Press

SoMAS News from Stony Brook University and other sources

May 2022 News at SoMAS

Photo above: The Friends of Flax Pond Walk, led by Steve Abrams, took place on Sunday May 1st.

Congratulations to Kim Knoll, who has been awarded the Chancellor’s Award in Professional Service for 2022. Everyone who works with Kim knows how deserving she is of this recognition!

On Friday April 29, the 2022 Okubo Scholar Jonathan Grabowski gave his presentation. Prior to the talk, Malcolm Bowman gave a brief account of the life and work of Akira Okubo.

Many thanks to everyone who made Vax to Flax a memorable race this year! From the cold and rainy weather, to a bloody chin and a pulled calf muscle, to the response of 6 emergency vehicles after the race–the tradition of this race between students and faculty and staff lives on! Despite the rain, there was a solid number of runners, with faculty/staff edging out the victory over the students this year! Before Vax to Flax, several SoMAS faculty and students participated in the Run for the Ridley in Riverhead, an annual event by one of our partners, the NY Marine Rescue Center. Photos available on Instagram.

Congratulations to Alyssa Stansfield, who is the 2022 recipient of the Nuria Protopopescu Memorial Teaching Award.  This award is presented annually to a SoMAS graduate student based on demonstrated excellence in teaching, innovation and creativity in instructional plans and materials, and engagement with and dedication to their students.

In Spring 2021, Melanie Formosa, Dana Franz, and Wendy Arias Guanga, a created a survey using Survey123 technology. Over the summer, Melanie was awarded a Stony Brook URECA grant to develop a marketing plan to pass along the survey to agencies, groups and individuals interested in the Hudson River. The survey resulted in 584 participants and created substantive data about values and perceptions of the Hudson River. Later, Andrew Wong partnered with Melanie to create the final story map, Public Perceptions of the Hudson River: A Story Map of Aesthetics and Values.

Kevin Reed has received a new contract from Argonne National Lab, in the amount $58,988, in support of the project: “Assistance in Preparing a Harm Document Report for the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management”, for the project period 04/07/2022 – 10/06/2022. A goal of the project is to identify and quantify the harm caused by GHG emissions/climate change to the U.S. OCS and coastal areas, and to identify an approach and analytic need so that natural resources conservation is not undermined by GHG emissions.

Stony Brook University will assist Argonne in drafting the link between the effects of the above-stated GHG impacts and the resulting changes on the U.S. OCS and coastal areas. This will include drafting the chapters on effects of sea level rise, including shoreline degradation and erosion, damage caused from increased severe weather effects, ocean acidification effects, and extent of GHG emissions impact on formation of hypoxic zones. This will include helping to summarize the state of the work for these individual chapters with data from previously published work in the field and from Stony Brook University’s participation in an upcoming BOEM workshop on the topic. We will collaborate with Argonne to identify the structure of the chapter and will have periodic status updates via video conferencing and email correspondence throughout the project. Stony Brook University will also be involved in the revising of the full final document.

 

We continue to celebrate the graduates from the Class of 2022! Have a great summer!

 

Press Highlights

Newsday: Wind farm’s fish monitors irk fishermen

  • “It is an accident waiting to happen and Stony Brook and Orsted will be liable if someone gets hurt,” she said. Stony Brook University officials said they were “always looking to improve our acoustic monitoring research,” noting the work was “in response to requests from the local community” to see if “fish migration and behavior” are impacted by the cable. Also ran in the National Wind Watch.

USA News: Punishing heat wave in India reaches 115 degrees, part of a ‘hotter and more dangerous world’

  • These heat waves are one of the clearest indicators that climate change is happening and global weather is changing, said Kevin Reed, a professor of marine and atmospheric science at Stony Brook University in Long Island, New York. Also ran in Yahoo News

Times Beacon Record: SBU News: Modeling study projects 21st century droughts will increase human migration (press release)

  • Stony Brook-led research combined social science and climate models in a paper published in International Migration Review.

Times Beacon Record: Legislator Sarah Anker and New York Sea Grant announce a new Marine Debris School Curriculum

  • Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker and Stony Brook University students join Coastal Steward for a beach clean. Photo from Leg. Sarah Anker’s office.

Aviation Today: Raytheon Partners with Universities to Develop Skyler Radar

  • Raytheon Intelligence & Space is involved in partnerships with the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Virginia Tech, Stony Brook University, and Hampton University to encourage innovations that will facilitate drone integration into the national airspace

East Hampton Star: New York: Wind Farm Study Moorings Anger Fishermen

  • Researchers with Stony Brook University who are conducting the five-year study required of the wind farm’s developers are at present on a regular visit to the sensor array to collect data, replace batteries, and deploy new, smaller, and retrievable moorings alongside the existing 500-pound blocks. Also ran on Saving Seafood.

Chemistry World: The human health observatory in our sewers

  • While virus and drug level analyses have become routine, scientists are starting to make more complex deductions from wastewater data. ‘I was involved in the study that showed the first application that looked at dietary trends in communities,’ says environmental chemist Arjun Venkatesan from Stony Brook University, US. Together with Halden, he identified phytoestrogens as diet biomarkers.

East Hampton Star: Beach Chair Birding Talk on Tuesday

  • Chris Paparo, the manager of Stony Brook Southampton’s Marine Science Center, is also a birder. On Tuesday at 5, he’ll share some of his avian expertise at a virtual Accabonac Protection Committee forum titled “Birding From Your Beach Chair.”

National Science Foundation: Ice shards in Antarctic clouds let more solar energy reach Earth’s surface

  • Southern Ocean low clouds shouldn’t be treated as liquid clouds, according to lead author Rachel Atlas of UW. “Ice formation in Southern Ocean low clouds has a substantial effect on cloud properties and needs to be accounted for in global models,” she said. Co-authors of the study are Chris Bretherton at the Allen Institute for AI in Seattle; Marat Khairoutdinov at Stony Brook University in New York; and Peter Blossey at UW. Also ran in Mirage News.

Daily Mail: New York City is set to be hit by ‘multiple’ severe thunderstorms, torrential downpours and possible tornado as dismal spring continues across tri-state area

  • Kevin Reed, of Stony Brook University, told the outlet: ‘The forecasts that are coming out are expecting about anywhere from kind of 17 to 18 to 19 storms.’ Also ran in TDPel Media, What’s New 2 Day,

Southampton Press: Westhampton Beach High School Teacher Earns Fellowship

  • Dianna Gobler earned her Bachelor of Science in chemistry at Gettysburg College and her doctorate in molecular biology and biochemistry at Stony Brook University, and she worked as a researcher at Stony Brook University for a number of years before transitioning to teaching.

Science Magazine: United States’ ocean conservation efforts have major gaps, Oregon State University analysis shows

  • In addition to Oregon State, taking part in the research were scientists from many universities including Stony Brook University. Also ran in Mirage News.

Coastal News Today: USA – US Must Ramp up Ocean Conservation to Meet Global MPA Standards

  • The findings by a team of national scientists, including Ellen Pikitch, PhD, of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS), are published in Frontiers in Marine Science. Also ran in Deeper Blue.

Berkeley Lab: Computer Models Show Role of Climate Change in Intense 2020 Hurricane Season

  • The research team — which included lead author Kevin Reed of Stony Brook University and co-author Colin Zarzycki of Pennsylvania State University — used data from the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Community Earth System Model Large Ensemble Community Project, which encompasses transient simulations from the year 1850 onward, to estimate the environmental changes caused by humans.

Innovate LI: No. 692: Endangered docks, freshman docs, Sadaharu Oh and Cher, with quiche for all – Innovate Long Island

  • That’s the word from Ellen Pikitch, the Endowed Professor of Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, one of 31 researchers contributing to “A Scientific Synthesis of Marine Protected Areas in the United States: Status and Recommendations.”

Futurity: 0.3% of mid-Atlantic ocean off the US coast is protected

  • “A lot of work needs to be done, and quickly, to significantly expand marine protection in vast areas of the US waters that have been largely neglected,” says coauthor Ellen Pikitch, professor of ocean conservation science at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. Also ran in Scribd.

Exeter Magazine: ‘Make or break’ year for protecting nature

  • The event will also feature Melissa Wright (Bloomberg Philanthropies), Professor Ellen Pikitch (Stony Brook University) and Markus Müller (Deutsche Bank).

WSHU-FM/NPR: New maps could help Biden administration reach 2030 goal to protect oceans

  • WSHU’s J.D. Allen spoke with Ellen Pikitch, endowed professor of ocean conservation science in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, about new maps her team has drawn that better preserve the waters off the coast of New York to Virginia.

Program Business: 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season to Show ‘Above Normal’ Activity, NOAA Predicts

  • “One of the clear indicators of climate-change impact on hurricanes is really coming through changes in rainfall,” said Kevin Reed, associate dean for research at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, who studies climate and extreme weather events.

Coastal News Today: CA – Kelp Mitigates Ocean Acidification, a Key to the Health and Abundance of Important Shellfish

  • A new study led by Christopher Gobler, PhD, and a team of scientists at the Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) shows that the presence of kelp significantly reduces ocean acidification, a result of climate change.

SoundCloud: Climate Action Council On Next Steps On Scoping Plan

  • The NYS Climate Action Council met on May 26 to review the progress to develop a scoping plan to implement the state’s climate law enacted 3 years ago. We hear an update on the recent hearings, as well as comments from several of the council’s members: Prof. Paul Shepson of Stony Brook, Donna L. DeCarolis of National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp, Bob Howarth of Cornell, and Anne Reynolds of ACENY. With Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

Newsday: Kelp may help shellfish growth in acidified waters, SBU study says

  • Long Island’s burgeoning aquaculture industry may have more reasons than the prospect of increased revenue to add kelp to their oyster farms: a recent study by Stony Brook University found it can dramatically increase shellfish growth rates in waters impacted by ocean acidification.

WSHU-FM/NPR: Kelp could help save Long Island’s shellfish industry from ocean acidification, study finds

  • A Stony Brook University study found the seaweed kelp may help reduce the effects of ocean acidifications on Long Island. This could help the region’s shellfish industry rebound from massive die-offs in recent years.

WSHU-FM’s “After All Things: Kelp Can Help!”:

  • Professor Christopher Gobler speaks about a new study that finds kelp could reduce the effects of ocean acidification on Long Island.

Suffolk Times: Researchers say shellfish, kelp could be key to combat ocean acidification

  • Researchers at Stony Brook University have discovered a way to combat ocean acidification with a culture of shellfish and kelp, potentially benefiting local marine ecosystems, shellfish farmers and economies as soon as this year.  Also ran in Riverhead News-Review.

Sag Harbor Press: Algae Blooms Continue To Wreak Havoc, But Kelp And Shellfish Provide Potential Elixirs, Report Says

  • A concerted effort by Stony Brook University scientists to boost clam populations in western Shinnecock Bay appears to have stanched chronic blooms of the infamous “brown tide,” and growing long fronds of kelp on the ropes of oyster growing racks can both soak up pollutants from water and reverse the harmful effects of ocean acidification on the growing shellfish, scientists found.

Washington Post: Opinion – Another monster hurricane season looms as we dawdle on climate change

  • Researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University and Stony Brook University examined the entire 2020 season, during which human-caused warming increased average North Atlantic sea-surface temperatures by 0.6 degrees Celsius.

 

Latest Seminar Videos

 

February 2022 SoMAS News

Here’s the February News and Press Wrap-Up from SoMAS!

Congratulations to Dr. Sharon Pochron, who has been promoted to Associate Professor of Practice at SoMAS!

In the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships, SoMAS student athlete Jessica Salmon has established a new 100 meter breaststroke record for the Stony Brook Swimming and Diving program, beating the previous record of 1:04.77 set by Jessica Peters in 2011 with a new record of 1:04.12!

Alumni Updates

Marine Conservation and Policy Program alum Dan Garatea (MA, 2015) is serving as the NOAA Hydrographic Surveys Division’s Operations Branch acting contracting team lead through May. Dan joined the Operations Branch in 2019, after previously working as a fisheries observer in Alaska for several years and spending far too much time fishing. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Marine Science, and a master’s in Marine Conservation and Policy from Stony Brook University, New York. He tries to spend as much time cycling, hiking, and traveling as possible.

Press Highlights

Yahoo: Stony Brook University Students Participate In IMPACTS Program

Times Beacon Record: SBU weather professors, students launch balloons during nor’easter

  • Even as other Long Island residents were hunkered indoors, Stony Brook University Professors Brian Colle and Pavlos Kollias were teaming up with scientists from several institutions as a part of a three-year NASA-led study called IMPACTS, for The Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms.

