Researchers awarded Cozzarelli Prize by National Academy of Sciences

A team of oceanographers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Montana State University have had their paper selected to receive the 2009 Cozzarelli Prize. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Editorial Board selects six PNAS papers to receive this prize, an award that recognizes outstanding contributions to the scientific disciplines represented by the National Academy of Sciences.

 

The paper, titled “"Physical and biogeochemical modulation of ocean acidification in the central North Pacific," was selected as the winner in the Physical and Mathematical Sciences category, and outlines how CO2 levels have changed in the waters off Hawai'i from the burning of fossil fuels. The paper was written by John E. Dore from MSU (who received his PhD at UH Manoa in 1995), and UH Mānoa researchers Roger Lukas, Daniel W. Sadler, Matthew J. Church, and David M. Karl. It reports the results of nearly 20 years of time-series measurements of seawater pH and associated parameters taken at Station ALOHA (A Long-term Oligotrophic Habitat Assessment), a deep ocean observation station in the central North Pacific Ocean near Hawaii that has been conducting almost monthly research cruises to observe and interpret habitat variability and to track climate impacts on Hawaiʻi’s marine ecosystem.

 

Peter G. Brewer, from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, notes in a review of the winning paper that “these stations (Station ALOHA and a similar station located in Bermuda) and the record that flows from them are now part of the crown jewels of US global change science. From these and other data ocean chemists could uncover the massive imprint of the fossil fuel CO2 signal.”

 

Papers selected for the Cozzarelli Prize were chosen from more than 3,700 research articles published by PNAS in 2009. The annual award acknowledges recently published papers that reflect scientific excellence and originality. The award was established in 2005 and named the Cozzarelli Prize in 2007 to honor late PNAS Editor-in-Chief Nicholas R. Cozzarelli. The 2009 awards will be presented at the PNAS Editorial Board Meeting, and awardees will be recognized at the awards ceremony, during the National Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting on April 25, 2010, in National Harbor, Maryland.

 

The award winning research at Station ALOHA (1988-present) has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Energy, State of Hawaiʻi and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

 

For information about the Cozzarelli Prize see http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-02/potn-pas_1022310.php.

 

For more information about PNAS or the National Academy of Sciences, visit www.pnas.org/.

 

For information about the Hawaiʻi Ocean Time-series program visit http://hahana.soest.hawaii.edu/hot/.