March 2023 News and Press from SoMAS

Mar 31, 2023

Here’s the latest news and press from the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University.

Thank you for your support of SoMAS during Stony Brook University’s Giving Day! With your help we are able to #HoldDoorsOpen for our fellow Seawolves!

Congratulations to the SoMAS faculty and staff that were honored at the 2023 Annual Service Awards Banquet:

  • Henry Bokuniewicz, 45 years of service, SoMAS, Distinguished Professor
  • Robert Aller, 35 years of service, SoMAS, Distinguished Professor
  • Darcy Lonsdale, 35 years of service, Professor
  • Ginny Clancy, 35 years of service, Senior Staff Assistant

 

Gordon Taylor checked in to share the latest blog post from his lab’s MicroPro 2023 Research Cruise, where he, Elena Yakubovskaya, and Natasha Butkevitch are representing SoMAS!

 

Dr. Paul Shepson has received a new NIST award, entitled “Development and Application of an Array of Observations and Models to Better Quantify GHG Emission Rates Along the U.S. Northeast Urban Corridor” for the period 03/01/2023 to 02/28/2026, in the amount of $1,725,699.

  • This project involves a series of aircraft observations, model development and model analysis efforts, aimed at the continued improvement in our ability to quantify greenhouse gas emission rates from urban environments, focusing on the Northeast Corridor, from DC to New York City.  This will involve ongoing aircraft sampling across the NEC, using the ALAR aircraft, with inverse modeling analysis for emission rate determination for each of the urban cores, across all seasons, and days of the week.  We will also use an inverse modeling approach to examine emission rate trends across our 13-year observational data set for Indianapolis.  We will continue our work aimed at improvement of our understanding of methane emission sources in New York City, including use of mobile sampling.  We will begin the process of connecting our measurements from aircraft to those from satellite-based instruments, including TROPOMI,  and MethaneSAT, and engaging with the MethaneSAT researchers on measurements using the MethaneAIR instrument for observations over New York City.  Related to that, we intend to install a hyperspectral instrument on ALAR, in collaboration with David Allen, to enable determinations of CO2 and CH4 column concentrations which will in turn enable derived emissions.  We will continue the process of examining the potential for quantifying east coast outflow of GHGs using our research vessel, the R/V Seawolf, that cruises off the coast of the NEC.  We are also proposing to instrument a new site in the NEC tower network at the Flax Pond site on the north coast of Long Island.  This project will continue to produce peer-reviewed journal articles that document our progress toward our goals of contributing to high-quality observations of GHG emission rates from urban environments.

Dr. Charlie Flagg has been funded as part of a 3 year project, funded through WHOI, entitled “The Oleander Project: High Resolution Observations of the Dynamic Ocean between New Jersey and Bermuda”, for the period 3/1/23 – 2/28/26, in the amount $50,806 (part of a $1,388,432 collaborative project).

  • Overview: For nearly three decades, the CV Oleander’s weekly roundtrips between Port Elizabeth, NJ and Hamilton, Bermuda have transited through waters of both subpolar and subtropical origins, traversing distinct regions that have undergone dramatic changes: the continental shelf off the northeastern United States, Slope Sea, Gulf Stream, and Sargasso Sea. Over the years, as each aging Oleander vessel has been replaced by a new one, continued observations from scientific sensors hosted on these commercial ships have been critical for characterizing and investigating the variability at a range of spatial and temporal scales. The scientific discoveries and resulting insights have led to new questions building on the initial studies motivated by the Oleander Program that began in 1992. This proposal seeks to bring the newest Oleander’s scientific sensors online, and to continue and enhance the in situ measurements made possible by this commercial vessel’s service along the same route. These measurements are essential for studies of ocean circulation, heat transport, biological productivity and the marine carbon cycle in the western North Atlantic.
  • Intellectual Merit: Interannual to decadal variability in the Gulf Stream system has both regional and basin-wide implications. Gulf Stream meandering impacts exchange processes with surrounding waters, e.g., upwelling of nutrient-rich waters into the Slope Sea or intrusion of subsurface salinity maxima onto the shelf. In addition, climate models point to rapid change in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), whose warm limb is carried within the Gulf Stream, and suggest that AMOC variability also drives changes observed on the shelf and coast. To understand the underlying processes and to validate or refute the model-based hypotheses, there is a need for in situ multidecade records of the Gulf Stream and surrounding waters. The Oleander Line with its coverage of shelf, slope, Gulf Stream and Sargasso waters is well-suited to directly measure fluxes associated with the AMOC and to compare with AMOC estimates from other latitudes to examine meridional coherence. Increased understanding of the drivers of both the long-term changes and the event-scale processes on the shelf and slope off the Northeast
  • US has implications for the phenology and health of the shelf ecosystems along the highly populated coast with commercially important fisheries.

