March 2025 News and Press from SoMAS

Photo above: The display screen as you enter Endeavour Hall showing the WeatherStar 4000+ simulation

Join Dr. Chris Gobler on Wednesday April 2, 2025 at the Duke Lecture Hall in Chancellor’s Hall at Stony Brook Southampton for the “State of the Bays 2025: Keep Calm and Carry On.” Student posters will be presented from 7-7:30 and the seminar begins at 7:30.

On Long Island, our sole-source aquifer is our drinking water supply and is the primary source of freshwater, nitrogen, and other contaminants to coastal ecosystems. Recent trends in the quality of both groundwater and surface waters on Long Island have been concerning. Emerging contaminants such as PFAS and 1,4-dioxane have contaminated some drinking water supplies. Since the late 20th century, nitrogen levels in groundwater have risen by more than 60%, critical marine habitats on Long Island including eelgrass and salt marshes have declined by up to 90%, landings of Long Island’s top shellfisheries have declined more than 90%, and harmful algal blooms have become annual occurrences. In 2024, freshwater and marine HABs were widespread across Long Island with cyanobacteria HABs occurring in more than two dozen lakes and ponds. The overgrowth of algae can increase oxygen demand, and 2024 saw a recording-breaking, 36 individual low oxygen, dead zones across Long Island that had levels of oxygen below state standards. Compounding the effects of nitrogen pollution on coastal zones is climate change and 2024 provided clear evidence that climate change has arrived. 2024 was the warmest year ever recorded with ocean temperature also reaching all-time highs. Beyond high temperatures, 2024 saw a recording-setting precipitation event on Long Island that destroyed dams and closed shellfish beds across Long Island. While Vibrio vulnificus, the ‘flesh-eating bacteria’, was responsible for several deaths and illnesses on Long Island in 2023, in 2024, it also grew to high levels with growth promoted by domestic wastewater. Given that continued climate change will intensify heat waves, hypoxia, HABs, and mass precipitation events, action is needed to mitigate these problems. In good news, Long Island has become a hub for novel solutions to mitigate water quality impairment and climate change. ‘In the water’ remediation approaches involving seaweeds and bivalves have locally ameliorated nitrogen loads, algal blooms, and ocean acidification, and recent shellfish restoration efforts have led to estuarine ecosystem recovery. The New York State Clean Water Technology Center at Stony Brook University has identified cost-effective technologies that dramatically reduce the delivery of nitrogen and other contaminants from individual homes to coastal water bodies. Implementation of such technologies coupled with ‘in the water’ solutions will be required to restore water quality and fisheries.

Stony Brook University, Renewable Energy Long Island, and Students for Climate Action are set to co-host the 2025 Long Island Youth Climate Summit (LIYCS) on April 4, 2025 from 8:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. ET. This inaugural event will bring together hundreds of students and faculty from high schools across Long Island. The 2025 LIYCS will expose students to topics in climate science, solutions, policy and advocacy through panel presentations and workshops hosted by experts in various fields. The Keynote Speaker is Stony Brook University Endowed Chair of Coastal Ecology and Conservation and Distinguished Professor, Dr. Christopher Gobler. Sessions include Climate Change & Solutions – Renewable Energy on LI, The Power of Youth Engagement in Climate Policy (featuring elected officials Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski, County Executive Ed Romaine, State Senator Monica Martinez, and County Legislator Rebecca Sanin), Careers and Degrees in Climate and Energy, and How to Craft a Successful Climate Campaign.

Congratulations to Gordon Taylor and Kate Aubrecht who have been named 2024 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows.

Congratulations to Stephanie Arsenault and Xiangyan Yang who have received the Institute for Advanced Computational Science (IACS) Young Writers Award. The IACS Young Writer’s Award is granted to a graduate* or undergraduate student working with a faculty member or affiliate of the institute. The award consists of a one-time prize of $500 to celebrate the student’s first paper that is accepted in a peer-reviewed publication or conference proceedings. You do not have to be the first author. Only full-time, fully supported students are eligible to receive this award. Both international and domestic students are eligible.

