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	From left, Michael Moore, Scott Kraus of the New England Aquarium, and Larry Madin at a Congressional briefing on research issues related to the survival of the North Atlantic right whale. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, WHOI)
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During 2005, The Ocean Life Institute (OLI) continued to foster research and hardware development under three broad themes: Discover Life, Sustain Ecosystems, and Develop Tools.

In 2005 OLI appointed three new Institute Fellows. Anne Cohen works on understanding how corals build their skeletons, and how climatic, environmental, and biological forces interact to shape their growth and composition. She uses computerized tomography scanning technology to quantify the impacts of changing ocean temperature and chemistry on rates of carbonate production by corals. Sonya Dyhrman is interested in how phytoplankton respond to their geochemical environment. Her research uses molecular tools to study the physiological ecology of different phytoplankton groups. She is currently examining the genetic capabilities that allow phytoplankton to respond to changes in carbon dioxide, phosphorus, and nitrogen supply. Jesús Pineda is working on the regional variability of populations of sedentary animals like barnacles and mussels. He will be investigating how ocean currents disperse and transport larvae, the processes that determine which larvae survive to reproduce, and the variability in different local populations.

Communication of research results and applications is an important Ocean Institute function, and in 2005 we hosted one international conference and two workshops. The International Invasive Sea Squirts Conference in April attracted nearly 100 scientists and managers to WHOI to explore the biology, ecology, impacts, and control options for the invasive sea squirt species that are causing serious problems in the Northeast and elsewhere. The papers presented in this meeting will be published in 2006 as a special issue of the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology.

A second workshop on albatross population biology brought international experts together in April to discuss their studies of albatross demographic models. These mathematical representations of population cycles are essential tools for conservation of these endangered species.

In November, another workshop inaugurated the Reef Fish Connectivity and Conservation Initiative. Focusing on the imperiled Nassau Grouper in the Caribbean, this program will track connections among larval and adult stages of the fish to address critical conservation issues and help developing countries manage their coral reef resources sustainably.

In addition to 10 individual OLI research grants awarded in 2005, the new Tropical Research Initiative provided support for multidisciplinary research and technological advances in tropical regions around the world. Five grants were awarded through this initiative in 2005. Two of these projects will be based at the Liquid Jungle Lab in Panama, where OLI and WHOI continue to participate in the growth of this new field laboratory.

—Laurence Madin, Institute Director