Times Beacon Record: Calling for action in the face of climate change events

  • As climate events continue to cause substantial widespread loss, damage, and financial costs that fall heavier on developing nations, a new commentary in the inaugural issue of PLOS Climate by two researchers, including Stony Brook University’s Professor Kevin A. Reed, calls for developed nations to direct resources toward operationalizing extreme weather events and impact attribution.

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority: Governor Hochul Announces Key Offshore Wind Milestone as Contracts for Empire Wind 2 and Beacon Wind Projects are Finalized

  • Through a partnership between the State University of New York’s Farmingdale State College and Stony Brook University on Long Island, the training institute aims to advance offshore wind training programs and the educational infrastructure needed to establish a skilled workforce that can support the emerging national offshore wind industry.

Democratic Undergraduate: Gentoo Penguins Discovered On Antarctic Peninsula – Moving South As Ice Melts, Seas Warm

  • “It’s may be a cliché at this point, but they’re the canary in the coal mine for climate change because they’re so closely tied to those sea ice conditions,” Heather Lynch, an Antarctic penguin expert at Stony Brook University in New York and the remote leader of the expedition, told Mongabay in a video interview.

Newsday: Hemptead cleanup plan aims to boost oyster population in Jamaica Bay

  • Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a $10.4 million project in 2017, which he dubbed the largest clam and oyster restoration project in the country. The project included plans to add 179 million oysters and clams in Long Island Sound and along the South Shore, with involvement by the DEC, Stony Brook and Cornell universities.

New York Ag News: Virtual Meeting Feb. 17 for Long Island Sound Embayment Study

  • The study is one of many ways New York State is working to safeguard Long Island’s water sources, which includes Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed expansion of the SUNY Stony Brook Center for Clean Water Technology Research to include improved septic and wastewater treatment systems to treat phosphorus and nitrogen and the creation of the Suffolk County Wastewater Management District.

The Revelator: North Atlantic Mako Sharks Are Endangered — Now What?

  • MCP graduate Sydney Randall (’21) and Carl Safina published an article on conservation issues and actions (and lack of action) around North Atlantic Short-finned Mako Sharks

Free Republic: Worldwide wastewater analysis reveals rise of designer drugs during lockdowns

  • ‘It’s extremely hard to track these new chemicals,’ comments Arjun Venkatesan from Stony Brook University, US, who works in wastewater-based epidemiology for public health monitoring.

Long Island Advance: Analyzing snow; leading wood and beach walks

  • All these experiences focus on marine life and the ocean.” Sydney Randall has a bachelor’s in environmental studies from Skidmore College and is a grad student at Stony Brook University, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.

Long Island Advance: A burnished legacy of environmental advocacy and student leadership

  • Eventually, their forays led to discussing issues, and Cooley would become co-founder of the Environmental Defense Fund in 1967 with Puleston, who was its chairman, with another co-founding member, then Stony Brook professor Charles Wurster, a significant colleague.

WaterWorld: New septic nitrogen sensor passes field testing

  • The nitrogen sensor designed for use in advanced treatment septic systems was developed by Dr. Qingzhi Zhu at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, in the New York State Center for Clean Water Technology at Stony Brook University.

News12: Walt Whitman student to continue brown tide research through Barcode Long Island

  • The DNA Learning Center program invites high school students to gain an intuitive understanding of the crucial interdependence between humans and the natural environment. It collaborates with Stony Brook University, Brookhaven National Laboratory and the American Museum of Natural History.

Mirage News: Frozen spawn could heat up shellfish industry efficiency

New York Times: Art Cooley, 87, a Founder of the Environmental Defense Fund, Dies

  • “Art was very adept at dealing with people and making friends,” Charles Wurster, one of the other founders of the Environmental Defense Fund and a former professor of biological sciences at what is now Stony Brook University, recalled in an interview. “His mind was very logical, he was very strategic, and he knew a lot about environmental issues.”

Coastal Review: Institute part of effort to study harnessing ocean’s energy

  • Led by the University of New Hampshire, the partnership was awarded $9.7 million over four years from the U.S. Department of Energy. The institute, which is administered by East Carolina University, is also partnering with Stony Brook University in New York and Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.

Northforker: How the emergence of kelp is capturing carbon, fertilizing fields and tickling the fancy of North Fork chefs

  • That changed when Stony Brook University kelp researcher Mike Doall planted kelp on Paul McCormick’s Great Gun Oyster Farm in Moriches Bay in 2020 and it grew better in a few feet of water than kelp grown at any of the other test sites, including the ones in the deepest waters.

Star-Gazette: NY colleges are training students to lead statewide push toward green energy. Here’s how

NASA Earth Expeditions: Planning, Coordinating and Communicating: The Science Behind Winter Storm Chasing Experiments

  • Brian Colle, atmospheric science professor at Stony Brook University, is part of many operations in NASA’s Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS).

 

Latest Seminar Videos

In case you missed them, here’s the latest seminar videos available on our YouTube channel:

January 2022 News from SoMAS

Happy New Year and here’s to a great start of the Spring 2022 Semester! Hopefully your recovery from the snow event over the weekend was successful. Atmospheric Science researchers spent most of the weekend collecting data at South P Lot and elsewhere as part of the NASA IMPACTS Project.


SoMAS is happy to welcome Assistant Professor Jack McSweeney to our Marine Sciences Division. Jack is a physical oceanographer coming from Oregon State University with a research specialty in estuarine dynamics, coastal sediment transport, shoaling internal waves, and coastal connectivity.

 

Dr. Joe Warren and Dr. Lesley Thorne have received a new award from Sunrise Wind in support of the project “Assessing Environmental and Biological Drivers of North Atlantic Right Whale Abundance and Distribution in New York and the Southern New England Shelf”, for the period 1/15/2022 – 1/14/2024 in the amount $1,232,617.

Abstract:
This project will assess and quantify spatio-temporal dynamics of zooplankton in waters of the New York Bight and Southern New England Shelf, with a focus on the Sunrise Wind Farm area, and will integrate zooplankton data into habitat models for North Atlantic Right Whales (NARW; Eubalaena glacialis) to improve our predictive capacity for NARW in wind energy areas in both space and time. This work will improve our understanding of drivers of right whale habitat, and will allow predictions of right whale density under different environmental conditions in order to identify times and regions of high risk for anthropogenic impacts on right whales. This information is critical to dynamic management efforts in the Northeast US in order to decrease lethal and sub-lethal impacts from human activities such as vessel traffic and offshore construction. This project will leverage previous and ongoing sampling and analysis efforts in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of changes to copepod prey species in the study area before, during and after wind farm construction in the Sunrise Wind area. This long-term focus will allow us to differentiate between impacts of wind farms and other climate, environmental and anthropogenic stressors in assessing changes in copepod prey species. The approach we present for New York waters is one that can be extended to other regions of interest, and fosters collaborations with other scientists in the Northeast US studying right whales and their prey, including collaborators at Rutgers University, the New England Aquarium, the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, and Syracuse University.

January Press Highlights

Newsday: Plan to remove ‘ghost’ lobster traps that kill sea life from Nassau waters in Long Island Sound

  • Carl Safina, professor of marine science at Stony Brook University said all kinds of commercial fishing create problems when lines, nets or traps get lost. “The idea of ghost gear — lost fishing gear that still catches — is actually an enormous worldwide problem,” he said. “A lot of lost gear has the potential to continue to catch.”

Hakai Magazine: China’s Surprisingly Robust System of Marine Protection

  • Ellen Pikitch, who studies ocean conservation at Stony Brook University in New York, first started looking into China’s marine protected areas (MPAs) after she learned of their existence at a fisheries workshop in China in 2014. “I was surprised because I have worked on ocean conservation for a long time but had never heard of them,” she says.

RT  Magazine: Dry Heat Disinfecting of N95 Mask Works, Preserves Fit

  • A study led by Stony Brook University researchers discovered that a readily available method using dry ovens can be used to disinfect N95s for reuse, in settings where new masks may not be available, according to findings published in Plos One. Also posted by Brookhaven Lab.

Times of News: Dry Heat Disinfecting of N95 Mask Works, Preserves Fit (press release)

  •  A study led by Stony Brook University researchers discovered that a readily available method using dry ovens can be used to disinfect N95s for reuse, in settings where new masks may not be available. Their findings are published in PLOS ONE. Also ran in Medical X-Press.

Futurity: Dry oven heat can disinfect N95 COVID masks

  • “Our study shows that treatment of N95 face masks with dry heat is sufficient to inactivate COVID-19 and filter aerosolized particles for potentially exposed workers. It has been shown to maintain the capabilities of these masks.” Also ran in Jio for Me and Scibd.

Times Beacon Record: Stony Brook University researchers say dry heat disinfecting of N95 masks works, preserves fit

  • Entering a third year of the COVID-19 pandemic and the latest infection surge nationwide comes with many challenges. One of those is for a continued adequate supply of masks, including the often used N95 respirator masks for healthcare and other settings. A study led by Stony Brook University researchers discovered that a readily available method using dry ovens can be used to disinfect N95s for reuse, in settings where new masks may not be available. Their findings are published in PLOS ONE.

Long Island Business News: SBU researchers say dry-heat disinfects N95 masks

  • N95 masks can be disinfected via dry heat ovens without compromising the fit. That’s according to researchers at Stony Brook University who recently published their findings in  PLOS ONE. Their findings could serve as a guide to practical safe reuse of N95s, combatting any shortages, the researchers say.

Jio for Me: Dry heat can disinfect N95 masks for reuse, studies find

  • In a new study at Stony Brook University, researchers discover that N95 can be disinfected and reused using readily available methods using a dry oven in environments where new masks may not be available. Did. Also ran in Knowridge,

Three Village Patch: Dry Heat Disinfecting Of N95 Masks Works, Preserves Fit (press release)

  • A study led by Stony Brook University researchers discovered that a readily available method using dry ovens can be used to disinfect N95s for reuse, in settings where new masks may not be available. Their findings are published in PLOS ONE.

Biz News Post: China’s Surprisingly Robust System of Marine Protection | Hakai Magazine

  • Ellen Pikitch, who studies ocean conservation at Stony Brook University in New York, first started looking into China’s marine protected areas (MPAs) after she learned of their existence at a fisheries workshop in China in 2014. “I was surprised because I have worked on ocean conservation for a long time but had never heard of them,” she says.

Times Beacon Record: Stony Brook University named finalist for historic Governors Island Center for Climate Solutions (Also in Three Village Patch)

  • Stony Brook University is the leading public research university in the greater NYC area, and a proud member of the SUNY system. Its areas of foremost academic distinction include its School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, and the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. Alongside Stony Brook University, the New York Climate Exchange’s founding partners include Brookhaven National Laboratory, University of Oxford, and University of Washington. Additional academic partners include Columbia University, Stanford University, Yale University, University of Tokyo, SUNY Maritime College, and Rochester Institute of Technology.

Newsday: Breach near Smith Point created during 2012 storm continues to close

  • In an interview last week, Stony Brook University research professor Charles Flagg of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences said the influx of sand into and around the breach has sharply reduced the depth of the major channel through the waterway. At its deepest during the past decade, it had been 15 to 20 feet. Now, he said, the water channel is just over 6 feet.

Times Beacon Record: Postponed: Vanderbilt Museum kicks off 2022 lecture series Jan. 13

  • (Update: This event has been postponed to April 14.) As part of its Ecology and Climate Change lecture series, the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum, 180 Little Neck Road, Centerport will welcome Stony Brook University’s Heather Lynch for a presentation titled Mapping Penguins with Satellites, Drones and Other Technologies in the Charles and Helen Reichert Planetarium on Jan. 13 at 7 p.m.

Newsday: A mixed-use complex nearing completion is among ongoing plan to revitalize Upper Port area

  • Rich Murdocco, a Stony Brook University adjunct planning professor, questioned adding new development around the train stop, noting proposals to eventually move the station west.

Southampton Press: $3.3 Million Grant Aids In Westhampton Beach Sewer Project

  • CPF came into play because the project, while providing a direct economic benefit to the village in terms or greater housing and business opportunities in the business district, is also expected to provide a direct environmental benefit to the Monibogue Canal and Monibogue Bay, according to an environmental report conducted by Dr. Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University in 2017. The expected environmental benefits also helped secure the state and county grants.