 

Congratulations to the recipients of SoMAS Seed Grant Awards for 2022-2023. The purpose of the SoMAS Seed Grant program is to encourage, stimulate and support a vital and vigorous graduate research program, to promote innovation, to accelerate the translation of ideas into funded projects, to foster a more entrepreneurial and collaborative approach to securing external research funds, and to advance the strategic research goals of SoMAS.

This year, six seed proposals were received from groups representing at least 10 SoMAS faculty and over 10 collaborators outside of SoMAS. An ad hoc committee, organized by the members of the Faculty Council, reviewed each of the proposals submitted in earlier this year based on intellectual merit and innovation, strength of the research team, clarity and efficiency of the budget, potential to advance the SoMAS Strategic Plan research goals and additional external funding opportunities created by the funds requested. The Dean then weighed the reviews from the committee and previous success with seed grants when making final decisions.

The four proposals funded this cycle are:

  • Aller, J, Frisk and Henkes: Can environmental reconstruction from fossil fish be used to predict lake ecosystem response to climate change?
  • Pochron, Collier, Hoffmann, Dávalos and Hsiao: A Path to Climate Stability: Unleashing the Power of Azolla for Carbon Sequestration
  • Gilbert: Understanding (mis)perceptions of air quality in New York City
  • French: Development of a Prototype Multi-Frequency Vertically-Pointing Radar “Pod” for the Study of Extreme Weather

 

Latest News Highlights

Two SBU Long Island Sound Research Projects Receive New York Sea Grant Funding from $6.3M Suite

“State of the Bays, 2023: Love where you live” Lecture, April 4

 

Latest Publications

Lato, K. A., & Thorne, L. H. Sodium heparin affects ẟ34S but not ẟ13C and ẟ15N values in avian whole blood. Ibis.

Rius, M., Rest, J. S., Filloramo, G. V., Novák Vanclová, A. M., Archibald, J. M., & Collier, J. L. (2023). Horizontal gene transfer and fusion spread carotenogenesis among diverse heterotrophic protists. Genome Biology and Evolution, evad029.

Czaja Jr, R. E., Hennen, D., Cerrato, R. M., Lwiza, K., Pales-Espinosa, E., O’Dwyer, J., & Allam, B. (2023). Using LASSO regularization to project recruitment under CMIP6 climate scenarios in a coastal fishery with spatial oceanographic gradients. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, (ja).

Kramer, B. J., & Gobler, C. J. (2023). Simulated heat waves promote the growth but suppress the N2 fixation rates of Dolichospermum spp. and cyanobacterial communities in temperate lakes. Ecological Indicators, 147, 109983.

Ansmann, A., Ohneiser, K., Engelmann, R., Radenz, M., Griesche, H., Hofer, J., Knopf, D.A., … & Wandinger, U. (2023). Annual cycle of aerosol properties over the central Arctic during MOSAiC 2019–2020—light-extinction, CCN, and INP levels from the boundary layer to the tropopause. EGUsphere, 1-44.

Lee, C. S., Wang, M., Clyde, P. M., Mao, X., Brownawell, B. J., & Venkatesan, A. K. (2023). 1, 4-Dioxane removal in nitrifying sand filters treating domestic wastewater: Influence of water matrix and microbial inhibitors. Chemosphere, 138304.

Gobler, C. J. (2023). East Hampton Town Trustees 2022 water quality study, Final Report.

Knopf, D. A., & Alpert, P. A. (2023). Atmospheric ice nucleation. Nature Reviews Physics, 1-15.

Schwaner, C., Barbosa, M., Schwemmer, T. G., Pales Espinosa, E., & Allam, B. (2023). Increased Food Resources Help Eastern Oyster Mitigate the Negative Impacts of Coastal Acidification. Animals, 13(7), 1161.

