January 2024 News and Press from SoMAS

Photo above: The plaque dedicating the Larry Swanson Room in Challenger Hall

Read about the adventures of 14 undergrad and 5 MCP students (and 2 professors) who took Tropical Marine Ecology this month in Jamaica !
The class blog ( http://you.stonybrook.edu/tropical ) was written by the students and was updated multiple times a day during the course. Posts include a daytime octopus sighting, spotted eagle rays, sea lettuce slugs, and much more! They also experimented with a class Instagram account: @tropical.stonybrook

 

In case you missed it, the MASIC Library has reopened! If you need a quiet study space while visiting SoMAS on South Campus, the Marine and Atmospheric Sciences Information Center (MASIC) is here to help. Located in Challenger Hall next to the recently renovated Larry Swanson Reading Room, MASIC is a QUIET place for study. After an almost 4-year hiatus, the space is once again open for Stony Brook University students! Please keep sound to a minimum or move your conversations to the room next door. There is no food allowed in MASIC, so please help keep our space clean! You can see photos of the space on Facebook.

The Larry Swanson Reading Room opened in 2022 in Challenger Hall. When MASIC closed during COVID, the reading room space in MASIC was not available for use. The wall that connected the reading room to Challenger 173, a small conference room next door, was knocked down, opening up a much larger space. A door between the reading room and MASIC was put up, providing access and sound barrier. Beyond providing a study space, the room is also a social space for events. The post-seminar pizza lunches that used to squeeze into the Okubo Room are now hosted here, and other social and celebratory events also utilize the space, like the Souper Bowl and the Baking Competition. The space also has a podium computer that could be used for the occasional class that needs the space. If the room is occupied by a large meeting or a class, the quiet study space in MASIC is now available for student use. Check out photos on Facebook.

Congratulations to Farinaz Motlagh, PhD candidate, and Dr. Sara Hamideh who were awarded the Mitigation Matters Research Award. This award program provides funding for research focused on natural hazards mitigation, and is sponsored by the Natural Hazards Center, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Mitigation Matters Award will support part of Farinaz’s dissertation research, titled “A decision framework for equitable use of residential property acquisition federal funds“. The researchers aim to develop a framework for supporting local practitioners in the equitable selection and prioritization of households for voluntary buyout programs. More information can be found under “Call Three: 2024 Research Projects”.

Carl Safina, with the provost and 20 SBU faculty from various departments, recently toured Kenya’s central desert region with SB’s Turkana Basin Institute. A selection of Carl’s photos are shared on Google Drive

SBU News Features

• New Crustacean Discovered in Deep Waters of Bahamas
  • An international team of marine biologists including Oliver Shipley, PhD, of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University, have discovered a unique isopod, a form of crustacean, that has been formally identified as a new species of the genus Booralana from the deep waters of The Bahamas. The finding, detailed in a paper published in the journal Zootaxa, is another example that discovery of life in the oceans is far from complete. By uncovering the creature’s role in deep-sea ecosystems, scientists may be able to better understand ocean biodiversity.
• Eight SBU Faculty Mentored Regeneron Science Competition Scholars
  • Christopher Gobler, Distinguished Professor, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, worked with Aidan Cazalet from Saint Anthony’s High School, Melville, NY, on “Examination of the Effects by a Salinity and Temperature Gradient on Microcystis aeruginosa Morphology: A Keyence Fluorescence Microscope Analysis”
• Faculty and Staff Honored at Service Awards Ceremony
  • Stony Brook University employees who marked milestones of 25 years or more of service in 2023 were honored January 24 with a Service Recognition Luncheon at the Bauman Center for Leadership and Service. Among the SoMAS honorees included Tom Wilson (40 years), Nick Fisher (35 years), Mark Wiggins (35 years), and Christina Heilbrun (25 years).

 

 

Latest Seminar Videos

• Jin-Yi Yu from the Department of Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine, OSAC seminar on January 26, 2024 “The 21st-Century El Niño: Changing Properties, Dynamics, and Impacts”

 

Latest Publications

Yin, J., Xue, Y., Xu, B., Ji, Y., Zhang, C., Ren, Y., & Chen, Y. (2024). Potential impacts of ocean warming on energy flow and fisheries production in an overexploited ecosystem: Implication for effective fisheries management. Ecological Indicators, 158, 111433.