Phoenix Magazine: Pandemic Tech: Local COVID-19 Health Innovations

  • An early study by the Department of Pathology at Stony Brook University experimented with dry-heat ovens and N95 masks in an attempt to disinfect them so they could be used again for health-care workers.

Optimist Daily: Study: Dry heat can be used to disinfect N95 masks

  • “Our study demonstrated that treatment of N95 face masks using dry heat was sufficient to inactivate COVID-19, while preserving the ability of these masks to filter aerosolized particles for potentially exposed workers,” says lead author Kenneth Shroyer, professor at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University.

Newsday: The state signs contracts for two previously awarded offshore wind farms

  • Stony Brook University and Farmingdale State College, which partner with the state in the Department of Education, have already or will soon have a certificate or degree in offshore wind training. And Suffolk County Community College is planning programs with a $ 10 million grant from Ørsted. Also ran MCU Times

New York State Department of Transportation: Governor Hochul Announces Key Offshore Wind Milestone as Contracts for Empire Wind 2 and Beacon Wind Projects Are Finalized

  • Through a partnership between the State University of New York’s Farmingdale State College and Stony Brook University on Long Island, the training institute aims to advance offshore wind training programs and the educational infrastructure needed to establish a skilled workforce that can support the emerging national offshore wind industry.

The Independent: Climate crisis leads to discovery of new penguin colonies in Antarctic

  • Dr Heather J. Lynch, professor of ecology & evolution at New York’s Stony Brook University, and an expedition lead, explained that the trip had involved surveying on foot, for the first time, parts of the peninsula where penguin colonies had been spotted from satellites. Also Yahoo! News, Phoneweek

D1Softball News: “New sanctuaries soon or they will not survive” – ​​Corriere.it

  • Today, in the Penguin Awareness Day, the day dedicated to the international awareness of the risks that penguins run, perhaps the most iconic animals of the Antarctic territory, a team of scientists from the Stony Brook University he’s back in the field, aboard the ship “Arctic Sunrise”, for a new census and to study closely the consequences of climate change on populations.

WBUR-FM/NPR: Reducing trash may reduce the need for incinerators in Mass.

  • “When we look at what the impact of those two gasses just happens to be with respect to, say, climate change and greenhouse gasses, clearly the methane gas is significantly more detrimental to our environment than the [carbon dioxide],” said Frank Roethel, research professor and director of the Waste Reduction and Environmental Management Institute at Stony Brook University.

Techno Trendz: As a result of climate change, penguins are expanding their range in Antarctica.

  • Scientists from New York’s Stony Brook University are also onboard.’’

Yahoo News/The Independent: Climate crisis leads to discovery of new penguin colonies in Antarctic

  • Heather Lynch, professor of ecology and evolution at New York’s Stony Brook University, and an expedition lead, explained that the trip had involved surveying on foot, for the first time, parts of the peninsula where penguin colonies had been spotted from satellites.

Green Queen: Thanks, Climate Change? New Penguin Colonies Discovered As Birds Move South Due to Rising Temperatures

  • “Mapping out these remote archipelagos will give us a better understanding of how the region’s penguins are responding to rapid climate change,” Heather Lynch, the expedition lead and professor of ecology and evolution at New York’s Stony Brook University, said in a statement. Also ran in Good Word News.

KGO-TV: Discovery of penguin colony in Antarctic appears to be another sign of climate crisis

  • Greenpeace campaigners and scientists from Stony Brook University are in the Antarctic, on this Penguin Awareness Day, and they’re seeing firsthand what the climate crisis has done. Also ran on ABC7 News,

Greenpeace: Scientists discover new penguin colonies that reveal impacts of the climate crisis in the Antarctic

  • New penguin colonies not previously known to science have been found in the Antarctic by researchers from Stony Brook University

Bethpage Newsgram:  Farm to fairway: Town to use natural fertilizer

  • The Town has expanded its kelp operations in partnership with Adelphi, SUNY Stony Brook, and Cornell Cooperative Extension, now growing over 3,000 feet of kelp – the equivalent of 10 football fields – in Harry Tappan Marina, Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park Marina, TOBAY Beach Marina, Oyster Bay Harbor and Cold Spring Harbor Conservation Management Areas.

Ship Technology: Horizon Spirit Container Ship (part of MAGIC campaign)

  • The project involved the participation of DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory including collaborators from NASA, Stony Brook University, and several other universities and private consultants.

BBC: Penguin colony found in south Antarctic sign of climate change

  • The penguin colonies, which have not previously been studied, were discovered by researchers from Stony Brook University, in New York.

Nature World News: New Penguin Colonies Discovered in the Antarctic Due to Climate Crisis

  • In an interview voyage leader and instructor of biology and ecology at Stony Brook College in New York, Heather Lynch, clarified that the journey implicated aerial surveys on foot, for the very first time, critical aspects of the mainland where penguin territories was already sighted from space telescopes.

Mongabay: As climate change melts Antarctic ice, gentoo penguins venture further south

  • “It’s may be a cliché at this point, but they’re the canary in the coal mine for climate change because they’re so closely tied to those sea ice conditions,” Heather Lynch, an Antarctic penguin expert at Stony Brook University in New York and the remote leader of the expedition, told Mongabay in a video interview. Also ran in Enviro Link and South Africa Today.

Live Science: Here’s why a new penguin colony in Antarctica is cause for concern

  • “Mapping out these remote archipelagos will give us a better understanding of how the region’s penguins are responding to rapid climate change,” expedition co-leader Heather J. Lynch, a professor of ecology and evolution at Stony Brook University in New York, said in the statement. “

East Hampton Patch: Oyster Reefs: A Keystone of Bay Restoration

  • Panelists Mike Doall– Associate Director for Bivalve Restoration, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook, Bradley Peterson, Associate Professor, school of marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook and Gregg Rivara, Cornell Cooperative Extension Aquaculture Specialist.

Fishing Wire: EPA Approves Permit For Wind Farm Off Martha’s Vineyard

  • “This truly demonstrates the reality of offshore wind coming to Long Island and the East Coast,” said Robert B. Catell, Chairman of the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center at Stony Brook University and the National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium.

Sleep Review: Dry Heat Disinfecting of N95 Mask Works, Preserves Fit

  • A study led by Stony Brook University researchers discovered that a readily available method using dry ovens can be used to disinfect N95s for reuse, in settings where new masks may not be available, according to findings published in Plos One.

Live Science: Here’s why a new penguin colony in Antarctica is cause for concern

  • “Mapping out these remote archipelagos will give us a better understanding of how the region’s penguins are responding to rapid climate change,” expedition co-leader Heather J. Lynch, a professor of ecology and evolution at Stony Brook University in New York, said in the statement.  Also ran on MSN.

Mirage News: “It’s like looking through a window” – giant portal to Antarctic appears in London

  • Greenpeace International is in the Antarctic working with scientists from Stony Brook University in the US conducting research on the decline of penguin populations in the region.

New York Times: This is how climate change supercharges snowfall.

  • How do record-setting high global temperatures fit in with intense, sprawling snowstorms, like the one that froze Texas last year, or the one that is now blanketing the Northeast and bringing unusual chills as far south as Miami? “Very logically,” said Kevin Reed, an associate professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University on Long Island.

North Forker: Geek Talks at übergeek Brewing Co. make science (and more) fun for all

  • Chris Paparo is a bit of a punk rock scientist. The manager of the Marine Sciences Center at Stony Brook Southampton’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, he shares his wealth of knowledge through lectures at libraries and other places that don’t quite feel like lectures. That’s certainly the case at Geek Talk, the series he hosts at übergeek Brewing Company in Riverhead. The events are attended by about 65 to 100 guests every other Thursday night. Attendees are treated to an interesting lecture about a unique topic while enjoying craft beer and a rotation of food trucks.

CBS 2 New York: Stony Brook University Students Participate In IMPACTS Program

  • During the worst of the blizzard, a group of Stony Brook University students and their professors braved the high winds and pummeling snowfall for the greater good – to improve winter storm forecasting.

 

Latest Seminar Video

Latest Publications
Bohorquez JJ, Dvarskas A, Jacquet J, Sumaila UR, Nye J and Pikitch EK (2022) A New Tool to Evaluate, Improve, and Sustain Marine Protected Area Financing Built on a Comprehensive Review of Finance Sources and Instruments. Front. Mar. Sci. 8:742846. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.742846

Druffel, E. R., Beaupré, S. R., Grotheer, H., Lewis, C. B., McNichol, A. P., Mollenhauer, G., & Walker, B. D. (2022). MARINE ORGANIC CARBON AND RADIOCARBON—PRESENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES. Radiocarbon, 1-17.

Zhang, C., Chen, Y., Xu, B., Xue, Y., & Ren, Y. (2022). The dynamics of the fishing fleet in China Seas: A glimpse through AIS monitoring. Science of The Total Environment, 153150.

Pitt, J. R., Lopez-Coto, I., Hajny, K. D., Tomlin, J., Kaeser, R., Jayarathne, T., … & Shepson, P. B. (2022). New York City greenhouse gas emissions estimated with inverse modeling of aircraft measurements. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 10(1).

Benitt, C., Young, C. S., Sylvers, L. H., & Gobler, C. J. (2022). Inhibition of harmful algal blooms caused by Aureococcus anophagefferens (Pelagophyceae) using native (Gracilaria tikvahiae) and invasive (Dasysiphonia japonica) red seaweeds from North America. Journal of Applied Phycology, 1-19.

Gao, X., Zhu, J., Zeng, X., Zhang, M., Dai, Y., Ji, D., & Zhang, H. (2022). Changes in Global Vegetation Distribution and Carbon Fluxes in Response to Global Warming: Simulated Results from IAP-DGVM in CAS-ESM2. Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, 1-14.

Jin, J., Dong, X., He, J., Yu, Y., Liu, H., Zhang, M., … & Wang, Y. (2022). Ocean Response to a Climate Change Heat-Flux Perturbation in an Ocean Model and Its Corresponding Coupled Model. Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, 39(1), 55-66.

Hahn, M. A., Piecyk, A., Jorge, F., Cerrato, R., Kalbe, M., & Dheilly, N. M. Host phenotype and microbiome vary with infection status, parasite genotype, and parasite microbiome composition. Molecular Ecology.

Yuen, J. G., Marshilok, A. C., Benziger, P. T., Yan, S., Cello, J., Stackhouse, C. A., …, Knopf, D.A., & Shroyer, K. R. (2022). Dry heat sterilization as a method to recycle N95 respirator masks: The importance of fit. PloS one, 17(1), e0257963.

Septic Nitrogen Sensor Successfully Completes Environmental Performance Testing

From Septic Nitrogen Sensor Successfully Completes Environmental Performance Testing on EPA.gov by David Deegan, October 13, 2021

BOSTON – An innovative sensor technology to provide real-time information on the amount of nitrogen in wastewater has been developed as part of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) research challenge. The sensor has completed rigorous field testing on Cape Cod. The new technology shows strong potential for use in coastal areas where excess nutrients from septic systems adversely affect water quality in nearby surface and groundwater.

The nitrogen sensor designed for use in advanced treatment septic systems was developed by Dr. Qingzhi Zhu at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, New York State Center for Clean Water Technology at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, N.Y. This project won EPA’s “Advanced Septic System Nitrogen Sensor Challenge” in 2020 after an international competition to advance the development of low-cost sensors to measure nitrogen levels discharged from advanced septic systems.

The sensor has now completed extensive independent third-party testing performed at the Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center in Sandwich, Mass. The prototype sensor was exposed to wastewater effluent from standard, as well as advanced, nitrogen-reducing septic systems for six months. The sensor was tested with effluent receiving various levels of treatment, a simulated septic system failure, and a septic system during a simulated power outage. The testing successfully verified the long-term performance of the new technology in the field and promises to aid efforts to address significant estuarine water quality and ecological problems caused by excess nitrogen.

“The ability to measure nitrogen concentrations in the effluent exiting advanced septic systems will provide real-time data on the performance of these systems and help safeguard water quality in coastal communities,” said EPA New England Acting Regional Administrator Deb Szaro. “I applaud the determination and creativity shown by Dr. Zhu and his team, and by EPA scientists in pursing the goal over many years to develop technology for these measurements. EPA is hopeful that this new technology will increase the viability and use of innovative/ alternative septic systems, which are an integral part of our region’s future wastewater treatment infrastructure as we move to address the ecological issues caused by high levels of nitrogen.”

