6th International Conference on Oceanography, Ocean Technology and Marine Biology September 21-22, 2018 Dallas, Texas, USA

AnneMarie Clements is the Director and a restoration ecologist of Anne Clements & Associates, a group specialising in botanical conservation assessment, as well as developing and implementing optimal conservation strategies. She holds a MSc (Macquarie Univ.) Thesis - The vegetation of bushland in the northern Sydney area and a PhD (Univ. of Sydney) Thesis - The vegetation of the sand masses of the mid-north coast of New South Wales. She has more than 30 years’ experience. Her major research interests include the re-establishment of native ecosystems, impacts of urban development on vegetation and soil, pattern analysis, effects of inundation and salinity on the plant communities, metal concentrations on plant growth and bioaccumulation. She has utilized her research in designing and implementing rehabilitation/conservation programs as part of sustainable developments.

Coasts worldwide are ravaged by major storms. Planning on exposed coasts requires an understanding of the impacts of previous storm events. The approach taken for storm protection in this project was to re-establish native dune ecosystems with their inherent ability to withstand and recover from storms, rather than to construct a rigid engineered seawall. The May-June 1974 storms on the Australian east coast provided an impact benchmark for the likely "1 in 100-year events" for the Magenta Shores project. The calculated storm bite on previously mined Magenta beach dunes was up to 300m3 of sand per linear meter. Mineral sand mining resulted in highly erodible loose quartz sand, 'stabilized' by the South African Chrysanthemoides monilifera subsp. rotundata (bitou bush). These highly degraded coastal ecosystems were on irregular landforms with a reduced occurrence of soil binding fungi and associated native host plants. Regular monitoring showed that colonization occurred in stages, with increases in diversity dependent on the ongoing removal of dense bitou seedlings. The primary colonizing species Spinifex sericeus and development of a fungal network were essential for secondary colonizing species Acacia longifolia subsp. sophorae. Within three years, native species dominated the stabilized dune ecosystems. The dune shape depended on establishing the prostrate primary colonizer Spinifex, and maintaining the shape and sand volume was dependent on the sand grain-trapping mechanisms of the fungal hyphae and their host plants. Overall, the project demonstrated the importance of mimicking natural processes–by allowing windblown sand to form crests and swales parallel to the beach; creating protected fibrous coastal tea-tree windrow microenvironments; burying Spinifex seedheads in the moist sand layer for primary colonization of the reconstructed dune and establishing primary colonizing native vegetation cover and associated fungal hyphae.

Miguel De Luque has his expertise in environmental modeling (Water quality, Air Pollution). Has created prediction models to evaluate impacts from anthropogenic projects. Develops environmental studies such as environmental impact assessment and contingency plans. He is currently the director of environmental engineering

program at the University of Cundinamarca.

Submarine outfall systems have been presented as a problem solution for domestic wastewater in coastal cities, due to their design facilities and costs. In this study, the application of a mathematical model to predict the effects of the light intensity, salinity and volumetric ratio variables of the mixture of wastewater and seawater in the Escherichia coli (E. coli) die-off rate on the ocean were evaluated. The relationship between the variables mentioned above was established through the MATLAB software, performing laboratory tests established in a rotatable experimental design. Under each combination of factors, the concentration of E. coli was measured at the start of each experiment and every half hour in a total period of two (2) hours using the membrane filtration method of Standard Methods. The results of the tests were statistically analyzed through a stepwise regression, where the mathematical expression was found that allowed to relate the three (3) factors mentioned with the output variable (E. coli die-off rate). This model serves as a tool to predict E. coli die-off rate of any submarine outfall on the planet.

Nasir Soomro is Geologist from Pakistan; he is working with the Energy Department, at the Government of Sindh, Pakistan. He has eclectic interests in the field of earth science, arts and literature. He is the author of the book, ‘Peaks and Perils of Life’ (English Poetry).

The intrusion Seawater has been a challenging issue in the Indus River Estuary (IRE) for over the course of time. Hydrological and meteorological observations were examined through eclectic literature to bring about the causes of seawater intrusion in the waterbody. As the matter of fact, seawater intrusion and coastal erosion are causing deteriorating effects on ecosystem besides causing damage to the environment. The Indus Delta is under great vulnerability. The Indus deltaic region is not only threatened by continuing untoward activities in upstream but also by the near sea in the south, due to the impacts of regional weather conditions. Observational results suggest that the seawater intrusion is inching as much as 84 km upstream in the IRE during the dry season. Extensive field investigations and a high-resolution coastal ocean model are urgently needed for future study.

Michel Denis was recruited at the CNRS in 1969 to develop physics approaches in biology: A study of electron transfer in the mitochondrial respiratory system with the help of various optical, potentiometric and magnetic techniques. He joined the Center of Oceanology of Marseille (COM) in 1985 to apply these approaches

to marine microorganisms whose respiratory systems were largely unknown. His activity evolved towards the individual study of marine microorganisms using flow cytometry, an emerging technique in the marine environment at the end of the 1980’s. He thus introduced this approach to COM and trained students in this

discipline.

Marine microorganisms play a major role in oceanic biogeochemical processes, both regarding organic matter production, the feeding source of the entire marine food chain and its mineralization. Their large diversity and short cell cycles make them very sensitive to changes in their environment. Their size classes cover 4 orders of magnitude and their diversity encompasses several thousand species. To overcome these difficulties and account correctly for their dynamics in the natural environment in the frame of global change and carbon cycle, it is critical to observe them in situ at an hour timescale and at the single cell level. Similarly, to better apprehend their spatial distribution dynamics, high-frequency observation has to be carried out at submesoscale. Building on the first commercialized automated in situ (Cytosub, Cytobuoy.com, NL), flow cytometer dedicated to phytoplankton, we addressed its dynamics at the hour time scale and its spatial distribution at sub-mesoscale. Our 12-year experience leads to several improvements of the instrument features. For practical reasons, we preferentially used

the non-submersible Cytosense on pumped seawater and demonstrated its efficiency when analyzing pumped seawater from a coastal laboratory, a buoy or a ship where the instrument could be remotely controlled providing internet access. In situ, high-frequency observation of phytoplankton was also critical to validate the algorithm (PHYSAT) developed to identify the dominant phytoplankton groups from remote sensing data. To extend this approach to non-photosynthetic microorganisms, we designed and developed (in close collaboration with Cytobuoy), a new instrument (Cytopro) equipped with an automated staining module that is now validated and tested on a cruise. The Cytopro is more focused on analyzing small cells, particularly heterotrophic prokaryotes (at best, every half hour). This advanced technology opens the access to new fields of research requiring in situ high-frequency observation of marine microorganisms.