September 2023 News and Press from SoMAS

Sep 29, 2023

SoMAS Faculty and Staff met in Southampton for a retreat on Friday September 22, 2023

Photo above: SoMAS Faculty and Staff met in Southampton for a retreat on Friday September 22, 2023

Thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate the new class of graduate students on Friday September 15 in the courtyard. Photos by Ginny Clancy, Steve Ortega, and Tom Wilson are available on Google Photos. Special thanks to Tom Wilson for organizing and for all of the volunteers: Lucas Merlo, Steve Ortega, Steve Abrams, Willa Schultz, Ginny Clancy, Christina Fink, Trish Volz, Patty Woodruff, Kim Knoll, Diane Vigliotta, Christine Santora, Maureen Murphy, Karen Warren, Mark Lang, John Juntunen, Renz Bastianelli, Steve Beaupre, Donovan Finn, Yong Chen, Mary Collins, Justice Woke, Reza Badpa, Natalie Butkevich, Renee Chabot-Mehlin, Kate Colucci, Amala David, Sarah Stagner, Kim Lato, Silvia Jianing Gao, AJ Mabaka, Flynn McGinnity, Anthony Murphy-Neilson, Jackson Parker, Magdalena Wrobel, and Emilie Wigchers.

Carl Safina had an invited book review published in the New York Times Book Review.: Safina, C. 2023. The Young Woman and the Sea: A Love Story. New York Times Book Review.

Sara Hamideh is the guest editor of the new special issue about long-term and longitudinal disaster recovery research for International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters (IJMED). There are great papers in this special issue about methodological, ethical, and theoretical advances and innovations of the international research community over the past decade in recovery studies.

Congratulations to Robert Aller, who was selected by the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Rochester to receive its Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award for 2023. It will be presented in November.

Congratulations to Malcolm Bowman, who was selected by the Lower Manhattan Historical Association as one of the honorees of the Fifth Annual Alexander Hamilton Immigrant Awards Ceremony. It was presented on September 29 at the Federal Hall National Memorial.

Dr. Joe Warren has a new award “Gulf of Maine Regional Acoustic Network – Acoustic Environmental Observation Network in the NW Atlantic (AEON)”, from UNH/ONR, in the amount $250,000, for the period 9/1/23 – 8/31/26.

The Acoustic Environmental Observation Network in the NW Atlantic (AEON) contributes information for addressing questions related to how, and to what degree, changes in Labrador Current and Gulf Stream WCRs factor into dynamics of the NW Atlantic waters. Since 2021, we have established an acoustic environmental observation network in the Gulf of Maine that will complement existing oceanographic monitoring (e.g., NERACOOS) to provide the connectivity between coastal and outer continental shelf waters influencing the acoustic, physical, and biological variability in the northeast region. This project will continue the vessel-based measurements and mooring turnarounds for an additional two year period with an additional year of data analysis.

 

Dr. Ping Liu (PI) and co-PIs Dr. Levi Silvers and Dr. Kevin Reed have received a new award from NOAA in support of the project “Future projections of extreme heat events in SPEAR ensemble simulations”, for the period 9/1/23 – 8/31/26, in the amount $502,292.

The contiguous U.S. (CONUS) and Europe have recently been identified as hotspots with the fastest trends in the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events under ongoing global warming. However, the prediction, projection, and attribution of these events and trends on multiannual and multidecadal timescales are limited due to 1) insufficient high-resolution data, 2) uncertainties in general circulation models (GCMs), and 3) incomplete understanding of dynamic and thermodynamic mechanisms responsible for the formation and evolution of hotspots. The Seamless System for Prediction and EArth System Research (SPEAR), newly developed by NOAA’s GFDL, has generated a large ensemble of simulations, including both predictions and projections at high resolutions. These products, supplemented by relevant GFDL simulations, provide unprecedented opportunities to fill this gap, as supported by our preliminary results.

