William M. Lowe, a UD senior majoring in music and computer science, has a definite affinity for the sea. Lowe was born in Iceland, an island nation in the North Atlantic, where his father was stationed in the U.S. Navy. And, the family spent many summers at Delaware beaches.
So, it seemed natural when the opportunity came to enroll as a summer intern with the University’s College of Marine Studies in Lewes, Del., that he jumped at the chance.
"I had a friend working on a thesis at the college, and I thought it was a pretty nifty sort of thing, so I filled out an application," says Lowe.
Lowe was one of nine students chosen nationwide from 150 applicants for the program, which included a three-day oceanography cruise aboard the University’s 120-foot research ship, Cape Henlopen, and individual studies with professors who work and teach in the college.
The 10-week program, held in June, July and August, was designed to introduce talented students from a variety of academic backgrounds to the marine sciences.
Financed through a National Science Foundation grant to help talented undergraduates "test the waters" of advanced study in oceanography, the program is now in its 11th year. Delaware’s program, directed by Jonathan H. Sharp, professor of marine studies, is one of only 15 in the nation.
Participants came from academic institutions in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida, Puerto Rico, Illinois, Idaho and Kansas. Their majors included biology, engineering, chemistry and French.
Their studies in Delaware included trace metals found in microscopic plants and bacteria in Delaware Bay; settlement patterns of mud crab larva; the effects of algae on shellfish; and the presence of disease-resistant genes in oysters.
Lowe’s project, working with UD oceanographer Ferris Webster, involved possible correlations between the mid-Pacific weather phenomenon El Niño and variations in Delaware River water flow rates.
El Niño, an unusual warming of Pacific waters every few years, changes weather patterns in parts of South and North America and can bring torrential rains or severe droughts to regions of the United States.
The effects of El Niño on the Delaware Valley are not well known, so Lowe’s research will increase the available information that might eventually help weather forecasters. Better predictions can protect crops and save lives in the event of severe weather.
"Mostly, I worked with data about river flow from the late 1800s to the present," he says. "The flow is measured by the U.S. Geological Survey in cubic feet per second–that is, how much water is going by at any one time at a given location."
Because the Delaware Bay and lower Delaware River are tidal, researchers had to find a point upstream where the flow is always toward the ocean. Lowe’s data came from Trenton, N.J.
In addition to the historic flow data, "We studied satellite pictures" to look at El Niño patterns, he says.
"During El Niño, you get a lot of warm water building up in the Pacific…and the warm water flows toward the east. It looks like a big blob of red" when looking at sea surface temperatures, he says.
"One of the things we were finding is that, in general, in the Delaware Basin, it seems to be drier at the very beginning of El Niño. There is less water flow, so probably less rainfall across the basin. That would be the best explanation," says Lowe.
Lowe says he’s not sure what he’ll do after his 1999 graduation, but his summer experiences may turn his attention back to the Atlantic.
"I went into this internship not knowing anything about oceanography," says Lowe, who’s now thinking about graduate school in that subject. "It’s definitely something I wouldn’t have thought about without taking this program."
–Phil Milford