Congratulations to Sustainability Studies student Esther Poon, who was honored at the Long Island Herald Sustainability Awards of Long Island as a “Student Leader for Sustainability.” Esther is an editor of Nature State of Mind: SUNY Students Reflect on Our Environment, now available for purchase

Nature State of Mind: SUNY Students Reflect on Our Environment is a cumulation of a collaborative effort spanning across 13 SUNY schools and seventy artists and writers across New York State. Through the mediums of writing, photography, artwork, and more, the featured SUNY students have captured the diversity of New York State’s environment.

Jack McSweeney has received an AI Seed Grant ($24,966) from Stony Brook’s AI Innovation Institute, entitled ” Developing Machine Learning Approaches to Classify Internal Waves”! This project is a great demonstration of interdisciplinary research at SoMAS that applies cutting edge techniques to address complex problems.

This project develops machine learning approaches to classify internal wave shapes and features from oceanographic timeseries data of subsurface temperature and current velocities. Internal waves come in a wide array of shapes and sizes, and these characteristics are related to how internal waves play a key role in driving mixing and transport in coastal environments. Current analytical approaches of this kind of data are extremely labor intensive. The application of machine learning techniques to this scientific topic would greatly advance the field of internal wave research by automating the classification process and enabling faster and more accurate analysis of internal waves. Ultimately, the ability to classify internal wave shape enables us to assess whether internal wave shape can be used to predict impacts on the local system, which has many interdisciplinary implications.

Yong Chen has received the award of a NYSERDA Graduate Fellowship, in the amount of $50,000 for the project “Evaluating potential spatial overlapping of sea scallop suitable habitats and offshore wind development in the mid-Atlantic Bight”, and the fellowship will be awarded to graduate student Arthur Mabaka. This research is at the intersection of climate, biogeography, fisheries management and offshore wind, and is a great representation of topical and interdisciplinary research that SoMAS can lead.

Project summary: The scallop fishery on the Northeast coast of the U.S. is one of the most lucrative in the nation, supporting the world’s largest and most valued wild scallop fishery. The Atlantic Sea scallop fishery is particularly vulnerable in its Southern New England and Mid-Atlantic sub-stock areas where substantial areas are leased for Offshore Wind (OSW) development and warming waters are becoming more frequent and severe. By developing models and tools to evaluate the cumulative environmental and anthropogenic impacts of proposed OSW development on the sea scallop abundance, distribution, and fishery in the Mid-Atlantic region, this project will align the research interests of multiple stakeholders while also leveraging a novel partnership between Stony Brook University, ROSA, and NYSERDA. This NYSERDA graduate fellowship is a pilot program awarded to AJ Mabaka who is co-advised by Dr. Yong Chen and Dr. Chris Gobler of SoMAS, focusing on evaluating the potential spatial overlapping of OSW development and scallop suitable habitats and distributions in the Mid-Atlantic area.

Dr. Hendrik Hamann has been selected as a winner of the 2024 Cozzarelli Prize along with his coauthors. The Cozzarelli Prize is selected by the Editorial Board of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) to honor outstanding contributions to PNAS that reflect scientific excellence and originality. Using AI, Hendrik and colleagues discovered hundreds of new figurative geoglyphs in the Nazca region of Peru, a UNESCO World Heritage site. This work vastly improved our understanding of the nature and purpose of these geoglyphs, and has provided significant insights into ancient cultures.

Sakai, M., Sakurai, A., Lu, S., Olano, J., Albrecht, C. M., Hamann, H. F., & Freitag, M. (2024). AI-accelerated Nazca survey nearly doubles the number of known figurative geoglyphs and sheds light on their purpose. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(40), e2407652121.