Garrison, C. E., Pachiadaki, M. G., Soliman, S., Helfrich, A., & Taylor, G. T. (2023). Microbes and microplastics: Community shifts along an urban coastal contaminant gradient. Environmental Microbiology.

Herstoff, E. M., Meunier, C. L., Boersma, M., & Baines, S. (2023). Are all copepods the same? Variation in copepod stoichiometry with taxonomy, ontogeny, latitude, and habitat. Ecosphere, 14(12), e4705

Li, Y., Sun, M., Yang, X., Yang, M., Kleisner, K. M., Mills, K. E., … & Chen, Y. (2024). Social–ecological vulnerability and risk of China’s marine capture fisheries to climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(1), e2313773120.

Zhang, D., Vogelmann, A. M., Yang, F., Luke, E., Kollias, P., Wang, Z., … & Desai, N. (2023). Evaluation of four ground-based retrievals of cloud droplet number concentration in marine stratocumulus with aircraft in situ measurements. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 16(23), 5827-5846.

Dawydiak, W., & Gobler, C. J. (2023). Transcription of biochemical defenses by the harmful brown tide pelagophyte, Aureococcus anophagefferens, in response to the protozoan grazer, Oxyrrhis marina. Frontiers in Microbiology, 14.

Mángano, M. G., Buatois, L. A., Piñuela, L., Volkenborn, N., Rodríguez-Tovar, F. J., & García-Ramos, J. C. (2024). Jurassic paleosurfaces with fecal mounds reveal the last supper of arenicolid worms. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 709.

Kramer, B. J., Turk-Kubo, K., Zehr, J. P., & Gobler, C. J. (2024). Intensification of harmful cyanobacterial blooms in a eutrophic, temperate lake caused by nitrogen, temperature, and CO2. Science of The Total Environment, 169885.

Atlas, R. L., Bretherton, C. S., Sokol, A. B., Blossey, P. N., & Khairoutdinov, M. F. (2024). Tropical Cirrus Are Highly Sensitive to Ice Microphysics Within a Nudged Global Storm‐Resolving Model. Geophysical Research Letters, 51(1), e2023GL105868.

Chen, H., Jang, S. G., Zhang, Y., & Liu, Y. (2024). Clean energy for all? Mapping inequity potential in the clean energy transition in the United States. Energy Research & Social Science, 108, 103400.

Talwar, B. S., Brooks, E. J., Abercrombie, D. L., Anderson, B., Bond, M. E., Brooks, A. M., … Shipley, O. N., … & Heithaus, M. R. (2023). Insights into the Relative Abundance, Life History, and Ecology of Oceanic Sharks in the Eastern Bahamas. Sustainability, 16(1), 200.

Xiang, T., Bryski, E., & Farhadzadeh, A. (2024). An experimental study on wave transmission by engineered plain and enhanced oyster reefs. Ocean Engineering, 291, 116433.

Brockway, N., Peterson, P., Bigge, K., Hajny, K., Shepson, P., Pratt, K., … & Simpson, W. (2023). Tropospheric Bromine Monoxide Vertical Profiles Retrieved Across the Alaskan Arctic in Springtime. EGUsphere, 2023, 1-27.

Kiel, B. M., & Colle, B. A. (2024). Comparison of Clustering Approaches in a Multi-Model Ensemble for US East Coast Cold Season Extratropical Cyclones. Weather and Forecasting.

Oue, M., Colle, B. A., Yuter, S. E., Kollias, P., Yeh, P., & Tomkins, L. M. (2024). Microscale Updrafts Within Northeast US Coastal Snowstorms Using High-Resolution Cloud Radar Measurements. Monthly Weather Review.

Schwaner, C., Barbosa, M., Haley, J., Espinosa, E. P., & Allam, B. (2024). Transcriptomics, proteomics, and physiological assays reveal immunosuppression in the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica exposed to acidification stress. Fish & Shellfish Immunology, 109366.

Pochron, S. T., Sasoun, S., Maharjan, S., Pirzada, W. U., Byrne, S., Girgis, M., … & Khan, S. (2024). Toxicity of a Common Glyphosate Metabolite to the Freshwater Planarian (Girardia tigrina). Sustainability, 16(2), 842.