Ayache, N., Bill, B. D., Brosnahan, M. L., Campbell, L., Deeds, J. R., Fiorendino, J. M., Gobler, C.J., … & Smith, J. L. (2023). A Survey of dinophysis spp. and their potential to cause diarrhetic shellfish poisoning in coastal waters of the United States. Journal of Phycology.

Pan, X., Arsenault, S., Rokosz, K., & Chen, Y. (2023). Spatial variability of striped bass spawning responses to climate change. Global Ecology and Conservation, 42, e02405.

 

Latest Seminar Videos

 

Latest Press Features

Firstpost/New York Times: Shell Shocked: Inside the rehab centre for sick turtles in New York

  • If it’s not too busy, after the turtle breakfast is served, Montello, who is in the midst of earning a doctorate from the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, will have her own lunch — usually a salad. “I haven’t eaten anything from the sea since, I think, middle school,” she said. That was when she fell in love with the ocean. “I just didn’t want it to circle back that I was, you know, eating anybody’s friends.” Also ran in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Baltimore Post-Examiner and others.

Dan’s Papers: Suffolk, East Hampton at Odds Over Proposed Montauk Treatment Plant

  • Across the greater Long Island area, brown tides and similar algae blooms have contributed to a record 50 fish kills — well above the average of five annually — that were recorded in summer 2022 in waterways, according to a Stony Brook University study released in October.

Northforker: Rites of Spring Music Festival implores North Forkers to rethink classical music and interact with their environment 

  • David Taylor, an assistant professor and the faculty director of the environmental humanities major in the sustainability studies program at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, held a 10-minute discussion regarding the impacts of climate change, combative measures and the role of the arts to incite change.

New Milford Patch: The Nature Conservancy : Shinnecock Kelp Farmers To Expand Southampton Kelp Farm

  • Currently, they are working with GreenWave, the Sisters of Saint Joseph and researchers at the School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University to study how to transport and filter water from the bay to support and scale the hatchery’s work in a sustainable way.

All Africa: Africa: How We Found That Sites of Previous Ebola Outbreaks Are at Higher Risk Than Before

  • Heather Lynch, professor of ecology and evolution at Stony Brook University and ProPublica data science adviser, was acknowledged in this article.

Westhampton-Hampton Bays Patch: ‘First Flush’ For Westhampton Beach Village’s New Sewer Connection

  • Moore said that a study provided by Stony Brook scientist Dr. Christopher Gobler in the project’s initial planning stages laid out the enhanced environmental protections and improved water quality that would ensue. Gobler first reported that the system would reduce the nitrogen content into the bay by 5,000 lbs. yearly.

Dan’s Papers: Westhampton Beach Sewer Project Completion Celebrated With ‘First Flush’

  • The project is part of a countywide and statewide initiative that also aims to replace aging nitrogen-leaching cesspools used in three quarters of the county that studies have shown are a leading cause of excess algae blooms that cause brown tides, beach closures and fish kills, collapsing local fisheries and depressing property values. A Stony Brook University study found that the new sewer lines could reduce the nitrogen content into the bay by 5,000 pounds a year — a 24% decrease.

Science Magazine: Does current shellfish anti-predator gear curb ‘crunching’ rays?

  • “These habitat associations could expose these sensitive animals to other risks, although we are just beginning to understand them and admittedly have a lot more to learn,” said Brianna Cahill, corresponding author, an FAU Harbor Branch marine science and oceanography graduate, and a research technician at Stony Brook University. Also ran in Bioengineer.org, EurekAlert and others.

Everyday Health: What Is Cadmium? Health Effects, Risk Factors for Exposure, and More

  • “Cadmium is a natural element, and we are exposed to it all the time,” says Jaymie Meliker, PhD, a public health professor at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University in New York. “The question is fundamentally about dose: How much are we exposed to and at what levels are we at risk?”

Eco Magazine: ​​Does Current Shellfish Culture Gear Curb ‘Crunching’ Rays?

  • These habitat associations could expose these sensitive animals to other risks, although we are just beginning to understand them and admittedly have a lot more to learn,” said Brianna Cahill, corresponding author, an FAU Harbor Branch marine science and oceanography graduate, and a research technician at Stony Brook University.