We propose an evaluation of SPEAR’s ability to simulate historical extreme heat events focused over CONUS, but including Europe with respect to climatological statistics and established large trends. We aim to further attribute these events and trends to highly relevant factors, including the thermodynamic contribution of ongoing atmospheric warming and the dynamic contribution from persistent high-pressure systems, jet streams, and near-surface wind speeds. The validation component of this work will estimate the model fidelity, simulation uncertainty, and bias correction and calibration, paving the way to explore multiannual and multidecadal predictions and projections of extreme heat events in SPEAR large-ensemble products. We will explore internal, scientific, and scenario uncertainties and approaches to constrain the uncertainty in projected extreme heat events over CONUS and Europe. For the first time, we will separately diagnose the contributions of global warming, near-surface winds, persistent high-pressure systems, and jet streams to extreme heat events to improve understanding of the heat events and causes of biases in SPEAR and recent GFDL GCMs. Our research will utilize statistical approaches for deterministic and probabilistic simulations, such as linear regression, composite analysis, ensemble evaluation metrics, verification, and significance tests.

Our planned research is highly relevant to the proposal competition of Climate Futures: Projections for Societally-Relevant Problems in Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and Projections (MAPP) by centering on SPEAR in the simulation of extreme heat events on multiannual and multidecadal timescales. This work will address Extreme Heat and has broader applications to Water Resources and Marine Ecosystems, three of the four CPO’s high-priority climate risk areas, and to improve science understanding and/or capabilities that result in user-driven outcomes. Our evaluations and research will provide recommendations for improving the SPEAR to simulate the Earth system, supporting NOAA’s mission of “Science, Service, and Stewardship.” The proposal will contribute to the Model Diagnostic Task Force package by including diagnostics for persistent high-pressure systems and extreme heat events in the SPEAR.

Happy Harbor Day celebrated Stony Brook Harbor and featured Dr. Malcolm Bowman and Dr. Jeff Levinton as speakers. The inaugural Dr. Larry Swanson Environmental Award was presented to former Assemblyman Steve Englebright.

SBU News Features

 

Latest Seminar Videos

Latest Publications

Chang, H. Y., Sun, M., Rokosz, K., & Chen, Y. (2023). Evaluating effects of changing sampling protocol for a long-term ichthyoplankton monitoring program. Frontiers in Marine Science.

Zhu, Z., Kollias, P., & Yang, F. (2023). Particle inertial effects on radar Doppler spectra simulation. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 16(15), 3727-3737.

Welch, H., Savoca, M. S., Brodie, S., Jacox, M. G., Muhling, B. A., Clay, T. A., … Thorne, L. H., … & Hazen, E. L. (2023). Impacts of marine heatwaves on top predator distributions are variable but predictable. Nature Communications, 14(1), 5188.

Tajika, A., Landman, N. H., Cochran, J. K., Nishida, K., Shirai, K., Ishimura, T., … & Sato, K. (2023). Ammonoid extinction versus nautiloid survival: Is metabolism responsible?. Geology.

Yu, Z., Tang, Y., & Gobler, C. J. (2023). Harmful Algal Blooms in China: History, recent expansion, current status, and future prospects. Harmful Algae, 102499.

Hodgdon, C., Willse, N., Hunt, N., Kim, J., Friedland, K. D., & Chen, Y. (2023). Comparing Habitat Suitability Forecasts for the Gulf of Maine and Southern New England American Lobster Stocks. Journal of Shellfish Research, 42(2), 311-324.

Atlas, R., Bretherton, C. S., Sokol, A. B., Blossey, P. N., & Khairoutdinov, M. (2023). Tropical anvil cirrus are highly sensitive to ice microphysics within a nudged global storm-resolving model. Authorea Preprints.

Pan, X., Ye, Z., Wo, J., Xing, Q., Yang, J., Chen, Y., & Tian, Y. (2023). Interannual variability in otolith biogeochemical signatures of Japanese Spanish mackerel in the Yellow Sea. Journal of Marine Systems, 103933.

Crawford, L. M., Gelsleichter, J., Newton, A. L., Hoopes, L. A., Lee, C. S., Fisher, N. S., … & McElroy, A. E. (2023). Associations between total mercury, trace minerals, and blood health markers in Northwest Atlantic white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias). Marine Pollution Bulletin, 195, 115533.

 

Latest Press Headlines

 

TAPinto: Across the Country for a Cause

  • Skyler Graap, the SHS graduate, who attended Stony Brook University, recently completed his graduate degree in meteorology at Penn State.