The groundbreaking sensor is designed to be used in innovative/alternative nitrogen-reducing septic systems (I/A systems). The Stony Brook University team and the New York State Center for Clean Water Technology believe that the commercial adoption of the sensor can help increase consumer and regulator confidence in the performance of I/A systems, leading to more widespread use by homeowners, municipalities and other organizations seeking to reduce nitrogen pollution and restore coastal water quality.

Conventional septic systems are not designed to remove nitrogen from wastewater. Nitrogen from conventional residential septic systems, along with excess nitrogen from lawn fertilizer and other sources, enters groundwater and eventually surface water where it can cause harmful algal blooms, low dissolved oxygen, and fish and shellfish kills. In contrast, I/A systems are specifically engineered to turn the nitrogen in wastewater into harmless nitrogen gas. The nitrogen removal performance of these systems has traditionally been determined by sampling and lab analysis, which are costly and labor intensive. With the new sensor technology, nitrogen concentrations in the effluent leaving an I/A system are measured directly and transmitted electronically to remote locations in near-real time. Stony Brook University has already begun to deploy prototype sensor units in I/A systems that are being installed on Cape Cod and Long Island, with plans to deploy more in the future.

More information:

Development and initial testing of the Stony Brook I/A system nitrogen sensor occurred as part of the EPA’s Advanced Septic System Nitrogen Sensor Challenge initiated in January 2017 and concluded in November 2019. Completion of the performance verification is the culmination of over five years of EPA national and regional support to develop and implement an EPA Test and Quality Assurance Plan (T/QAP) (pdf) and protocol consistent with the International Standardization Organization (ISO) 14034 ETV standard. The verification statement (pdf) for the sensor’s rigorous field testing is available.

Funding and support came from EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD), Office of Water (OW), Office of Wastewater Management (OWM), Regions 1 and 2, and the Southeast New England Program (SNEP).

Contact Information
David Deegan (deegan.dave@epa.gov)
(617) 918-1017

September Research and Press at SoMAS

As the semester gets into full swing, here’s the latest updates from SoMAS Faculty and Staff.

Dr. Yong Chen has received a new award in the amount $417,022, for the period 9/1/2021 – 8/31/2023 in support of the project entitled “Evaluating Impacts of Changing Life History Parameters on the American Lobster Stock Dynamics Under Different Management Regulations in a Warming Northeastern US”.

The overarching objective of this project is to develop and conduct a simulation study to evaluate impacts of possible climate-induced changes in life history parameters and alternative management regulations on the lobster population dynamics. The simulation framework will consist of the Individual-based Lobster Simulator (IBLS) conditioned based on the information derived in the newest stock assessment for both GOM/GBK and SNE stocks. Given the anticipated effects of rising temperatures on aspects of American lobster productivity (e.g., growth, maturation, and mortality), it is critical to provide fishery stakeholders insight on the future of the lobster population dynamics and how to make fisheries management as robust as possible to climate change.  We will (1) develop a Research Collaborative Team to help identify “what if” scenarios for simulating realistic ranges of changes in key life history parameters for GOM and SNE stocks; (2) develop a simulation framework for predicting the response of lobster stocks to changing life history parameters; (3) evaluate impacts of increasing temperatures on lobster stocks given status quo management; and (4) compare the performance of different management regulations in a changing climate.

Dr. Joe Warren has received a new award from NSF/OCE in the amount $118,677 in support of the project entitled: “Collaborative Research:  An Autonomous Profiling Vehicle for Concurrent Acoustic, Visual and Environmental Measurements in the Mesopelagic Ocean” for the award period 9/1/21 – 8/31/24.

The mesopelagic region of the ocean, 200 – 1500m depth, is home to a complex mixture of physical processes, biological environments and animal communities that interact over a range of temporal and spatial scales. The mesopelagic remains poorly sampled due the inherent limitations and asynchrony of measurements collected with ship-based CTDs and acoustic surveys, floats, gliders, remotely operated and towed vehicle systems. This project will develop a novel autonomous mid-water profiling instrument to simultaneously collect physical, visual and acoustic data, resulting in concurrent environmental, abundance, taxonomy and size structure data for mesopelagic communities (100 micron – 10 cm). The suite of sensors, non-disruptive propulsion system and operational flexibility will provide an integrated toolkit to address critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of the distribution, ecology and biogeochemical contributions of animals in the ocean’s midwater zone.

The proposed instrument will be an autonomous vertical pro-filing vehicle that can operate as a free vehicle or along a deployed cable (ROV umbilical, CTD wire, etc.). The sensor suite will consist of steerable multiple-frequency (38/70/200 kHz) broadband split-beam acoustics, stereo low light imaging, Under-water Vision Profiler (UVP6), and environmental sensors (temperature, salinity, oxygen, light level, chlorophyll, turbidity, beam attenuation and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR)). Vertical propulsion will be achieved by an internal pumped volume displacement system, which will create minimal disturbance around the vehicle to reduce avoidance behaviors known to bias trawl and ROV observations. Low light cameras, controllable lighting, and stereo vision will enable taxonomic documentation and size discrimination of larger organisms and gelatinous animals not typically quantitatively captured in net tows. The concurrent acoustics and environmental data will provide more complete habitat information than is not possible with shipboard systems alone. Programmable and adaptive profiling will enable detailed characterization of the water column over hourly and daily time scales. With these capabilities the instrument will occupy an unfilled niche for sensing in the mesopelagic.

Dr. Marv Geller, Professor Emeritus, has received a new NSF award from AGS/PDM in support of the project “Collaborative Research: Processes Determining the Climatology of Atmospheric Unstable Layers” in the amount $156,447 for the award period 10/1/21 – 9/30/24.

This research seeks to answer a number of questions that have arisen from the results of a recent publication (Geller et al., 2021), concerning the distribution of unstable layers in the atmosphere. By unstable layers, we mean an atmospheric altitude region in which a bit of air, if displaced vertically, continues its motion in the direction of its displacement rather than returning to its original altitude, which would be the case if the atmosphere were stably stratified in that region. Unstable layers are of interest for a number of reasons, one of which is that such layers can be identified as regions where turbulence either originates or is present, and atmospheric turbulence is important for aircraft operations and remote sensing. Furthermore, atmospheric turbulent regions are where atmospheric kinetic energy is dissipated. In Geller et al. (2021), unstable layers have been identified by examining high vertical-resolution meteorological balloon data from stations operated by the United States (US) Weather Service. By high vertical-resolution balloon data, we are referring to data taken every second. Given the nominal balloon rise rate of 5 m/s, these data have a nominal altitude resolution of 5 meters. Unstable layers in these data are identified by examining the measured temperature profile as a function of atmospheric pressure. Care is taken to avoid identifying spurious
unstable layers that are a result of noisy data as real.

The two principal questions being addressed are as follows:
1. Why are there more unstable layers in the lower stratosphere at midnight Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in the western contiguous US than at noon GMT, with the opposite being true in the eastern US?
2. Is the “notch” in the altitude profile of unstable layers that is observed at Koror (7.3 N, 134.5 E) present at other near equatorial stations, where this “notch” is characterized as an altitude region near 12 km altitude where there are a great number of thick unstable layers and a relative paucity of thinner layers? In what way might this “notch” be related to the minimum in atmospheric stability that
has been noted earlier by other authors in the same general atmospheric region?

The research plan to address question 1 is to try to identify differences in the times and locations of atmospheric gravity buoyancy waves that lead to the lower stratospheric unstable layers. This is planned to be done using a ray-tracing methodology. The research plan to address question 2 is to compare the geographical and temporal variation of the “notch” feature to that of the stability minimum. We also plan to see if we can see identify the “notch” feature with in-cloud and cloud-outflow turbulence. Other research questions are planned to be addressed, but addressing questions 1 and 2 is the principal focus of this research. We also plan to stimulate international research using high-resolution meteorological balloon data by holding an international workshop in which the results of recently available global data of this type will be presented and discussed.

 

Higher Ground is a new podcast from WSHU featuring SoMAS faculty Donovan Finn and Lesley Thorne and PhD student Kimberly Lato, among many others, over 8 episodes.

Climate change is already here in America’s first suburbs. Communities on Long Island must prepare, and people find ways to adapt to violent storms and rising tides. Higher Ground tells the stories of these communities exploring solutions that may or may not give them the best chance at survival and help save the places millions of people call home. Or they may discover that the only way forward for suburban America is retreating from the sea.

We report on perspectives from Long Island. But those perspectives have implications far beyond the region in the search for solutions to survive climate change. Our focus is municipal policy, technology and community ingenuity through the lens of climate adaptation. We will be sending out more material through a newsletter and social media.

Take a listen to the trailer!

This podcast was made possible by the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, and the Kavli Foundation. And all of the climate geeks and everyday people that welcomed us into their community to talk climate change.

 

Additional Press

Sag Harbor Express: Heavy Rain Will Close Beaches This Week, Check Where On New App

  • Long Islanders who want to easily track where it is safe to swim or gather shellfish over the Labor Day weekend can tap into a new mobile phone app developed by marine scientists at Stony Brook University that carries up to the minute information about water quality across Long Island, closures of beaches or shellfishing areas and other water quality concerns.  Also ran in Southampton Press.

Food Management: Healthy seafood dishes make big wellness waves on the menu

  • Diving deep into seafood’s very important sustainability aspect, Stony Brook University’s Faculty Student Association and the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences worked with Alaska Seafood and hosted chef/fisherman/aquaculture evangelist Barton Seaver.

Data Science Mixer: Innovating in data science for Antarctica’s wildlife | Dr. Heather Lynch (Also on Apple Podcasts & Spotify)

  • Dr. Heather Lynch, professor at Stony Brook University, joins us to share how she uses data science to study penguins and other species in Antarctica, with surprising connections to business and other fields.

Newsday: Long Island’s summer of 2021 brought algae and sharks

  • At least the rust tide, one of the last outbreaks still infesting bays, including the East End’s Peconic and Shinnecock, should die off as waters cool by month’s end, said Christopher Gobler, who holds the endowed chair of coastal ecology and conservation and is principal investigator with the Gobler Laboratory at Stony Brook University.

Marine Technology News: New MPA Guide Maps Out Ways to Effectively Protect 30% of Ocean by 2030

  • A novel scientific framework to consistently understand, plan, establish, evaluate and monitor ocean protection in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) developed by an international team of scientists including Ellen Pikitch, PhD, of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University, is published in Science.  (Also in AzoCleanTech)

Times Beacon Record: Power of 3: SBU’s Ellen Pikitch helps enhance tool to protect oceans

  • A group of 42 scientists including Ellen Pikitch, Endowed Professor of Ocean Conservation Sciences at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, recently published a new framework developed over more than 10 years in the journal Science to understand, plan, establish, evaluate and monitor ocean protection in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

New York Post: City Council rolls over for de Blasio despite botched response to Hurricane Ida 

  • Stony Brook University atmospheric scientist Kevin Reed praised the council and city’s future-focused approach as “a good thing,” but even he cautioned against claims the storm’s impact could not have been anticipated. Also ran in News Brig.

City Limits/Op-Ed: Opinion: NYC Needs a New Metric for Warning Residents About Deadly Storms

  • Op-ed by Kevin Reed, associate professor and associate dean for research at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.

Times Beacon Record: Stony Brook hurricane expert Reed sees link between climate change and violent storms

  • Kevin Reed, associate professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, said a group of experts on the topic are working on research related to the climate impacts on Ida. No specific timeline is set for such an analysis, which would be similar to what the World Weather Attribution initiative is doing.

East Hampton Star: Trustees Considering Lake Montauk Striped Bass Study

  • Mr. Grimes referred to a letter from Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, who monitors water quality in Georgica Pond on behalf of the trustees and the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation. “Salinity numbers have rapidly gone down,” Mr. Grimes said. Mr. Gobler is concerned about impacts on oysters in the pond’s south end, he said, and also about the levels of cyanobacteria.

PolitiFact: In UN speech, Joe Biden calls for collective action on climate, COVID-19

  • In some cases, researchers reach very precise conclusions. Atmospheric scientist Kevin Reed at Stony Brook University looked at rainfall from Hurricane Dorian in 2019, and reported that climate change increased the amount of rain by 16%.

WINK News: Fact Check: In UN speech, Joe Biden calls for collective action on climate, COVID-19

  • In some cases, researchers reach very precise conclusions. Atmospheric scientist Kevin Reed at Stony Brook University looked at rainfall from Hurricane Dorian in 2019, and reported that climate change increased the amount of rain by 16%.