Innovate LI: Kelp help: $75K backs 10,000-year-old science project

  • Launched in 2020, Shinnecock Kelp Farmers has already benefited from collaborations with “3D ocean farming” pacesetter GreenWave, Stony Brook University’s School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences (which has made the revival of Shinnecock Bay’s decimated aquatic populations a primary mission) and the Sisters of Saint Joseph (the international religious congregation donated space for a pilot kelp hatchery at its Hampton Bays waterfront villa).

CBS News: Long Island Contractors’ Association pushes for better pothole prevention plan

  • “Very difficult region to cause pothole problems,” said Dr. Ping Liu, with Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University. Liu, a climate expert, has tracked more freeze-thaw cycle days on Long Island, because it’s surrounded by water, than New York City and even colder climates.

Newsday: Pothole forecast: Milder weather means smoother road conditions on Long Island, experts say

  • “The freeze thaw cycle is the most important environmental factor to cause potholes,” said Ping Liu, associate research professor at Stony Brook’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. Liu analyzed data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for Newsday and found there were significantly less freeze-thaw days at 10 weather stations on Long Island and New York City from Sept. 1 last year through March 4, compared to the same months in 2021-2022.

Popular Science: Scientists test different gear for protecting clams from ‘crunching’ rays

  • “These habitat associations could expose these sensitive animals to other risks, although we are just beginning to understand them and admittedly have a lot more to learn,” said co-author Brianna Cahill, a research technician at Stony Brook University, in a statement. “Contrary to what we expected, rays did not prefer control plots (mimicking natural conditions) over treatment plots with anti-predator gear. This suggests a real possibility that these rays are interacting with shellfish aquaculture gear in the wild, as suggested by our clamming industry partners.”

Long Island Business News: Long Island Sound research projects land $6.3M

  • The projects will be led by scientists and researchers from several of the region’s universities and institutions, including Stony Brook University and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Times Beacon Record: SBU’s Pikitch, others ‘optimistic’ about the U.N.’s High Seas Treaty

  • While individual countries still have to ratify the treaty, scientists like Ellen Pikitch, endowed professor of Ocean Conservation Science and executive director of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, praised the agreement. “It’s fantastic,” Pikitch said. “It’s been needed for so long.”

New Scientist: Freak storms stopped tens of thousands of birds breeding in Antarctica

  • “These long-lived seabirds have many chances to breed successfully throughout their lifespan and it’s possible that the long-term impacts of this particular event, though startling to witness, may be muted,” says Heather Lynch at Stony Brook University in New York. “It will take many years, and further monitoring, to know for sure,” she says.

Delecious Food: Lessons from Mediterranean Blue Parks for Red Lines in the South China Sea

  • About 25 percent of all marine species depend on coral cover at some point in their lives. Also, the limestone reefs of corals protect the coasts from storms and support the lives of millions of people. Professor Karine Kleinhaus, a marine biologist and coral reef specialist at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, explains that “the world’s coral reefs are like the canary in the coal mine because of climate change.”

Chronicle of Higher Education: Transitions: Bates College and the California Community Colleges System Mark Leadership Milestones

  • Elizabeth Terese Newman, vice provost for curriculum and undergraduate education at Stony Brook University, part of the State University of New York, has been named dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Arlington. Also ran in the News AKMI.

Separation Science: Why is PFAS testing so challenging?

  • Dr P. Lee Ferguson is an Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at Duke University in Durham, NC, USA. He received B.S. degrees from the University of South Carolina in Chemistry and Marine Science in 1997 before earning a Ph.D. in Coastal Oceanography at State University of New York – Stony Brook in 2002.

The Valley Post:  Why nuclear power is not the answer to climate change

  • Article written by SUNY at Stony Brook Professor, Writer and Director Heidi Hutner and Photojournalist Erica Cirino Published in Time.

Scientific American: No One Knows How the Biggest Animals on Earth—Baleen Whales—Find Their Food

  • To find out, Zitterbart and Owen joined forces with whale biologist Annette Bombosch of Woods Hole; zooplankton researcher Joseph Warren of Stony Brook University; Kei Toda of Kumamoto University in Japan, who developed technology for measuring DMS, and his then graduate student Kentaro Saeki; and oceanographer Alessandro Bocconcelli of Woods Hole, who has helped pioneer the use of sophisticated digital tags to study whales.

