Please click the link and scroll to her interview. You can also read other awesome interviews with the scientists and crew: check out Penguin Expert Jerry Kooyman. He has a mountain named after him!
Interview with Dr. Mónica Orellana Co-Chief Scientist of the TRACERS Cruise and Scientist at Institute for Systems Biology
Mónica in the lab at the Institute for Systems Biology. Photo courtesy of M. Orellana.
Q: Have you been to Antarctica, or done polar fieldwork before?
A: No I have never been to Antarctica, I would really like to be there with all of you
as you know, but it is not possible this at time!
Q: What will your role in TRACERS bring to the Institute for Systems Biology?
A: One of the ISB’s goals is to increase environmental sustainability. ISB has been
using systems science to improve the understanding of interactions of microbes and
ecosystems. Through TRACERS, we are learning many aspects of the Ross Sea
Ecosystem by applying sophisticated technologies, perturbation experiments and
high-resolution measurements to understand the role of Phaeocystis and other
microbes in carbon export. Thus, Phaeocystis now becomes a new model cell system
for ISB, and the Ross Sea a new working ecosystem.
Q: How does your work on TRACERS (or more broadly, at ISB) contribute to the field
of marine science?
A: We are using immune-probes coupled with microgel measurements in the water
column to improve our understanding of the exported carbon by Phaeocystis in
colloidal and dissolved polymeric material forms. These tools have broad
applicability to other ocean systems but are not widely used. Immunoprobes will
allow in situ tracking of Phaeocystis polymers and proteins, their transformation
and degradation in the water column. Our contribution to TRACERS,
oceanography and marine sciences will be to provide information on the cycling of
Phaeocystis polymers and proteins such as RuBisCO as actual biopolymers in the
DOC pool. This creates a link between the biology at the ocean’s surface, and the
transformation of the exported particulate matter in water column.
incubators that she has used for multiple incubation experiments during TRACERS.
Photo credit: A. Margolin.
Allison in the hydro lab, prepared to head out to the incubators on a cold day, typical of
the Ross Sea. Photo credit: A. Margolin.
Q: Why is what we are doing in the Ross Sea important?
A: Understanding particulate matter transformations in the Ross Sea will help us to
explain the role of particular matter transformations in carbon and nitrogen export
in larger contexts across global ocean.
Q: What do you hope to learn from the samples collected and analyzed during the course
of the TRACERS Cruise?
A: The samples collected will help us understand the transformation and
solubilization rates of the particulate production in the water column. The coupling
of antibody probes with measurements of gels will enable us learn about the specific
transformations. Gels can reach high percentage of the dissolved organic carbon
pool (10-30%), however their dynamics in the field are not well known. Only
recently, we learned that gels have important roles including transferring proteins
into the deep sea and have an important role as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) in
the Arctic and possibly all across the world oceans. By high-resolution sampling we
will have a very good quantitative understanding of the gel’s role in transferring
material to the deep ocean.
Image of a microgel under the microscope. They can be thought of as mucus produced by
algae. Photo credit: A. Lee.
A cartoon showing that phytoplankton (or algae) can produce DMS—that’s dimethyl
sulfide—which acts as cloud condensation nuclei and affects the earth’s radiative
balance. It has recently been found that microgels also play a role as CCN in the Arctic,
and might also play a role in the Ross Sea and global ocean. Image adapted from an
image provided by NOAA/PMEL.
Q: What are the challenges as a chief scientist, of participating in the TRACERS Cruise
from Seattle as opposed to on board the Palmer?
A: Communication, always being behind by a day!
Working in the Ross Sea put us on the New Zealand time zone (M – light blue), while
Mónica in Seattle (U – purple) was 20 hours behind us. However, now that we have
crossed the dateline and have been moving east, we are just about in the same time zone.
Image from www.nist.time.gov.
Q: How were you introduced to the other chief scientists and their work?
A: I have known Dennis Hansell since he was a post doc at the University of
Washington School of Oceanography, but only in the last 5-6 years we have
collaborated scientifically. I have also known Jack DiTullio, but we had never
collaborated before; I have known of R. Dunbar and A. Bochdansky’s work, but I
haven’t met them in person.
Q: What other projects are you working on, and how are they interrelated?