Levinton, J. S. (2023). The bigger you are, the weaker you are: Multispecies evidence for the weakening combatant hypothesis. Journal of Crustacean Biology, 43(4), ruad075.

Shipley, O. N., Bruce, N. L., Higgs, N. D., Rawlins, S., Irschick, D. J., Gutierrez, R., … & Brooks, E. J. (2024). A new species of deep-sea Booralana Bruce, 1986 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Cirolanidae) from The Bahamas, Western North Atlantic. Zootaxa, 5399(3), 254-264.

Dwyer, I. P., Perger, D. A. S., Graffam, M., Aller, R. C., Wehrmann, L. M., & Volkenborn, N. (2024). Seasonality of bioirrigation by the maldanid polychaete Clymenella torquata and related oxygen dynamics in permeable sediments. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 572, 151987.

Geraci-Yee, S., Collier, J. L., & Allam, B. (2024). A Microcosm Experiment Reveals the Temperature-Sensitive Release of Mucochytrium quahogii (= QPX) from Hard Clams and Pallial Fluid as a Stable QPX Reservoir. Microorganisms, 12(2), 241.

Marciano, J., Crawford, L., Mukhopadhyay, L., Scott, W., McElroy, A., & McDonough, C. (2024). Per/Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) in a Marine Apex Predator (White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias) in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. ACS Environmental Au.

 

Latest Press Headlines

The World of Food Ingredients: “Marine breadbasket”: China’s new plan for offshore fish farming amid climate threats

• A team of scholars led by research scientist Yunzhou Li from Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, in the US, has suggested that the country faces declines in fish stock abundance and complex management challenges. The latest study highlights how some fishes have managed to survive the stress of overfishing, demonstrating an ability to adapt to climate change.

27 East: From Southampton College to Stony Brook University, Marine Science Has Led the Way (paywall)

• This three-part series will examine the history of the Shinnecock Hills campus, its current status as the Southampton campus of Stony Brook University, and its future.

Global Seafood Alliance: Former professional basketball player launches New York’s first commercial kelp farm, adding a ‘great complementary crop to oysters’

• The environmental benefits of kelp farming are clear. Kelp sucks nitrogen and carbon dioxide out of the water, said Michael Doall, associate director of shellfish restoration and aquaculture at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. That, he said, results in cleaner waters and reduces ocean acidification.

Newsday: Brookhaven landfill to stay open another 2 years, Town Supervisor Dan Panico says

• Research has shown that ash can be turned into building materials such as bricks, Panico said, citing studies by Stony Brook University. Covanta has a pilot program looking at the technology, the company has said.

New York Ledger/Newsday: Brookhaven landfill to stay open another 2 years, Town Supervisor Dan Panico says

• Panico’s predecessor, Edward Romaine, now Suffolk County executive, stated last March at a Stony Brook University waste management seminar the garbage dump would close in 2025 or 2026.

Newsday: The best places for oyster reefs in LI Sound? Stony Brook University scientists are on the case.

• The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Long Island Sound Futures Fund awarded a $477,200 federal grant to Stony Brook University in December to fund the research, which will begin this spring. It will include collaboration from Adelphi University and the nonprofit Friends of the Bay.

Newsday: Storm creates 2 new breaches on Fire Island as officials, residents survey damage

• A breach is an open channel formed between the ocean and the bay during a storm that remains after the storm passes, said Charles Flagg, a Stony Brook University professor whose research encompasses climate change effects on coastal systems.

Medium: Museum of Science & History names Alistair Dove as new CEO

• Alistair Dove’s academic work includes more than 75 peer-reviewed scientific publications and one book, as well as research and professor positions at Cornell University and Stony Brook University. Also ran in  Blooloop.

Southampton Press: VIDEO: Express Sessions, ‘Clarifying the Vision for The Stony Brook Southampton Campus’

• The discussion that took place on January 11, 2024, “Clarifying the Vision for The Stony Brook Southampton Campus,” was meant to be an exploration of the current state of the Stony Brook Southampton campus and the future of the Shinnecock Hills institution. (Video of the presentation is available.)

Earth.com: New deep-sea crustacean species discovered in the Bahamas

• In the vast and mysterious world of marine biology, a recent crustacean discovery has sparked excitement and opened doors to further understanding of our planet’s oceans. A team of international marine biologists, including Dr. Oliver Shipley from Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS), has identified a new species of isopod, a type of crustacean, in the deep waters of The Bahamas.

