Friends of Oceanography Breakfast Lecture
to Focus on Crabs and Clams

Narragansett, R.I. -- September 26, 2000 -- The public is invited to attend a free Community Breakfast Lecture, sponsored by Friends of Oceanography, to be held on Wednesday, October 11, at 9 a.m. in the Coastal Institute Building on the URI Bay Campus. The lecture is part of a series featuring the research of URI Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) students.

The October 11 lecture, "Crabs or Clams--Who Benefits Most When There Is Not Enough Oxygen," features biological oceanography Ph.D. candidate David Taylor of East Greenwich.

Taylor will present the results of his research which examined the predator-prey dynamics between the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, and the soft-shelled clam, Mya arenaria, and the potential impacts of hypoxia, the deficiency of dissolved oxygen in the water.

Taylor, a native of Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, received a B.A. from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and an M.S. from North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Under the guidance of his major professor, Dr. Jeremy Collie, his research focuses on the effects of increased water temperature on the predator-prey interaction between the sand shrimp Crangon septemspinosa and the young-of-the-year winter flounder prey. Taylor has a two-year assistantship to run the GSO fish trawl, a bottom-trawl survey conducted in Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound. The trawl survey, which quantifies the abundance of fish and invertebrate species in the area, has been an on-going project for more than 40 years.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Coffee and muffins will be served. For more information, call Friends of Oceanography at (401) 874-6602.

Friends of Oceanography is a community-based membership organization established in 1986 to support the educational and public programs of the URI Graduate School of Oceanography. Friends provides financial support of fellowships for GSO students, and other research, education, and outreach activities. The organization also helps sponsor a variety of special events such as The JASON Project, oceanography lectures, the Annual Friends of Oceanography Auction, open houses, and the Narragansett Bay Classroom.

x-x-x

Visit the URI Graduate School of Oceanography website:
http://www.gso.uri.edu/
Lisa Cugini, 874-6642, lcugini@gsosun1.gso.uri.edu