PublicNewsTime/New Scientist: Freak storms stopped tens of thousands of birds breeding in Antarctica

  • “These long-lived seabirds have many chances to breed successfully throughout their lifespan and it’s possible that the long-term impacts of this particular event, though startling to witness, may be muted,” says Heather Lynch at Stony Brook University in New York. “It will take many years, and further monitoring, to know for sure,” she says.

LongIsland.com: Suffolk County Executive Bellone Announces $28 Million in New Sewer Grants for Tri-Hamlet Area (press release)

  • The Town of Brookhaven responded by creating the Forge River Protection Task Force, which coordinated efforts involving the Suffolk County Department of Health Services Office of Ecology (SCDHS/DEQ), the Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SOMAS), and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), to study the nutrient cycle in the river and sources of excess nutrients. Also ran in Newsbreak.

NJ Spotlight News: The East Coast whale die-offs: Unraveling the causes

  • “I don’t want to say there are only juveniles in the New York Bight,” says Lesley Thorne, a co-author of the 2021 study and an associate professor in Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. “But certainly” — compared to adults — “they are the animals occurring close to shore and [are] potentially more vulnerable because of that difference in habitat use.” Thorne says scientists are not yet sure why juveniles are more prevalent closer to shore, though Robbins pointed out that young humpbacks seem to chase Atlantic menhaden more than adults do.

Newsday: What will happen when Brookhaven landfill closes in 2024? Town supervisors examine options

  • Speaking at Stony Brook University, the town officials from Islip, Brookhaven, Smithtown and Babylon said at a symposium on environment and trash issues that they would work together to head off what they said could become a waste management crisis when the Brookhaven landfill closes in less than two years.

WSHU-FM/NPR: Long Island sorts through the patchwork of innovative ways to handle trash

  • Vitale joined the town supervisors at an environmental symposium at Stony Brook University on Wednesday that attracted private waste managers to collaborate with municipalities on solving the growing waste management crisis on Long Island.

East Hampton Star: A Largely Positive Water Quality Report

  • Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, noting that 2022 was the 10th consecutive year in which his lab has conducted water quality testing for the trustees, delivered another mostly upbeat presentation, an annual event that provides increasingly granular data on water conditions and the causes behind them.

Bird Guides: Thousands of Antarctic seabird abandoned nests after snowstorms

  • Heather Lynch of Stony Brook University in New York said: “These long-lived seabirds have many chances to breed successfully throughout their lifespan and it’s possible that the long-term impacts of this particular event, though startling to witness, may be muted.

The City: Kelp Farming May Help NYC’s Climate and Polluted Waterways

  • “Seaweed is a small part of a solution to a very big problem,” said Michael Doall, the associate director for shellfish restoration at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, who is growing kelp in the East River, in the shadow of the Throgs Neck Bridge. “Can you actually do anything to improve water quality? Or is the scale that you would need to improve water quality even feasible? How much kelp do we need to grow to actually tip the balance in New York Harbor? That to me right now is a research question,” Doall said.

Yahoo News UK: Statue of Liberty images do not disprove sea-level rise

  • Walker told AFP comparing the photos shared online is misleading in part because “we don’t know when during the tidal cycles they were taken. The daily tides in the New York Harbor are more than five feet every day,” she said March 16. Dianna Padilla, professor of ecology and evolution at Stony Brook University in New York, agreed. “Depending on the day and time of the photo, one could make it look like anything one chose,” she said March 17.

Times Beacon Record: Bein’ Green: Stony Brook University honored with Tree Campus USA Designation for tenth consecutive year

  • Stony Brook University was recently named a 2022 Tree Campus Higher Education Institution for the tenth consecutive year. Tree Campus Higher Education, the national program launched in 2008 by the Arbor Day Foundation, honors colleges and universities, and their leaders, for promoting healthy trees and engaging students and staff in the spirit of conservation.

GZERO Media: With a little Kelp from our friends!

  • To learn more, GZERO Reports headed out to an oyster farm in Long Island to meet Michael Doall, associate director of shellfish research at Stony Brook University. Doall, dubbed the “Johnny Appleseed of Sugar Kelp,” explains how the bounty of the sea can help address some of the problems we are creating on land.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle/The City: Kelp Farming May Help Clean Polluted Waterways and Fight Climate Change

  • “Seaweed is a small part of a solution to a very big problem,” said Michael Doall, the associate director for shellfish restoration at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, who is growing kelp in the East River, in the shadow of the Throgs Neck Bridge. “Can you actually do anything to improve water quality? Or is the scale that you would need to improve water quality even feasible? How much kelp do we need to grow to actually tip the balance in New York Harbor? That to me right now is a research question,” Doall said.