Newswise: New Deep-Sea Crustacean Discovered in Bahamas (press release)

• An international team of marine biologists including Oliver Shipley, PhD, of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University, has discovered a unique isopod, a form of crustacean, that has been formally  identified as a new species of the genus Booralana from the deep waters of The Bahamas. The finding, detailed in a paper published in the journal Zootaxa, is another example that discovery of life in the oceans is far from complete. Also ran in World News and Oklahoma Welcome.

Futurity: Bahamas Crustacean Is a Brand New Species

• “This work highlights the cryptic diversity of this group and underscores how little we know about deep-sea ecosystems in the Bahamas,” says Oliver Shipley, a research assistant professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University.

WLIW-FM/NPR: Southampton Village Board Declares 300-Year-Old Tree A “Heritage Tree” Thanks To Shinnecock Activism

• Representatives of Stony Brook University, speaking at an Express Sessions panel discussion last week, said they were committed to the Southampton campus and looked forward to the construction of a new hospital and the opportunity to provide affordable housing at the site, as well as draw in the broader community with new educational and cultural offerings. Stephen J. Kotz reports on 27east.com that plans for building a new hospital on the campus were discussed. The idea was first aired more than a decade ago when Stony Brook University Hospital and Southampton Hospital merged.

Town of Oyster Bay: Town & SUNY Stony Brook Partner to Put Oysters Back in Oyster Bay

• Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino and Councilwoman Michele Johnson announced the Town is partnering with the Research Foundation of the State University of New York (SUNY Stony Brook) in a transformative project aimed at revitalizing Oyster Bay-Cold Spring Harbor’s oyster populations. The project, titled “Putting the Oyster Back in Oyster Bay,” has received a generous grant amount of $477,200 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), with matching funds totaling $308,500.

Ivoox: BYUradio Constant Wonder – S7 E2: Owls and Awe (podcast)

• Guests: Carl Safina, author of “Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe,” Endowed Professor for Nature and Humanity at Stony Brook University, and founding president of the Safina Center

Gizmodo: Ghostly White Roly Poly Bug Discovered in the Deep Sea

• “Seagrass, mangroves, all that sort of stuff gets swept off the shelves and basically dumped right down into this deep-sea community,” said study author Oliver Shipley, an ecologist at Stony Brook University, in a video call with Gizmodo. “And that’s really important, because the more energy there is, the better the chances are that there are higher levels of biodiversity down there as well.” Also ran in Tech Times, Hitech Glitz and eBroky.

East Hampton Star: Sugar Kelp Project Coming to East Hampton Trustee Waters

• The East Hampton Town Trustees voted unanimously on Monday to grant a request from Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences to grow sugar kelp in waters under trustee jurisdiction between Barcelona Point and Little Northwest Creek.

Bethpage Newsgram: Town, Stony Brook to “Put Oysters Back in Oyster Bay”

• The Town of Oyster Bay will be partnering with the Research Foundation of the State University of New York (SUNY Stony Brook) in a transformative project aimed at revitalizing Oyster Bay-Cold Spring Harbor’s oyster populations.

WABE-FM: NOAA asks homeowners to help record neighborhood temperatures for heat map campaign

• On Friday’s edition of “Closer Look,” Morgan Zabow, NOAA’s community heat and health information coordinator, and Guanyu Huang, an associate professor of public health and atmospheric science at Stony Brook University, explain why some communities are hotter than others and discuss the goal of the heat mapping campaign.

AP News: Ørsted and Eversource Propose Updated Sunrise Wind Project for New York

• Sunrise Wind is making significant investments in the state’s offshore wind workforce and supply chain, including:
  • Committed $5 million in a research partnership with Stony Brook University. Also ran in Business Wire, Spoke and many others.

Daily UK News: To Predict Snowfall, NASA Planes Fly into the Storm

• But for now, simply identifying which physical processes are at play in a looming storm can help forecasters make better predictions, according to Brian Colle, a Stony Brook University atmospheric scientist who worked on IMPACTS. “Just being able to say that this region is going to get enhanced snowfall because of snow-band activity is a step forward from where we’ve been in the past.” Also ran in Knews Media.