East Hampton Star: Village Eyes Long-Term Lot for Sewage Treatment

  • The village also plans to hire Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences to study how a sewer system will improve the health of the village’s ponds, Mr. Larsen said.

Southampton Press: Tropical Man-O-War Jellyfish Pose Threat On Beaches

  • “They are an ocean dweller and are at the mercy of the currents and the winds,” said Chris Paparo, the manager of the Marine Sciences Center at Stony Brook Southampton college. “We had southeast winds for three days and the Gulf Stream is southeast of us here on Long Island so they get blown in.”

Gotham Gazette: Everything is Connected: New York City’s Climate Crisis Demands a New Way of Thinking

  • This op-ed was written by Donovan Finn who is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Design, Policy and Planning in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University. He is also a proud resident of Jackson Heights, Queens.

Ritz Herald: Could Climate Change be Altering the Marine Food Web?

  • Research by scientists at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) reveals that this phenomenon is affecting where large marine mammals are distributed relative to their prey species, which could have important implications for marine food web dynamics. Their findings are published in Scientific Reports.

Saving Seafood: Study Shows Climate Change Could be Altering the Marine Food Web

  • Climate change is redistributing biodiversity globally, and distributional shifts of organisms often follow the speed and direction of environmental changes. Research by scientists at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences reveals that this phenomenon is affecting where large marine mammals are distributed relative to their prey species, which could have important implications for marine food web dynamics. Also ran in Phys.org, Florida News Times Today and Gamers Grade.
Dr. Carl Safina’s book “Beyond Words” has made the Guardian’s Top 10 List of books about human consciousness.  He is in good company in that list! The book is highly recommend by Dean Paul Shepson.

 

Recent Publications

Grorud-Colvert, K., Sullivan-Stack, J., Roberts, C., Constant, V., Horta e Costa, B., Pike, E. P., Kingston, N., Laffoley, D., Sala, E., Pikitch, E. K., Lubchenco, J. (2021). The MPA Guide: A framework to achieve global goals for the ocean. Science, 373, eabf0861-. doi: 10.1126/science.abf0861Grorud-Colvert et al MPA Guide Science 2021

Donovan Finn (2021) Zoning and Disaster Recovery. Zoning Practice. Chicago: The American Planning Association. https://www.planning.org/publications/document/9217853/

  • This issue of Zoning Practice is available free to all thanks to financial support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

 

In collaboration with the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, the Faculty Student Association (FSA) hosted Celebrity Chef Barton Seaver on August 18 for a Sustainable Seafood lecture that covered topics such as how our choices for diet and menus can promote healthier lifestyles, resilient ecosystems, more secure food supplies, and thriving communities. The video is available on YouTube.

Photos from the Lecture are available on Google Photos. Photos from the Dinner event at West Side Dining are also on Google Photos.

New MPA Guide Maps Out Ways to Effectively Protect 30 Percent of Ocean by 2030

Stony Brook’s Ellen Pikitch part of an international team that developed a detailed plan outlined  in Science

STONY BROOK, NY, September 9, 2021 – A novel scientific framework to consistently understand, plan, establish, evaluate and monitor ocean protection in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) developed by an international team of scientists including Ellen Pikitch, PhD, of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University, is published in Science. The results of a decade of collaborative research, the guide comes at a key time as countries prepare to negotiate the target of protecting at least 30 percent of the ocean by 2030 at the upcoming virtual meeting on Biological Diversity in October.

Authored by 42 marine and social scientists from 38 institutions across six continents, The MPA Guide: A Framework to Achieve Global Goals for the Ocean, enables the global community to advance understanding of ocean protection and achieve global goals to reverse biodiversity loss through MPAs. The MPA Guide categorizes each area according to four levels of protection – full, high, light or minimal – tracks whether protection has been activated in the water, and matches both of those with the benefits the MPA can expect to deliver.

“For the first time, we have an authoritative tool to predict MPA outcomes from actions. We will be able to use this guide to strengthen existing MPAs and build new ones that have a high likelihood of producing major benefits for people and nature,” says Pikitch, Endowed Professor of Ocean Conservation Science at SoMAS.

With more than 20 years of experience working in MPAs around the globe, Pikitch’s contributions to the study focused on developing expected outcomes of MPAs in relation to how strongly they are protected. For example, MPAs that are strictly no-take areas typically produce much more diverse fish communities, with greater numbers and larger sizes of fish than MPAs that permit extensive extractive or destructive activities.

According to the authors, urgent interventions are needed to sustain the health of the ocean,  build its resilience to disruption from climate change and other stressors, and enable people to thrive from the full range of benefits provided by healthy and productive ocean ecosystems. These include the provision of food and livelihoods, carbon sequestration and storage, opportunities for recreation, inspiration and cultural heritage. However, sustained exploitation and extraction of the ocean, facilitated by technological advances, has impacted its resilience against multiple threats and its ability to continue delivering benefits for people and nature.

Pikitch explains that the scientific team looked to develop a consistent framework on how to categorize MPAs. While MPAs are a central tool for ocean conservation, not all MPAs are the same. There are wide-ranging types of MPAs with various goals, regulations, and consequently, outcomes. This variety causes confusion. For example, some MPAs allow fishing, aquaculture and anchoring, while others do not. Some MPAs are counted on paper but are not active in the ocean.

By providing the science, evidence and framework to categorize different types of MPAs and track their progress, The MPA Guide aims to equip all stakeholders with the tools and practical guidance they need to ensure MPAs are designed optimally to deliver on their goals; to conserve biodiversity and benefit people.

There are four core components to The MPA Guide:

  • Stages of Establishment specifies an MPA’s status – whether it only exists on paper or is in operation.
  • Levels of Protection clarifies the degree to which biodiversity is protected from extractive or destructive activities.
  • Enabling Conditions provide the principles and processes needed to plan, design and govern a successful MPA.
  • Outcomes describe the conservation and social results that can be expected from an MPA at a particular stage and level, provided the enabling conditions are in place.

The MPA Guide will be continually tested and adjusted by the international team of scientists. National trials are underway in the United States, France and Indonesia, where MPA experts are using the guide to categorize existing MPAs so that communities and governments can make informed decisions.

Photo Credit: Stony Brook University

Caption: Ellen Pikitch, PhD, Endowed Professor of Ocean Conservation Science at SoMAS

 

Grorud-Colvert, K., Sullivan-Stack, J., Roberts, C., Constant, V., Horta e Costa, B., Pike, E. P., Kingston, N., Laffoley, D., Sala, E., Pikitch, E. K., Lubchenco, J. (2021). The MPA Guide: A framework to achieve global goals for the ocean. Science, 373, eabf0861-. doi: 10.1126/science.abf0861

SoMAS Faculty Release Long Island Water Quality App

How’s the water? – First-ever water quality app allows user to instantly know the status of any beach or water body across Long Island

Southampton, NY, August 9th 2021– It’s summer and Long Islanders are enjoying beaches, swimming, fishing, and even clamming.  But how certain are you about the water you are about to jump into?  Is it safe?  Is your favorite beach open for swimming?  Is clamming allowed where you just pulled up your boat?  Should you be worried about red tides, or brown tides, or other harmful algal blooms?  How do you even begin to find out this information?  Knowing the importance of all of these questions to Long Islanders, scientists at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) have developed a one-stop shop to get all of this information: The Long Island Beach and Water Quality App (LIBAWQA, libau-qau), the world’s first ever all-in-one water quality app for the public.  Building on decades of research by the Gobler Laboratory at Stony Brook and public resources and reporting by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York State Department of Health, and the Nassau and Suffolk County Health Departments, the LIBAWQA provides up to the minute information on the open and closed status of hundreds of Long Island beach, and the open and closed status of every bay, harbor, estuary, and river on Long Island with regard to shellfishing.  In addition, the app features weekly water quality monitoring by the Gobler Laboratory which covers more than 30 locations across Long Island and provides information on algae, fecal coliform bacteria, dissolved, oxygen, water clarity, and harmful algal blooms like brown and red tides.  While all of that data is available on the app, this detailed scientific information is distilled down to a simple ranking of good, fair, or poor which is earned by each water body based on how conditions rank relative to state and federal water quality guidelines.

Relying on the resources of the Geospatial Center within the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Professor Sung Gheel Jang assembled a team of scientists and students that used geospatial information system tools with publicly available data to create the resources.  The mobile application is free and designed to run on iOS and Android devices. Internet connection is required to access the full capabilities of this application.

“People live on Long Island to enjoy the incredible beaches and water bodies.  Our goal was to make it easy to access beach and water quality information, all at once.”, said Chris Gobler, Professor of Marine Sciences at Stony Brook University. “Whether you’re a beach lover, fishermen, baymen, swimmer, or looking for scientific information about Long Island’s water quality conditions all of the relevant information is right at your fingertips with this app.”

Both scientists emphasizes that the LIBAWQA is for informational purposes only.  While the app continually mirrors state and county data bases, they recommend using the links within the app to confirm with the state and county health departments and NYSDEC for details on where swimming and shellfishing is permitted.

Professor Sung Gheel Jang said, “The production of this app demonstrates the ability of the Geospatial Center in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences to offer imaginative and unique GIS and Remote Sensing-related solutions for students, faculty, and the surrounding communities.”

Kevin McDonald, Senior Policy Advisor at the Nature Conservancy said: “”For decades, The Nature Conservancy has invested in protecting Long Island’s coastal ecosystems.  This app will allow the public to better enjoy those ecosystems, specifically the beaches and shellfishing grounds.  It also makes clear, there are many regions of Long Island that are not suitable for swimming, shellfishing, and/or fishing and therefore is a clear demonstration that more work needs to be done to protect Long Island’s coastal ecosystems.”

Dr. Stephen Leatherman (a.k.a., “Dr. Beach”) of Florida International University said: “I applaud Dr. Chris Gobler and his team at Stony Brook University for developing a new App so that the public can easily access water quality information for beaches on Long Island.  The new water quality App will provide this important information on a timely basis for all swimming beaches in the region.”

 

To access to the Long Island Beach and Water Quality App:

  1. Install ArcGIS AppStudio Player from Google Play, the Apple App Store, or the Microsoft Store. This is free.
  2. Open your camera and scan the following QR code. The Player will download the app and open it. That’s it. No login is required.

Long Island Beach and Water Quality App QR Code

SoMAS Scientists Use New Method to Predict Precipitation Changes

Figure AboveThis figure depicts summer and winter precipitation in East Asia based on a new mathematical method that reveals less precipitation increases in summer and larger ones in winter. Credit: Wengui Liang

Scientists Use New Method to Predict Precipitation Changes

STONY BROOK, NY, August 4, 2021 – Scientists studying global warming are able to project future spatial patterns of warming with confidence. However, changes and spatial patterns in precipitation are hard to predict. But now a study by researchers in Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) provides a new mathematical method to understand the physical causes of future regional precipitation changes, which has an impact on the environment, climate and many types of human activities worldwide. The method is described in a paper to be published in Communications Earth & Environment.

Lead author Wengui Liang, a SoMAS doctoral candidate, and his PhD advisor Minghua Zhang, PhD, Distinguished Professor, focused on the geographical area of East Asia, where the atmospheric processes related to rain can be clearly illustrated.

Using large-ensemble simulations from the Community Earth System Model and from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, Liang and Zhang detailed robust precipitation scaling with temperatures in East Asia. They built their theory on the deviation of precipitation changes in the region from something called the Clausius-Clapeyron scaling of local thermodynamics. This theory connects robust climate change features of weakening westerly jet, steepening moisture gradient along with the separation of dynamical and hydrological amplitudes of atmospheric eddies (or whirl of atmospheric air) with the precipitation scaling.

They found that the weakening westerlies as a result of the decreasing polar-to-Equator temperature gradient, and the increasing land-to-ocean water vapor gradient as a result of the Clausius-Clapeyron scaling, together with the wave amplitude changes of water vapor content in atmospheric eddies, cause the deviation of regional scaling of precipitation. These processes act together to diminish the thermodynamic scaling rate in summer but maintain that rate in winter – a projection that implies a less significant precipitation increase in the summer but larger increases of precipitation in the winter in East Asia.

“This finding helps us understand why predictions of regional precipitation in the future are different by different models, and are more reliable in some regions than in other regions,” says Zhang. “These results can be used by scientists to reduce model uncertainties and by officials to plan for water resource usage and infrastructure management.”

The researchers believe their method can be used in other regions of the world to investigate spatial and seasonal patterns of future precipitation changes.