NOAA Fisheries: Women’s History Month: Talking with Catherine Foley

  • I completed my doctoral work at Stony Brook University in the Department of Ecology and Evolution. I studied quantitative marine ecology under Dr. Heather Lynch. My research focused on the impacts of historical harvesting on the population dynamics of king penguins and Antarctic fur seals. Since beginning my doctorate, I’ve spent nine field seasons working in the Antarctic on a variety of projects focused on seabird and seal population dynamics, behavioral and feeding ecology, phenology, and disease pathogens.

Associated Press: A Fish can sense another’s fear, a study shows

CNN: As Antarctica’s penguins struggle with record low sea ice, one species is adapting – and it offers lessons to us all

  • “It is incredible,” Heather Lynch, the Endowed Chair for Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University told CNN. “As ecologists, we know that animals shift their range over geologic times, they disappear in one area and colonize new areas. But it’s rare to see those dynamics happening over the course of one’s career.” Also ran on ABC Indianapolis, News Concerns and others.

Times Beacon Record: Parking pandemonium: Tensions swell as parking season takes off in Port Jeff

  • Richard Murdocco, adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science at Stony Brook University, summarized the issue in a word. “Capacity — hands down, capacity,” he said. “It’s what all the villages on Long Island struggle with. How do you shoehorn in more parking without compromising the very character that people are seeking out?”

Trend Radars: ‘They behave just like us’: Study shows fish can sense another’s fear

  • That could be fundamental to the survival of many animals, especially those who live in groups, said Stony Brook University ecologist Carl Safina, who was not involved in the study. “The most basic form of empathy is contagious fear – that’s a very valuable thing to have to stay alive, if any member of your group spots a predator or some other danger.” Also ran in Cupids Health and Muscatine Journal.

Civil Eats: Scientists Scramble to Help Bay Scallops Survive Climate Change

  • In something of a race against time, researchers at Stony Brook University and CCE have joined forces and begun to selectively breed Peconic Bay scallops in an effort to help them resist the effects of climate change and restore their populations. The researchers say the  plan offers the best chance of securing the species’ survival in the coming years.

Trend Radars/CNN: As Antarctica’s penguins struggle with record low sea ice, one species is adapting — and it offers lessons to us all

  • “It is incredible,” Heather Lynch, the Endowed Chair for Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University told CNN. “As ecologists, we know that animals shift their range over geologic times, they disappear in one area and colonize new areas. But it’s rare to see those dynamics happening over the course of one’s career.”

The Columbian: Study finds empathy has ancient origins

  • That could be fundamental to the survival of many animals, especially those who live in groups, said Stony Brook University ecologist Carl Safina, who was not involved in the study. “The most basic form of empathy is contagious fear – that’s a very valuable thing to have to stay alive, if any member of your group spots a predator or some other danger.”

Bollyinside: According to study, fish can experience this strong, contagious feeling

  • According to Stony Brook University ecologist Carl Safina, who was not involved in the study, that may be essential to the survival of many creatures, especially those that live in groups. Contagious fear, the most fundamental form of empathy, is a very useful survival tool if any group member senses a predator or other threat.

Cupids Health: Scientists Scramble to Help Bay Scallops Survive Climate Change

  • While CCE and Stony Brook have taken matters into their own hands, wrestling climate change in the bay with selective breeding, that, of course, is only part of the solution. “Mitigating further warming by transitioning to clean energy is critical,” said Stephen Tomasetti, visiting assistant professor of environmental studies at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and lead author of the recent report in Global Change Biology. “The same goes for committing to practices that improve local water quality.”

East Hampton Star: On Water Testing for 2023

  • Since 2013, Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences has led the annual assessment for the trustees, whose concern about water quality was heightened following the appearance of dense blooms of toxic cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, in Georgica Pond. Dr. Gobler delivered a mostly upbeat report on his 2022 findings to the trustees on March 13.

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School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, SoMAS, at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-5000, USA
Phone: 631-632-8700
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