A: I work on various aspects of phytoplankton. I have a project using a multiscale
systems approach to understand the physiological, cellular and molecular responses
of diatoms to climate change and ocean acidification. Another project is to use
phytoplankton proteins as tracers in the water column. We are also working on
archaea/chlorophyte interactions and the role of gels and their physico-chemical
characteristics in the water column and as CCN. These different approaches allow
us to understand the mechanisms of gel production and their roles in carbon
cycling.
Q: Where did you get your degrees and what were they in?
A: BA Biology from Universidad de Concepción (Chile)
MS Zoology from University of Concepción (Chile)
MS Biological Oceanography, University of Washington, (USA)
Ph.D. Biological Oceanography, University of Washington (USA)
Q: Have you always been interested in marine biology, or are there other avenues that
you have explored and/or plan to explore in your future?
A: Yes, I have been interested in biology since I was 9 years old, when I told my
parents that I would be a scientist! The sea, its immensity, its motion, its flora and
fauna have always fascinated me. I grew up in Chile, a long narrow country on the
Pacific and the ocean has touched its people from giants like the Nobel laureate
Pablo Neruda (“Ode to the Tuna at the Market”), to (at that time) students like
myself pondering the complex and mysterious beauty of the marine microscopic
world.
Pablo Neruda was born in Parral, Chile in 1904. He began his writing career at the early
age of thirteen. Pablo Neruda received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971 for his works
as a poet.
Q: What are some of the challenges you have faced and overcome as a Chilean and as a
woman in the field of marine science?
A: I don’t feel that I have had a challenge as a Chilean woman “per se”, but my
most difficult challenge has been to be at the interface of scientific disciplines. I did a
post doc in bioengineering, which allowed me to visit the boundaries between
disciplines, observe new practices, methodologies, and perspectives. These
perspectives have enhanced my career and the manner in which we do research.
Working in an interdisciplinary environment has been rewarding, but not an easy
road to travel. It has required additional training to understand fundamental
differences in the thought processes and languages of different disciplines. This path
has also involved some inherent risk, one of which is the slow pace of recognition for
the applicability of new concepts in oceanography, and being outside the normal
oceanographic environment. The risk has been balanced by the gratification
springing from innovation and new understanding of old ideas and producing new
paradigms.
Q: What advice do you have for young women, and/or those foreign to the US, interested
in pursuing careers in science?
A: Anybody in science should have a joy for learning, a great level of curiosity, and
be ready for a great adventure! And, of course be hard working!
Photo and quote courtesy of ISB.
Q: Who has been an inspiration to you in your career, and how do you see yourself as a
reflection of them?
A: I have been influenced and supported in my career by great mentors, fellow
students and past and current colleagues. I am especially grateful for my thesis
adviser, Mary Jane Perry then at the University of Washington (University of
Maine now). Her intellectual vision, energy, and enthusiasm has remained a lasting
influence. Science is the result of a process of creating relationships and meaningful
collaborations and interactions, I have been fortunate in this regard.
Q: What are your hobbies? What do you do for fun?
A: I love gardening and creating floral arrangements, especially wedding bouquets
for my friends and friends of my friends. Also, I love doing yoga and dancing
zumba, although they are at the opposite ends of the exercise spectrum. I do a fair
amount of biking and hiking in summer and skiing in winter! I cannot be without
good and interesting books! Finally, I love learning languages.
Q: What’s your most memorable cruise for 1) social, 2) scientific and 3) collaborative
reasons?
A: My most fascinating cruise from every point of view until now has been my
cruise to the Arctic (87°N) in 2008 for many reasons; first it was incredibly beautiful,
second it broke my heart to see global change in action, but the most compelling
reason was the discovery of microgels in the clouds. When I saw gels from the clouds
in the microscope and that they resembled those that we were finding in the
subsurface seawater and surface microlayer it was an extraordinary moment and
unforgettable feeling! I was thrilled and simultaneously in disbelief! The
collaborations from that cruise have been very rewarding!
A rainbow in the Arctic along the 87°N cruise that Mónica participated in back in 2008.
Photo credit: M. Tjernström.
The sun over the Arctic sea ice. Photo credit: M. Tjernström.
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