The research is funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (Grant # 1633299). The NSF’s National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) enabled the researchers to gain access to computing with the community earth system model.

 

Liang, W., & Zhang, M. (2021). Summer and winter precipitation in East Asia scale with global warming at different rates. Communications Earth & Environment, 2(1), 1-8.

 

Other Press Mentions

Phys.org: New mathematical model to predict precipitation changes

  • But now a study by researchers in Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) provides a new mathematical method to understand the physical causes of future regional precipitation changes, which has an impact on the environment, climate and many types of human activities worldwide. The method is described in a paper to be published in Communications Earth & Environment. Also ran Gamers Grade.

July News and Research Updates

Photo above: Kevin Reed discusses the impact of climate change on extreme weather events on “Doug To The Rescue.”

Here’s the latest news and press from SoMAS for July!

Congratulations to SoMAS PhD student Arlaine Sanchez for her “Tools of the Trade” article about Hydrothermal Vents that was just published in Nature Reviews Earth and Environment, entitled “Exploring habitability with artificial hydrothermal vents.” Arlaine, a student in the lab of Dr. Roy Price, was invited by the Senior Editor for Nature Reviews.

Sanchez, A.M. Exploring habitability with artificial hydrothermal vents. Nat Rev Earth Environ (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-021-00206-3

Other Press

Associated Press: Pandemic garbage boom ignites debate over waste as energy (Also appeared in Florida News Times)

  • Attempts to convert more pandemic garbage into energy are likely to be controversial, said Frank Roethel, director of the Waste Reduction and Management Institute at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. But using the trash to make power beats letting it pile up, he said.

Christian Science Monitor: Trash talk: Are waste-to-energy plants a sustainable solution?

WHYY Radio Times The deep ocean, climate change and hurricanes

Newsday: Long Island Weekly Water Report: Mixed Results

  • Chris Gobler, professor of marine science at Stony Brook University and director of the New York State Center for Clean Water Technology, gives an update on the tide.

Newsday: Worst brown tide in years threatens Great South Bay

Newsday: Deadly rust tide spreading in Long Island waters (Video)

News12: Aid coming to help keep baymen afloat as government declares Peconic Bay scallop fishery a disaster

  • The Stony Brook Marine and Research Lab is conducting an experiment to find out what is causing the scallops to die off.

Newsday:  Study finding early signs of hope for Peconic scallop fishery

  • An expanded survey of scallops being funded by New York state and conducted by the Cornell Cooperative Extension and Stony Brook University is finding higher levels of larval scallops than has been seen in 17 years, said Stephen Tettelbach, a shellfish ecologist for Cornell.

Newsday: Long Island weekly water quality report: Seven sites rated poor

  • During the summer, a team of students and scientists led by Chris Gobler, professor of marine science at Stony Brook University and director of the New York State Center for Clean Water Technology, tests the water quality weekly at about 30 locations around Long Island.

Newsday: Southampton Town to get its first bay scallop nursery with assist from $580G grant, Cornell CE

  • Two years of scallop die-offs recently led the federal government to declare a disaster in the Peconic Bay fishery. However, an ongoing survey funded by New York State and conducted by the Cornell Cooperative Extension and Stony Brook University is finding higher levels of larval scallops than have been seen in 17 years.

Newsday: Brentwood student researchers use STEM projects to find ways to save Long Island marshes

  • Nicole Olekanma was one of 18 students who showcased their science research projects as part of a new partnership between Brentwood High School, Stony Brook University and the BIOBUS, a traveling mobile laboratory that provides science research opportunities to students from communities traditionally underrepresented in the STEM — science, technology, engineering, mathematics — field. The collaboration, which focuses on marsh restoration research, is the first of its kind.

Newsday: Long Island weekly water quality report: More sites rated poor

  • During the summer, a team of students and scientists led by Chris Gobler, professor of marine science at Stony Brook University and director of the New York State Center for Clean Water Technology, tests the water quality weekly at about 30 locations around Long Island.

Dan’s Papers: Strained Scallops: Feds Declare Peconic Scallop Fishery a Disaster, But Shellfish May Rebound

  • More recently, an intense and damaging brown tide has erupted across Great South Bay from Sayville to Patchogue. Monitoring by The Gobler Laboratory at Stony Brook University has revealed that a brown tide has rapidly intensified to more than 300,000 cells per milliliter in Patchogue Bay as of June 23.

Suffolk Times: Experts: Long Island could see ‘very strong increase’ of flooding in two decades

  • Based on this study, Stony Brook University professor Edmund Chang said Long Island could see “a very strong increase” in flooding in the early 2040s.  Also ran in the Shelter Island Reporter.

WCBS-TV: Town Of Hempstead Beaches Suspend Swimming After More Shark Sightings Off Long Island

  • An abundance of bait and bunker fish are likely attracting the sharks, as seen in video captured Saturday off Southampton by Christopher Paparo, Manager of Marine Sciences Center at Stonybrook University Southampton and member of the South Fork Natural History Museum’s Shark Research team.

Newsday: Cold Spring Harbor faces outbreak of toxic algae

  • “This one can get into shellfish; so far there is no evidence that’s happened yet — but we’re going to be testing for that,” said Christopher Gobler, endowed chair of coastal ecology and conservation and principal investigator with the Gobler Laboratory at Stony Brook University.

 

CBS: Town Of Hempstead Beaches Suspend Swimming After More Shark Sightings Off Long Island

CBS Evening News: Shark sightings off New York’s coast are linked to climate change, scientists say

NY Times: Sharks Are Spotted Off Long Island. Scientists Say Don’t Panic.

WPIX: Multiple shark sightings off Long Island: What’s bringing them and how to avoid them Video on YouTube:

Kevin Reed appeared on episode 3 of “Doug to the Rescue” on HBO Max. In this clip, Kevin discusses how his research using computer forecast models shows the impacts of climate change on extreme weather events.

Latest News and Press from SoMAS

Above: Indian Island off Hubbard Ave in Peconic Bay, Riverhead, NY. Photo by Kaitlin Morris.

Catch the latest press featuring SoMAS faculty and staff!

The Environmental Protection Agency recently granted SoMAS with an award in the amount $522,537 in support of the “Peconic Estuary Partnership,” for the period July 1, 2021 – Sept. 30, 2022.  This is renewable annually and was awarded to Dr. Joyce Novak, Executive Director of the Peconic Estuary Partnership and Adjunct Faculty at SoMAS, and co-PIs Chris Gobler and Paul Shepson.

This year’s award has an associated/required match which is $522,527 from NYS (funds directed to Marine Animal Disease Lab for Scallop research $368,887; USGS continuous water quality monitoring stations $153,650).  This represents the first award, and start of SoMAS/SBU’s relationship as host of the Peconic Estuary Partnership.

The Peconic Estuary is one of 28 estuaries in the country designated by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an “estuary of national significance” under Section 320 of the Federal Clean Water Act. The National Estuary Program (NEP) was established to protect and restore nationally significant estuaries threatened or impaired by pollution, development, and overuse. The Peconic Estuary was formally accepted as part of the NEP in 1992. Officially commenced in 1993, the Peconic Estuary Partnership (PEP) on the East End of Long Island includes numerous stakeholders, representing citizen and environmental groups, businesses and industries, academic institutions, and local, county, state and federal governments. The Research Foundation at Stony Brook University serves as the host of the Peconic National Estuary Program.

 

Newsday: Great white sharks tracked swimming off Long Island

  • Chris Paparo, the Southampton Marine Science Center manager at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, said Long Island largely attracts juvenile great whites who largely feed on fish such as bunker, bluefish, flounder and sea robins.

BBC: Why seagulls are making their homes in our cities

  • Lesley Thorne, a seabird ecologist at Stony Brook University, is investigating mixed colonies of American herring gulls and great black-blacked gulls on Long Island, Tuckernuck island and New York City.

Florida News Times: State passes kelp bill that could pave the way for commercial cultivation in 2 LI bays

  • Kelp has been scrutinized by the Department of Marine Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University and has achieved unprecedented success in growing ribbon-shaped seaweed in the shallow waters of Moriches Bay.

East‌ ‌Hampton‌ ‌Star:‌ ‌‌For‌ ‌the‌ ‌Health‌ ‌of‌ ‌Scallops‌

  • This‌ ‌would‌ ‌supplement‌ ‌the‌ ‌recording‌ ‌device‌ ‌installed‌ ‌annually‌ ‌by‌ ‌Christopher‌ ‌Gobler‌ ‌of‌ ‌Stony‌ ‌Brook‌ University’s‌ ‌School‌ ‌of‌ ‌Marine‌ ‌and‌ ‌Atmospheric‌ ‌Sciences.‌

Southampton Press: Blue-Green Algae Found In Southampton Ponds

  • An analysis of surface water samples performed by SUNY Stony Brook confirmed the presence of the cyanobacteria blooms in Old Town Pond in Southampton and Mill Pond in Water Mill.

Sag Harbor Express: Sag Harbor Seeks Help For Annual Water-Quality Testing Program

  • Since 2014, Sag Harbor Village has contracted with Dr. Chris Gobler of Stony Brook University to conduct periodic water testing at various locations around the village. Also ran in Southampton Press.

The Guardian: New Yorkers fled to the Hamptons in 2020 – and sparked a major sewage crisis

  • Now, harvests of clams and scallops have decreased 99%, in large part due to the excess nitrogen from untreated groundwater, according to Christopher Gobler, head of coastal ecology and conservation at Stony Brook University’s marine sciences school. Also ran in MSN.

Montauk Patch: 900-Pound Shark, Freya, Spotted Off Coast Of Long Island

  • Christopher Paparo, manager of Stony Brook Southampton’s marine sciences center, said at one time, sharks were very common in area waters. “They have been heavily fished, and their numbers have dropped. Due to regulations and better environmental conditions, we have seen some species returning to where they once roamed.”

News12: Tests show brown tide cell count in Patchogue at highest level since 2017

  • Stony Brook University’s Dr. Chris Gobler says brown tide has rapidly intensified to more than 300,000 cells per milliliter in Patchogue Bay as of Wednesday — the highest brown tide cell count on Long Island since 2017.

Patchogue Patch: Brown Tide Eruption Creeps Into Long Island’s Great South Bay

  •  An intense and damaging brown tide has erupted, threatening marine life like hard clams, across Great South Bay on the south shore of Long Island, according to scientists at The Gobler Laboratory of Stony Brook University.

CBS 2 New York: Scientists: Great South Bay Off Long Island Suffering Through Most Intense Brown Tide In Years

Medford Patch: Worst Brown Tide In Years Threatens Great South Bay

  • This year’s brown tide in the Great South Bay is the worst since 2017, scientists at Stony Brook University say. Also ran in Coastal News Today,

Southampton Patch: New Blue-Green Algae Found In Hamptons Pond

  • Analysis of surface water samples performed by SUNY Stony Brook confirmed the presence of the new cyanobacteria blooms; health officials have asked residents not to use, or swim or wade, in the water and to keep children and pets away from the area.

East Hampton Star: Water Report: Blue-Green Algae Bloom in Bridgehampton, High Bacteria Levels Elsewhere

Long Island.com: Oysters Part of Plan to Improve Water Quality in Port Jeff Harbor

  • In a joint effort between the Town of Brookhaven and SUNY Stony Brook, 20,000 oysters were added to Port Jefferson Harbor to study the potential these shellfish have in removing nutrients to improve water quality.

Southampton Press: Schneiderman Says Town Could Take Emergency Measures To Protect Mecox Bay

  • After receiving a memo from Stony Brook University scientists warning that the bay is teetering on the brink of becoming an ecological and human health concern, Mr. Schneiderman told state officials that he would be monitoring levels of dissolved oxygen, salinity and dangerous algae blooms and will order the cut open if they reach certain levels that scientists say could lead to disaster.

East Hampton Star: Water Report: Blue-Green Algae Bloom in Bridgehampton, High Bacteria Levels Elsewhere

  • However, the Suffolk County Health Department reported a new cyanobacteria bloom in Kellis Pond in Bridgehampton. Following confirmation of the bloom by Stony Brook University, the county has asked people not to swim or wade in the pond and to keep children and pets away from it.

WCBS-TV: Scientists: Great South Bay Off Long Island Suffering Through Most Intense Brown Tide In Years

  • “Thirty five thousand cells-per-milliliter is the level that can begin to cause harm to, for example, clams, and we are at half a million cells-per-milliliter,” said Dr. Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook Coastal Ecology and Conservation.