CNET: With a Crippled Energy Grid, Puerto Rico Turned to Solar Power. (Spoiler: It’s Working)

  • Climate change is making hurricanes more extreme and destructive. Scientists at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences found that, from 1850 to 2020, human-generated greenhouse gases led to an increase of more than 1 degree Celsius in global average surface temperature. That warming trend “will lead to yet further increases in North Atlantic hurricane season extreme rainfall rates and accumulated amounts,” the researchers wrote in the journal Nature Communications in April 2022. Also ran in MSN and Verified News Explorer.

Newsday: Once again, Stony Brook Harbor’s health will take center stage for annual event

  • The guest speakers will include Turner, marine ecology expert Jeffrey Levinton and coastal ocean expert Malcolm Bowman of Stony Brook University.

CNN: Lee adds to a growing trend of intense hurricanes powered by warmer oceans

  • “The increase in Category 4 or 5 storms, especially that we’ve seen over the last couple years due to the increase in rapid intensification, is a telltale sign of climate change, which is exactly what we expect to see in a warmer world,” Kevin Reed, a hurricane expert and professor at Stony Brook University’s school of marine and atmospheric sciences, told CNN. Also ran in AOL News, Yahoo News, KAKE-TV and several others.

Washington Post: How scientists test whether humans are causing our extreme weather

  • They also warn that, if humans continue to produce emissions at today’s rate, it will speed up to every two to five years starting in the mid-2030s. “That is really important information for water resource managers, urban planners and policymakers regarding climate adaptation and resilience,” said Kevin A. Reed, professor of marine and atmospheric sciences at Stony Brook University. Also ran in Verified News Explorer.

WRAL: Climate scientists: North Carolina expected to face stronger hurricanes

  • “The increase in the number of Category 4 or 5 storms is really a telltale sign of climate change,” said Kevin Reed, a professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at Stony Brook University. “So as the climate continues to warm to in the coming decades, we anticipate seeing more of these types of events.” Climate change is contributing to slower-moving systems too, bringing heavier rainfall and more flooding because warmer air can hold more water. “What we’re anticipating is that the impacts from such a storm would be wide reaching inland,” Reed said. Also ran in Pune Media.

New York Academy of Sciences: Marine Science and Oceanography Teaching Fellows

  • 2023 Fellow: Justin Grimm-Greenblatt is a New York City public school teacher and teaches/taught Living Environment, AP Environmental Science, and Forensic Science. Before becoming a teacher, he did research in aquaculture economics for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and on a USAID project. He holds a B.S. in Marine Science from SUNY Stony Brook, M.S. in Integrated Watershed Management and Policy from the University of Connecticut and an M.A. in Science Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Times Beacon Record: Stony Brook Harbor Day returns after 15 year absence

  • Some of the guest speakers will be John Turner of Four Harbors Audubon Society, Dr. Jeffrey Levinton of Stony Brook University, Dr. Malcom Bowman of Stony Brook University and Anna McCarroll of The Stony Brook Yacht Club Mariculture Program.

Newsday: Hurricane Lee turns toward the East Coast, growing in size and roiling the Atlantic

  • Kevin Reed, Associate Dean for Research and Associate Professor at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, said Lee had late last week undergone “rapid intensification,” a common development for many Category 3, 4 and 5 hurricanes that means its winds accelerated by at least 35 mph over 24 hours. Except in Lee’s case, the intensification was 85 mph.

Times Beacon Record: Hurricane Lee, a case study for future monster storms

  • “We know that the warmer the sea surface temperatures are that a storm interacts with, the increased likelihood that a storm will undergo rapid intensification,” said Kevin Reed, associate professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University. As the Earth continues to warm, Reed added, he expects those conditions to persist.

KCBD-TV: Texas Tech taking lead on Research Center of Excellence

  • The $3.2 million grant brings Texas Tech together with Texas A&M University at Galveston, Texas Southern University, Stony Brook University, the University of Kansas and the University of Waterloo to establish the Center of Excellence in Climate Resilient Equitable Housing (CECREH). They aim to provide evidence-based, innovative approaches to address underserved community needs following natural disasters. Also ran on Fox 34.

