upon the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS). After an extensive six-month international search BIOS is pleased to announce that Dr. William Curry will be stepping in as the new BIOS President and Director in September.

With the start of its 110-year anniversary just a few months away, and the recent installation of Dr. William Curry as the new President and Director, the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) has more than one reason to celebrate. Given the coincident timing of these two momentous occasions, BIOS is pulling out all the stops for its 2012 Gala Celebration on Friday, November 9 at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess hotel.

From November 28-30, 2012 BIOS will host the international ocean time-series workshop, Moving Toward Global Interoperability in a Changing Ocean: An International Time-Series Methods Workshop. The workshop is jointly convened by the International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (IOCCP) and the Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry (OCB) Program and aims to develop more consistent and transparent time-series methodologies.

The June 2012 issue of Eos featured the first report of the newly formed Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) Working Group (WG) 139. The group, chaired by BIOS scientist Dr. Kristen Buck, represents a unique interdisciplinary collaboration of trace metal biogeochemists, organic geochemists, and biogeochemical modelers.

Residents of the San Francisco Bay region have long suspected that its waters might be contaminated with copper, particularly when the native fish populations in the north bay began declining two decades ago. Such declines can typically be attributed to changes in water temperature; however – in this case – such changes weren’t observed, leading some to believe that copper toxicity might be to blame. Adding to their suspicions is the fact that copper levels in the waters periodically exceed the U.S. EPA water quality guidelines.