Harmful Brown Tide Erupts Across Great South Bay

Photo above: Brown tide in Patchogue on June 23, 2021

Stony Brook’s Gobler Laboratory monitoring the tide; newly spawned hard clams at risk

STONY BROOK, NY, June 25, 2021 — An intense and damaging brown tide has erupted across Great South Bay on the south shore of Long Island. Monitoring by The Gobler Laboratory at Stony Brook University has revealed that a brown tide has rapidly intensified to more than 300,000 cells per milliliter in Patchogue Bay as of June 23. These are the highest brown tide cells counts recorded on Long Island on since 2017. Densities exceeding 100,000 cells per milliliter were present from Bellport to Sayville.

The brown tide alga, Aureococcus anophagefferens, has been notorious on Long Island having caused the demise of the largest bay scallop fishery on the US east coast in the Peconic Estuary, the loss of eelgrass across Long Island, and the inhibition of hard clam recovery efforts in Great South Bay since the 1990s. Densities above 35,000 cells per milliliter are harmful to marine life, particularly hard clams. Brown tide densities above this threshold were found from Sayville to Patchogue in Great South Bay this past week, with lower levels to the east and west of this region.

“This is the most intense and widespread brown tide in four years,” said Christopher Gobler, PhD, the Endowed Chair of Coastal Ecology and Conservation in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University. “The timing of the current brown tide is particularly troubling for hard clam populations, as June marks the once per year event when they reproduce, and newly spawned hard clams are highly vulnerable to brown tides. The fate of these young-of-the-year clams may rest on the duration of the current brown tide which usually intensifies through June and into July until water temperatures get into the mid-70s.”

Gobler noted that while brown tides originally occurred on both the south shore and east end of Long Island from 1985 through 1995, the Peconic Estuary has been free of this tide since 1995. The south shore of Long Island is highly vulnerable to brown tides, having experienced these events almost annually since 1985.

Decades of research on brown tide at Stony Brook University has identified high levels of organic nitrogen and poor flushing as factors promoting blooms on Long Island. And while the new ocean inlet in Great South Bay has improved water quality in Bellport Bay, that inlet is getting smaller and has never improved water quality in central Great South Bay.

“Great South Bay has the precise combination of conditions that leads to brown tides and other harmful algal blooms: Intense nitrogen loading from household septic systems into a shallow water body that is poorly flushed by the ocean,” said Gobler, “As efforts by Suffolk County move forward to address septic nitrogen loading, this region should improve as a result.”

CreditChris Gobler

Machine Learning May Help Improve Long-Range Weather Forecasting

Photo above, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): MJOs are powerful tropical thunderstorm systems that move eastward, as depicted in this graphic, and affect global weather.

STONY BROOK, NY, May 26, 2021 – The accuracy of weather forecasting decreases with each additional day of forecasting and is limited in accuracy at two weeks. Now a new study published in Nature Communications and led by Hyemi Kim, PhD, Associate Professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University, highlights a way to improve weather forecasts beyond two weeks by using machine learning.

Accurate weather forecasting has become increasingly important to society because of its socioeconomic value due to globalization, trade, travel, and the needs of policymakers and others such as risk managers. Reliable forecasts for weather conditions three-to-four weeks away (called the subseasonal range) can provide vital information about hazardous weather threats such as floods and heat waves.

Professor Kim and colleagues focused on a phenomenon known as the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO), a belt of thunderstorms that starts over the equatorial tropical Indian Ocean and moves slowly eastward toward the central Pacific Ocean, in a repetitious manner each year every 40 to 50 days. Scientists have used MJO as a key tool for three-to-four-week weather forecasting. However, computer modeling has not been able to simulate all aspects of MJO and therefore extended-range forecasts based on MJO information has a larger margin of error.

The team combined state-of-the-art weather forecast models and observations with a machine learning process (a Deep Learning bias correction using all of the data) to forecast the MJO. With this Deep Learning bias correction, forecast errors in the MJO averaged over four weeks reduced by 80~90 percent.

Professor Kim explains that computer models used for forecasting lose accuracy significantly when models try to reproduce MJO that crosses the Maritime Continent and moves eastward. Because of this, more model biases occur and predictions for global weather beyond two weeks becomes difficult.

“Our study demonstrates that machine learning substantially reduces the MJO forecast errors from models, and this will help improve global extended range forecasts,” says Professor Kim. “Because we created a simple approach with machine learning, this method can be implemented into operational forecasts that are currently used for two-week weather forecasting and longer.”

The researchers plan to apply their machine learning technique to test ways to improve forecasts of extreme weather events, such as hurricanes or heat waves in New York.

The research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (grant AGS-1652289).

News Roundup from SoMAS

Did you catch SoMAS in the News? Here’s a few headlines featuring our students, faculty, and staff!

Congratulations to Dr. Sara Hamideh, on her NSF CAREER Award, entitled “CAREER: Affordable Versus Vacation Housing Resilience: Mechanisms that Shape Housing Vulnerability and Recovery in Coastal Communities”, in the amount $578,991, for the period 6/15/21 – 5/31/26

CAREER: Affordable Versus Vacation Housing Resilience: Mechanisms that Shape Housing Vulnerability and Recovery in Coastal Communities

Overview
The PI’s long-term career goal is to develop an interactive research, education, and outreach program to transform our understanding of the mechanisms that cause disparities in vulnerability between affordable primary housing (APH) and second homes-vacation rentals (SHVR) in United States coastal areas and create actionable knowledge in the form of new policies that can support equitable housing. In many coastal areas of the United States, affordable primary housing is shrinking, aging, and deteriorating while seasonal vacation housing is growing and improving. With the increasing frequency of coastal hazards, affordable housing is disproportionately damaged by storms, while the tourism industry, the largest employer in the marine economy, loses revenue. The research goal of this CAREER project is to transform our understanding of the mechanisms that cause disparities in vulnerability between APH and SHVR, examining three critical elements: the local tourism sector, local development policies, and disaster funds. The four areas selected for conducting this project include Galveston, TX; Long Beach Island, NJ; Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island Metropolitan Area, FL; and Sayville-Fire Island, NY. The research objectives are to (1) Measure the disparities in disaster vulnerability between SHVR and APH; (2) Identify the disparities and relationship between recovery of APH and recovery of SHVRs and the tourism industry (3) Discover the mechanisms by which local development policies, disaster funds, and the tourism sector each shape the disparities in disaster vulnerability and recovery between SHVRs and APH. I will adopt a convergence approach that focuses on the pressing problem of coastal housing vulnerability, enables integration across disciplines, and seeks to find solutions to this problem.
My educational goal builds on my long-term career goal of actionable knowledge to support equitable housing resilience by preparing students from underrepresented groups as well as students drawn from affected local communities for disaster convergence research, outreach, and policy development and guide disaster practitioners and policy makers through this research. In pursuit of this goal, the educational objectives of this CAREER are (1) developing and teaching a new service-learning studio course on coastal housing resilience (2) mentoring students in disaster research and outreach to share our findings with the broader public and policy makers (3) partnering with housing and disaster organizations to prepare and advise student researchers in translating findings of the study into actionable disaster program guidelines and policies.

Intellectual merit
Housing and disaster studies have rarely identified or explained disparities between APH and SHVR. Without this knowledge change in policy is hindered. To address such a critical gap, this CAREER project adopts a convergence approach by integrating theories and techniques from housing and disaster studies in urban planning, sociology, economics, and structural engineering to explain how development policies and funding mechanisms within the context of tourism economies create and exacerbate disparities in housing vulnerability. I emphasize the distinction between the two housing submarkets within the context of the local tourism economy to examine their interactions and consequences for housing vulnerability. In addition, this study will develop and apply a holistic multidisciplinary vulnerability metrics framework to combine physical, sociological, and economic assessment of housing vulnerability.

Broader impact
Housing serves as a foundation for the resilience of households and communities, both as a critical element of the built environment and a household’s largest financial investment. Affordable housing is essential for sustaining the coastal residents, many of whom work in the tourism sector, the largest employer in the marine economy. Generating transformative knowledge on the mechanisms that shape housing vulnerability disparities and partnering with practitioners to translate and disseminate that knowledge will support policy makers in addressing the challenges of housing vulnerability in coastal areas. Teaching and mentoring students in outreach, so they can teach others, especially those who represent the communities that are disproportionately affected by disasters, will provide skills and knowledge to empower and prepare them for working alongside community advocates and practitioners on pressing challenges of housing vulnerability in coastal areas in the face of climate change.

 

Congratulations to Dr. Hyemi Kim has received a new award from Chonnam National University in support of the project entitled: “Developing bias correction methods for subseasonal prediction using deep learning techniques.”, for the period 4/1/21 – 12/31/21, in the amount $40,380.

Abstract
The main purpose of this research project is to develop bias correction methods for better predict the dominant mode of subseasonal variabilities in the tropics. Both linear empirical models and deep learning approaches will be applied to subseasonal hindcast experiment outputs from both S2S and SubX, and those that will be developed during the project by the sponsor’s institute. The research team led by Hyemi Kim at Stony Brook Univ. has developed a subseasonal prediction verification metrics in the previous years, which will be applied to evaluate the prediction skill improvement and success of the newly developed methods.

 

We are pleased to announce that PhD Student Luis Medina Faull has been selected to receive a Presidential Dissertation Completion Fellowship, which will provide a full stipend for the 2021-22 academic year.  This is the first year for President McInnis’ new initiative.

 

Engadget Fukushima’s nuclear meltdown hasn’t been the environmental calamity we feared

  • “All life has existed — even before humans appeared on this planet — on a radioactive planet in a radioactive universe,” Dr. Nicholas Fisher, Director of the Consortium for Interdisciplinary Environmental Research at Stony Brook University, noted to News Brig. “You were born radioactive, and you are radioactive right now. I am radioactive just as much as you are. I drank radioactive water this morning for breakfast, as did you. The radioactivity in your body is all natural.” Also ran in News Brig. Yahoo Entertainment, Gamers Grade, Daily Magazine

27east/Southampton Press: Georgica Pond Management Plan Touts Success, Demands More

  • The management plan drafted by the Friends of Georgica Pond and Stony Brook University researchers the group hired in 2015 says that the use of a floating tractor to remove dense growths of aquatic weeds and the regular opening of the “cut” between the pond and the ocean appear to have kept the blooms of toxic algae that plagued the pond for several years in check and argues for its continued use — which is currently under review by the town and state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Propublica: The Climate Solution Actually Adding Millions of Tons of CO2 Into the Atmosphere

  • Weeks later, when CarbonPlan completed a draft, we sent it to several outside scientists for a detailed review, including Heather Lynch, Professor of Ecology & Evolution at Stony Brook University, and a member of ProPublica’s data advisory board; Dan Sanchez, who directs the Carbon Removal Laboratory at UC-Berkeley; and David Valentine, Chair of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

Sag Harbor Express: Thousands Of Fish Dying In Local Bays; Scientists Suspect Bacteria

  • “We’ve sent samples to the Stony Brook Marine Animal Disease Lab and they’re doing research on whether this is something new or something we’ve seen before,” said Jim Gilmore, director of the DEC’s Division of Marine Resources. “These bacteria can be cyclical and they’ll be prevalent and then go away for a while and then pop up again.”

Times Beacon Record: SBU’s Julie Stepanuk connects humpback habitat use, vessel strikes around LI

Newsday: LI baitfish die-off, part of a larger fish kill, is tied to bacteria

  • Samples collected by the DEC and processed by Stony Brook University’s Marine Animal Disease Laboratory “confirmed the presence of Vibrio bacteria in both live and dead fish,” the DEC said in a statement to Newsday.

Smart Energy Decisions: Stony Brook University Receives $5 Million for Offshore Wind Research

  • A joint partnership with developers of New York’s Sunrise Wind offshore wind farm, Ørsted, and Eversource will include a commitment of $5 million to Stony Brook University’s research and advancement of offshore wind technology through the university’s Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center (AERTC).

Newsday: A new ‘set it-and-forget it’ crop may help LI’s aqua farmers — and its bays, too 

  • Michael Doall, associate director for bivalve restoration at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences, has been monitoring kelp beds such as McCormick’s for the past three years, and is finding encouraging signs. He called such operations “restorative farming.”

Newsday: Town, baymen at odds over shellfish restoration plan in Great South Bay

  • Islip’s plan could work, said Christopher Gobler, a Stony Brook University professor who studies marine sciences. But it’s hard to tell how long it might take, he said. “There’s not a magic number because every site is different,” he said.