New York Times: A Montauk Fisherman Faces Prison Over 200,000 Pounds of Fluke

  • Carl Safina, an author and ecologist who teaches at Stony Brook University on Long Island, helped establish the limits on fluke fishing as a member of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council in the 1990s and credited them with helping to revive a severely depleted stock. “The fish definitely need these rules,” he said. “There’s just a lot of people fishing and a lot of pressure on them.” Also ran in News Leaflets, DNYUZ and others.

USA Today: When the dead don’t stay buried: The grave situation at cemeteries amid climate change

  • Studies show recent extreme rainfall events such as hurricanes “are producing more intense rainfall rates and larger rainfall amounts than they would have without climate change,” said Kevin Reed, associate dean for research at Stony Brook University. Western states aren’t immune either. Heat and wildfire take a toll, destroying plants and trees and leaving cemeteries susceptible to rain, erosion and mudslides. Also ran in AOL News, Yahoo News, Verified News Explorer, Yahoo News, MSN and others.

Phys.org: What’s the real story about shark populations in New York waters? (press release)

  • Lead author Oliver N. Shipley, Ph.D., a Research Assistant Professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University, and colleagues describe the current knowledge of shark biology in the region and detail the misalignment between scientific knowledge and anecdotal information reported in recent years in the media about sharks in the region. Also ran in Eco Magazine, Prime News Print, News Concerns and several others.

Knowridge: What’s really going on with sharks in New York waters? Scientists weigh in

  • Dr. Oliver N. Shipley, a shark expert from Stony Brook University, led a team of researchers to find out what’s actually happening. They published an article in the Journal of Fish Biology, explaining that the stories you hear in the media might not be totally accurate.

East Hampton Star: Sag Harbor Wastewater Plant Keeps It All Ticking

  • An April 2022 report by Christopher Gobler, from the Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, available on the village’s website, said the plant does a great job of reducing nitrogen loads in the bay, but that it was “likely a minor source of” fecal contamination, along with boats and street runoff, within the inner harbor. (When fecal coliform is present, it indicates that other, more harmful pathogens present in the excrement of warm-blooded animals, like humans and dogs, is around as well.) In fact, Mr. Gobler highlighted the sump at Havens Beach as having “high levels of fecal bacteria.”

WCBS-TV: Stony Brook scientists investigating local shark activity

  • “We’re dealing with a pretty controversial area,” said Stony Brook University Professor Oliver Shipley. “One of the things that we really lack in New York is robust historical information on shark abundance, shark diversity and where these animals typically frequent the coastline.

WCS.org: With Increasing Human-Shark Encounters, What’s Actually Happening with Shark Populations in New York Waters?

  • To help bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and sometimes inaccurate public assumptions, the WCS New York Seascape Program, in conjunction with partners at Stony Brook University, will host a science workshop this fall at the New York Aquarium to bring regional shark experts and available data together. The date of the workshop will be announced later.

Times Democrat: Stony Brook scientists investigating local shark activity

  • With waters getting increasingly warmer, schools of bait fish came closer to Long Island shores over the summer, and Stony Brook scientists are now investigating which sharks are following the food. CBS New York’s Jennifer McLogan reports

Newsday: Glass recycling on Long Island hampered by hodgepodge approach, limited uses, experts say

  • “This will sound crazy, but we cannot guarantee enough glass for them to make a viable business on Long Island,” said Frank Roethel, a Stony Brook University professor and director of the school’s Waste Reduction and Management Institute. “Every town on Long Island does it [recycling] differently. I guess if we had a regional approach [glass recycling might be more successful] … but I don’t see that happening.”

Earth.com: Are sharks becoming more dangerous in New York?

  • The researchers say that the lack of evidence about shark biology, their prey, and changes in the ecosystems of New York area coastal waters is a driving force to expand research about sharks and their populations in the region. This call to action is led by Oliver N. Shipley, PhD, from the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University.

WENY News: De Shaun Robinson

  • In August of 2018, he continued his education, studying Atmospheric Science journey at Stony Brook
    University.

