Biography:Deborah Steinberg

From HandWiki
Short description: American Antarctic biological oceanographer
Deborah Steinberg
NationalityAmerican-Antarctic
Alma materB.A. University of California Santa Barbara Ph.D. University of California Santa Cruz
Known forInterdisciplinary oceanography and zooplankton ecology
Scientific career
FieldsOceanography
InstitutionsVirginia Institute of Marine Science, The College of William and Mary
WebsiteDeborah Steinberg at VIMS

Deborah K. Steinberg is an American Antarctic biological oceanographer who works on interdisciplinary oceanographic research programs.[1][2] Steinberg's research focuses on the role that zooplankton play in marine food webs and the global carbon cycle, and how these small drifting animals are affected by changes in climate.[3][4]

Early life and education

Steinberg received her B.A. at the University of California Santa Barbara in 1987. During her undergraduate studies she was a member of a science team for winter research expedition in Antarctica. She received a PhD at the University of California Santa Cruz in 1993 focusing on zooplankton and marine dynamics.[4][5] After graduation she joined the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences as a Research Scientist where she remained until 2001. She then joined the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, where she is a CSX Professor of Marine Science.[6]

Career and impact

Steinberg has been an international leader in understanding the zooplankton and jellyfish ecology along with how the food web structures the flux of carbon to the deep sea. From 2008 to 2013, she worked at Palmer Station within the US National Science Foundation Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program focusing on understanding how rapid warming drives ecosystem change.[7]

Her research program focuses on how zooplankton influence cycling of nutrients and organic matter, and how climate affects long-term change in zooplankton communities. Steinberg's laboratory has been involved in a number of projects with this theme, including the role of zooplankton vertical migration in transport of nutrients, the ecology of gelatinous zooplankton "blooms" and their effect on fluxes of organic matter, the importance of zooplankton in the cycling of dissolved organic matter, mesopelagic zooplankton and particle flux, and the effects of mesoscale eddies and a large river plume on zooplankton community structure.[5] They are also using long-term data sets from the Western Antarctic Peninsula and the Sargasso Sea off Bermuda to study the effects of climate change on zooplankton communities, and how these community changes may affect ocean food webs and biogeochemistry.[1][8]

Steinberg has worked in a number of marine environments including coastal California,[9] Antarctic,[10] Sargasso Sea,[11] the subtropical and subarctic North Pacific, the Amazon River plume,[12] and the Chesapeake Bay.[2] In the Antarctic, she oversees the krill research of Kim Bernard and her team known as "The Psycho Krillers".[13]

Steinberg has spent collectively more than 1.5 years at sea on more than 50 research cruises, and starred in the documentary "Antarctic Edge: 70° South.[14][15]

Projects

  • Long Term Ecological Research Network: Land-shelf-ocean connectivity, ecosystem resilience, and transformation in a sea-ice influenced pelagic ecosystem (NSF OPP)[16]
  • The Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study: Sustained Biogeochemical, Ecosystem, and Ocean Change Observations and Linkages in the Subtropical North Atlantic (NSF OCE)[17]
  • CSBR: Natural History: Organization and digitization of the larval fish collection at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (NSF DBI)
  • Jellyfish population dynamics in the Chesapeake Bay (Graduate Fellow - Joshua Stone) (Virginia Sea Grant, NOAA)

Awards and honors

Professional Memberships

Selected works

  • Steinberg, Deborah K., et al. "Overview of the US JGOFS Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS): a decade-scale look at ocean biology and biogeochemistry." Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 48.8 (2001): 1405-1447.
  • Steinberg, Deborah A., et al. "Protegrin-1: a broad-spectrum, rapidly microbicidal peptide with in vivo activity." Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 41.8 (1997): 1738-1742.
  • Steinberg, Deborah K., et al. "Zooplankton vertical migration and the active transport of dissolved organic and inorganic carbon in the Sargasso Sea." Deep-Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 47.1 (2000): 137-158.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Dietrich, Tamara. "VIMS Antarctic research part of new documentary". http://www.dailypress.com/news/science/dp-nws-antarctic-documentary-vims-20150920-story.html. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Malmquist, Dave (21 July 2005). "VIMS Researchers Re-Enter Ocean "Twilight Zone"". http://www.vims.edu/newsandevents/topstories/archives/2005/twilight_zone.php. 
  3. "Deborah Steinberg". Virginia.gov. http://www.schev.edu/adminfaculty/OFA/2015/Steinberg.asp. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 "5th International Zooplankton Symposium". https://www.pices.int/meetings/international_symposia/2011/zoop5/speakers.aspx. 
  5. 5.0 5.1 Kelly, Daniel (2013-01-18). "Debbie Steingberg Explains Zooplankton Research" (in en-US). http://www.fondriest.com/news/qa-debbie-steinberg-explains-zooplankton-research-in-a-changing-antarctic.htm. 
  6. "Deborah K. Steinberg". http://www.vims.edu/people/steinberg_dk/. 
  7. Rejcek, Peter (June 18, 2010). "Back in Time". The Antarctic Sun. http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=2162. 
  8. "In Review: Antarctic Edge: 70° South". http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/in_review_antarctic_edge_70_south/. 
  9. Malmquist, David (9 October 2012). "Study Shows Small Fish Can Play a Big Role in the Coastal Carbon Cycle". http://www.vims.edu/newsandevents/topstories/archives/2012/fish_poop.php. 
  10. "Palmer Long Term Ecological Research". http://www.vims.edu/research/units/labgroups/zooplankton_ecology/research/pal_lter.php. 
  11. "BATS Zooplankton Census". http://www.vims.edu/research/units/labgroups/zooplankton_ecology/research/bats-zooplankton-census.php. 
  12. Malmquist, David (14 May 2010). "ANACONDAS Project Brings VIMS to the Amazon Plume". http://www.vims.edu/newsandevents/topstories/archives/2010/anacondas.php. 
  13. Moran, Susan (12 March 2012). "Team Tracks a Food Supply at the End of the World". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/science/tracking-antarctic-krill-as-more-is-harvested-for-omega-3-pills.html. 
  14. Antarctic Edge: 70° South, June 1, 2015, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2780714/, retrieved May 22, 2016 
  15. "Antarctic Edge: 70 Degrees South" (in en-US). https://beyondtheice.rutgers.edu/. 
  16. "Palmer Station Antarctica LTER". http://pal.lternet.edu/. 
  17. "Overview of BATS". Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science. http://bats.bios.edu/index.html. 
  18. "Steinberg receives Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award". http://www.vims.edu/newsandevents/topstories/steinberg_ofa.php. 
  19. Langhorne, Nicholas (3 April 2014). "W&M Announces 2014 Recipients of Plumeri Awards for Faculty Excellence". http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2014/william--mary-announces-2014-recipients-of-plumeri-awards-for-faculty-excellence-123.php. 
  20. "The Raft Debate". https://www.wm.edu/as/graduate/graduate-center/RaftDebate/. 

External links