Seafood News.com: Long Island Aqua Farmers Look to Kelp, Seaweed for New Businesses 

  • It’s the end of April, just weeks before harvest, and the weight of the underwater line and the long, curled ribbons of green-brown kelp show it’s a bumper crop. Indeed, the growth is so strong that the Stony Brook University marine team that helped plant it and…

The Atlantic: The Surprise Hiding in the DNA of Pet Fish

In particular, the genetic spillover from domesticated to wild suggests that humans can end up changing wild fish without meaning to. In aquaculture where fish are bred for food, tipping the sex ratio has long been an industry obsession in order to increase the number of males or females, whichever are bigger depending on the species. But these domesticated fish can escape and breed with wild populations, thereby changing those fish too. “You’re not really returning to the wild the same genetic structure,” says David Conover, a fish biologist at Stony Brook University. What happens in fish tanks doesn’t stay in fish tanks. Also ran in MSN.

In case you missed them, here are the latest SoMAS Seminars available online:

CCWT Research Finds Likely Source of 1,4-dioxane in Wastewater and Novel Approach for Removal

From Twin University Studies Reveal Contamination of Public Water Supplies by Household Products Containing Likely Human Carcinogen and the Creation of a New Septic System to Remove This, Nitrogen, and Other Contaminants from the New York State Center for Clean Water Technology

Friday, February 26, 2021 – There is growing concern across the country regarding the contamination of drinking water supplies by toxic chemicals.  From lead in Flint, Michigan, to perfluoroalkyl substances found in public water supplies across the country, clean public water has become a central environmental issue.  While these contaminants are also of concern across Long Island where the likely human carcinogen, 1,4-dioxane, has been found at the highest levels ever measured in drinking water across the U.S. due to a large industrial plume.  More recently, there has been the suggestion that beyond industrial contamination, 1,4-dioxane is also present at very high levels in common household products such as detergents, deodorants, and shampoos but evidence of this has been lacking.

Now, emerging research from the New York State Center for Clean Water Technology affirms household products as a likely source of 1,4-dioxane in wastewater, but also reveals a novel approach for removing this chemical and other contaminants before it enters groundwater.

Founded in 2015, a prime mission of the Center has been to solve the nitrogen overloading crisis in Long Island’s groundwater and surface waters by developing innovative and alternative onsite septic systems.  Excessive nitrogen has shown to cause harmful algal blooms, the loss of important aquatic habitats like seagrass meadows, and the collapse of shellfisheries like clams and scallops; high nitrate in drinking water is also a public health concern.  The Center has developed a series of innovative Nitrogen Removing Biofilters (NRBs) that is comprised of layers of natural products commonly found across Long Island, sand and woodchips.  In a new paper published in the international peer-reviewed journal Ecological Engineering , scientists from the Center demonstrates that their NRBs installed in Massachusetts and NY remove up to 80 – 90% of nitrogen from wastewater before it is discharged to ground.

Dr. Chris Gobler, Director of the New York State Center for Clean Water Technology (CCWT), “In 2015, we set a goal to develop a septic system that reduces nitrogen from wastewater to less than 10 milligrams of nitrogen per liter; with this publication we’re showing the world we’ve met that goal and can achieve nitrogen levels lower than any commercially available system”, said Gobler.

Beyond nitrogen, the Center is also focused on the ability of NRBs to remove other contaminants of concern, including 1,4-dioxane. In addition to monitoring nitrogen, the Center has been collecting samples from homes outfitted with NRB septic systems; specifically collecting tap water, representing water entering the homes, influent wastewater, representing sewage exiting homes and entering the NRBs, and effluent (treated wastewater) exiting from the NRBs before it enters groundwater and Long Island’s drinking water supply.

In a paper published this month in the international peer-reviewed scientific journal, Science of the Total Environment , the Center demonstrated that while tap water samples has levels of 1,4-dioxane less than one part per billion (ppb), the drinking water standard for NYS, levels of 1,4-dioxane in the wastewater leaving homes consistently contained levels higher than tap water levels, peaking as high as eight ppb, and increasing by more than ten-fold, on average.  Importantly, the results also show that the treated wastewater exiting the NRBs were, on average, 56% lower than the wastewater leaving the homes and was usually less than one ppb.  These analyses have two important discoveries.  First, the increase in 1,4-dioxane concentrations in the wastewater exiting homes suggests household products and activity is an important source of 1,4-dioxane in wastewater.  Next, the NRBs are cleaning the wastewater, reducing 1,4-dioxane concentrations to levels below the proposed NYS drinking water standard of one ppb.

The efficient removal of 1,4-dioxane from wastewater by the NRBs is a breakthrough finding, as the chemical 1,4-dioxane, is extremely difficult to remove from contaminated water supplies with advanced oxidation processes being one of the only reliable approaches.  This has Stony Brook University scientists encouraged.

“The enrichment of 1,4-dioxane in water supplies by household activity and the ability of our NRBs to remove this extremely persistent, probably carcinogen has important implications for protecting water supplies”, said Gobler. “The results are very surprising and at the same time encouraging as 1,4-dioxane is expected to resist natural degradation processes and are not removed efficiently by filtration. Our team is performing controlled experiments to understand the mechanism by which 1,4-dioxane is removed by NRBs”, added Dr. Arjun Venkatesan, Associate Director for Drinking Water Initiatives, NYS CCWT.

These results could soon have broad implications for Long Island as well.  NRBs just completed the experimental testing phase in Suffolk County and have entering the County’s ‘piloting test phase’.  Upon the collection of 12 more months of data, NRBs will earn provisional approval in Suffolk County at which point anyone will be able to install these systems in their home.  Current state, county, and town grant programs allow such systems to be installed at little-to-no cost to homeowners.

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos said, “New York State and our academic partners are leading the way in evaluating and addressing emerging contaminants like 1,4-dioxane and the threat they pose to our environment and our communities. The studies announced today bolster New York’s aggressive approach of preventing water contamination from 1,4-dioxane by eliminating it in household and personal care products, providing extensive resources including $14.5 million to support the Center for Clean Water Technology, investigating and remediating potential sources of contamination, and committing record funding for clean water infrastructure to protect drinking water quality on Long Island and across the state.”

Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said “CCE is thrilled that this new research further validates our four-year battle to ban 1,4-dioxane from products.  This type of cutting-edge science will further efforts to protect drinking water and surface water from both 1,4-dioxane and nitrogen. Strong, enforceable policies based on good science is the only way we can to continue to protect our aquifer and water resources for future generations.  I want to thank the team at Stony Brook for engaging in research that directly benefits public health and provides meaningful guidance for a cleaner, safer future,”.

“Last year, I worked closely with other state representatives to pass legislation to restrict the levels of 1,4-dioxane that would be permissible in household products,” said Assemblyman Steve Englebright, Chair of the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee. “This study demonstrates how important that legislation was and how critically important it is that we now move swiftly to implement the action imposed by that bill.”

“I want to thank the New York State Center for Clean Water Technology for the amazing work they are doing to protect our region’s drinking water from 1,4-dioxane and other harmful groundwater contaminants,” said Senator Anthony Palumbo. “Their groundbreaking research on the origination of these containments not only shows us the scope of this problem but provides us with solutions on how to keep our drinking water safe. I will continue to work with our State and Federal partners to ensure we have the necessary funding and resources needed to combat 1,4-dioxane and ensure Long Islanders have access to clean and reliable drinking water for generations to come.”

Full Press Conference Recording

Relevant publications:

C. Lee, C. Asato, M. Wang, X. Mao, C. Gobler, A. Venkatesan, (2021). Removal of 1, 4-dioxane during on-site wastewater treatment using nitrogen removing biofilters Science of The Total Environment, 144806.

C. Gobler, S. Waugh, C. Asato, P. Clyde, S. Nyer, M. Graffam, et. al. (2021). Removing 80%–90% of nitrogen and organic contaminants with three distinct passive, lignocellulose-based on-site septic systems receiving municipal and residential wastewater. Ecological Engineering 161, 106157.

Media Coverage:

News12 – Scientists: Household Porducts Contaminate Long Island Groundwater, But a Solution Could be on the Horizon

Newsday – Study: Low Cost Water Filtration Could Reduce Likely Human Carcinogen

Long Island Press – Stony Brook Researchers Unveil Tech for Newer, Cleaner Septic Systems

WSHU – Long Island Clean Water Center Hopes Biofilters are the Answer to Remove Harmful Chemical in Water

Phys.org – New Approach to Removing Toxins from Wastewater

Innovate LI – Clean Water Center Eyes Natural Anti-Pollutant Shield

Scientists Warn of Likely Massive Oil Spill Endangering the Red Sea, Region’s Health

Above: Corals in the Gulf of Aqaba, photo by Maoz Fine.

Abandoned tanker has 4 times the amount of oil as the Exxon Valdez

STONY BROOK, NY, December 15, 2020 – A paper published in Frontiers in Marine Science on December 15 is calling for action to remove the oil from a decaying and inactive tanker in the Red Sea that holds approximately one million barrels of oil – four times the amount of oil contained in the Exxon Valdez, the tanker that had a disastrous environmental oil spill in 1989 –  before its current seepage turns into a massive oil spill into the sea. The paper, a policy brief, is authored by a team of international scientists led by Karine Kleinhaus, MD, MPH, an Associate Professor of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University.

Called the Safer, the tanker is a floating storage and offloading unit (FSO) abandoned for years, and with access controlled by Yemen’s Houthis. The paper, titled “A Closing Window of Opportunity to Save a Unique Marine Ecosystem,” comes shortly after The New York Times reported on November 24 that the Houthis will grant permission to a United Nations (UN) team to board the Safer to inspect and repair the vessel in the near future.

“The time is now to prevent a potential devastation to the region’s waters and the livelihoods and health of millions of people living in half a dozen countries along the Red Sea’s coast,” says Dr. Kleinhaus. “If a spill from the Safer is allowed to occur, the oil would spread via ocean currents to devastate a global ocean resource, as the coral reefs of the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba are projected to be among the last reef ecosystems in the world to survive the coming decades.”

She explained that the reason the coral reefs of the northern Red Sea are unique is because they survive in much warmer waters than today’s ocean temperatures, which are becoming too high for most coral to tolerate (over half of the Great Barrier Reef has degraded due to marine heat waves caused by climate change). Additionally, the fish living on the reefs off Yemen in the southern Red Sea are a major resource of food for the populations of the region, and the entire sea and its coral reefs are a highly biodiverse and rich ecosystem.

Dr. Kleinhaus and co-authors point out that in May 2020 seawater breached the Safer and entered the engine compartment, and news agencies have reported oil spots next to the tanker, indicating likely seepage. The tanker has been abandoned since 2015, which the authors emphasize is a long advance warning of a decaying tanker poised to degrade to the point of a mass oil leak into the Red Sea.

The paper reveals a computer model of how the oil will disperse if a major leak begins this winter. The model shows that the oil will reach much further if the spill occurs now rather than in summer, due to the typical winter currents in that region of the Red Sea. A spill now will cause much broader and more extensive devastation as a result.

Despite the signs of the Safer’s structural deterioration, access to the tanker has yet to be achieved and concrete steps to repair or to prevent an oil spill have yet to been taken, the authors point out. Dr. Kleinhaus adds that winter is the worst time to have an oil spill in that region, as winter currents will disperse oil much more widely.

The authors urge that “Emergent action must be taken by the UN and its International Maritime Organization to address the threat of the Safer, despite political tensions, as a spill will have disastrous environmental and humanitarian consequences, especially if it occurs during winter. With millions of barrels of oil, a day passing through the Red Sea, a regional strategy must be drafted for leak prevention and containment that is specific to the Red Sea’s unique ecosystems, unusual water currents, and political landscape.”

Scientists produced a computer simulation of the spread of oil from the abandoned tanker in the Red Sea. The projection shows mass spread during winter compared to summer due to current patterns. The data shown was produced by running the model for 30 days. Oil spread even further from the tanker when the model ran for a longer period of time.

Scientists produced a computer simulation of the spread of oil from the abandoned tanker in the Red Sea. The projection shows mass spread during winter compared to summer due to current patterns. The data shown was produced by running the model for 30 days. Oil spread even further from the tanker when the model ran for a longer period of time.

 

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Kleinhaus, K., Voolstra, C. R., Meibom, A., Amitai, Y., Gildor, H., and Fine, M. (2020). A closing window of opportunity to save a unique marine ecosystem. Frontiers in Marine Science.