Newsday: Stony Brook scientists say more research is needed to explain rise in shark encounters in region

  • In July, Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters the apparent spike had to do with cleaner nearshore waters drawing schools of bait and bunker fish that sharks feed on. But explanations like climate change and shifts in the shark population and their prey haven’t yet been backed up by data, Stony Brook University scientists Oliver Shipley and Michael Frisk argue, along with partners in other institutions, in a paper recently published in the Journal of Fish Biology.

WBFO 89.7 (NPR Buffalo/Toronto): Worsening climate events push New York farmworkers to seek resilience

  • In fact, Christine Gilbert, who researches crisis communication involving climate change at Stony Brook University, said people trust the information they hear through those close to them more than through anyone else. “What is oftentimes most important, especially when you’re thinking about a community that is disadvantaged in some way – whether that’s not being a citizen of the U.S. or not speaking English – is that there is a lot to be said for word-of-mouth.” Also ran on WAER 88.3 and WSKG-TV.

Cottages & Gardens: Meet the Beekeeper Behind Bonac Bees

  • Although she possesses a degree in environmental studies from Stony Brook University, Deborah Klughers wasn’t always familiar with the important role honeybees play in farming practices. “I was working on a television program and interviewed a farmer in Riverhead about how his crop yields had increased by a third since he first introduced pollinating honeybees,” recounts Klughers, a resident of Hampton Bays, “and that intrigued me.”

Stony Brook Statesman:  New mural shines a light on campus diversity

  • A new mural showcasing campus diversity was unveiled on the side of West Side Dining on Friday, Sept. 8. Created by the newly-formed Campus Beautification Committee, the mural is dedicated to the LGBTQ* community at Stony Brook University. The piece is titled “Spread Your Wings,” and was painted by Stony Brook alumna Xiaohui “Katie X” Wang.

WSHU-FM/NPR: Researchers say sharks need more monitoring as their population declines

  • “Fundamentally, we are aiming to understand how sharks are interacting with their environment and how that’s going to potentially impact where we find animals and what their ecological role is going to be, you know, over the next 50 to 60 years,” said Oliver Shipley, ecologist and co-author from the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University.

Phys.org: New developments in the accurate simulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide

  • The study was conducted by researchers from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Normal University and Stony Brook University.

New York Times: Opinion | The World’s Largest Salmon Fishery Is in Danger

  • Dr. Safina is a marine ecologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Mr. Reynolds is a senior lawyer at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where he directs the organization’s efforts in the American West.

Tribeca Citizen: Seen & Heard: Lobster rolls at the Seaport

  • The honorees this year include Professor Malcolm Bowman, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, SUNY Stony Brook, from New Zealand;

The 19th: Climate change is destroying public housing and displacing women of color

  • But, in the aftermath of a disaster, public housing is rarely rebuilt. And if it is, it’s usually in the form of mixed-income developments, a model that HUD has embraced as it moves away from public housing, said Sara Hamideh, an associate professor at Stony Brook University. She has studied the recovery process of public housing after hurricanes Ike and Matthew, which hit in 2008 and 2016, respectively.

Digital Journal: New Book Explores How Caregivers Can Help Loved Ones Suffering With Dementia

  • Dr. Sharon Pochron is faculty in the Sustainability Studies Program at Stony Brook University. She runs an environmental science laboratory and has published many peer-reviewed articles on topics ranging from caregiving for dementia to primate behavior to the impact of environmental contaminants on the health of invertebrates. Also ran in Florida News Reporter.

Dan’s Papers: Lake Agawam Park Plan Sparks Debate in Southampton

  • “This project is being designed in such a way to protect public health, and to improve the quality of water and the ecosystem within Lake Agawam,” Dr. Chris Gobler, a Stony Brook University professor and director of the New York State Center for Clean Water Technology. “That’s been something that’s been a lifelong effort for me.”

East Hampton Star: Hook Pond Shore Work a Go

  • The trustees previously voted to contribute $2,500, as they have in past years, to the monitoring program proposed by Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. Sag Harbor Village has pledged $7,500 and Southampton Town and that town’s trustees have each pledged $2,000.

IVoox: On Site at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Description

  • Oliver Shipley, Research Professor at Stony Brook University in New York, and Maria Manz, a graduate student at Stony Brook University, joined me to talk about sharks, their movement, and the ways that scientists study them.

 

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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
somas@stonybrook.edu