Over nearly a century, researchers discovered 430 figurative Nazca geoglyphs, such as animal and human figures, on the southern coast of Peru. The authors of this study used AI to analyze aerial images of the region and confirmed the presence of 303 additional geoglyphs within six months of field work. Analysis of motifs among geoglyphs revealed that small, relief-type geoglyphs often depict humans, domestic animals, or decapitated heads. In contrast, large, line-type geoglyphs primarily feature wild animals. Relief-type geoglyphs appear along winding trails imprinted by repeated walking, suggesting that the geoglyphs were used by individuals or small groups. Large, line-type geoglyphs were systematically planned and located at the beginning and end of pilgrimage routes across the Nazca Pampa, likely serving as community structures.

SBU News Features

• Stony Brook University Recognizes Long-Serving Employees
  • Stony Brook University employees who marked milestones of 25 years or more of service in 2024 were honored with a Service Recognition Luncheon February 27 at the Bauman Center for Leadership and Service. Honorees from SoMAS includes Willa Schultz (40 years), Stefanie Massucci (35 years), John Mak (30 years), Brian Colle (25 years),
• Harvesting Innovation: SBU Eats Introduces On-Campus Micro-farm
  • Paul Kim (EDP, EHI) and Heather Wickham (EDP) were featured in SBU News about their roles in on-campus micro-farming
• Stony Brook Kicks off Clean Energy Lecture Series
  • Stony Brook University is leading the charge in clean energy education with Navigating the Clean Energy Transition, a new lecture series that launched with a breakfast reception March 6 at the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology (CEWIT).
• SBU Professor’s Journey to Nuclear History, Ecofeminism and Filmmaking
  • Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island recounts the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown, known as the worst commercial nuclear power meltdown in U.S. history, and how the government tried to minimize the disaster to the public. It follows four mothers from Pennsylvania who took their community’s case to the Supreme Court. Heidi Hutner, an associate professor of English and Sustainability at Stony Brook University, made her directorial debut with the film in 2022 — and the documentary has only become more relevant today.
• SoMAS PhD Student in Washington, D.C. for Year-Long Knauss Fellowship
  • Alyson Lowell, a PhD candidate in Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS), has been awarded a New York Sea Grant (NYSG) John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship (Knauss Fellowship).
• SBU Faculty Members Join Ranks of Elite Scientists as AAAS Fellows
  • Stony Brook University’s Gordon T. Taylor, Katherine B. Aubrecht and Michael A. Bender have been named 2024 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows.
• Why SBU Dares to Be an Environmental Steward
  • Stony Brook University is at the forefront of advancing conversations on climate change and its implications for New York State, the nation and the world.

Latest Videos

• Madankui Tao, TAOS 2025-03-05, “Exploring Formaldehyde and Nitrogen Dioxide Variations: Insights into Surface Ozone Formation“
• Kevin Reed, OSAC 2025-03-07, “Extreme weather and climate: what does it mean for Stony Brook?“
• Miyuki Hino, OSAC 2025-03-28, “Incidence and impacts of chronic coastal flooding in North Carolina“

Latest Publications

Sakai, M., Sakurai, A., Lu, S., Olano, J., Albrecht, C. M., Hamann, H. F., & Freitag, M. (2024). AI-accelerated Nazca survey nearly doubles the number of known figurative geoglyphs and sheds light on their purpose. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(40), e2407652121.

Qiu, M., Chen, D., Kelp, M., Li, J., Huang, G., & Yazdi, M. D. (2025). The rising threats of wildland-urban interface fires in the era of climate change: The Los Angeles 2025 fires. The Innovation, 100835.

Gallagher, K. L., Herman, R., Walton, K., Dinniman, M. S., & Lynch, H. J. (2025). Pygoscelis penguins prefer different oceanographic and terrestrial habitats during the austral summer. Ecosphere, 16(2), e70091.

Zhuo, J. Y., Lee, C. Y., Sobel, A., Seager, R., Camargo, S. J., Lin, Y. H., … & Reed, K. A. (2025). A More La Niña–Like Response to Radiative Forcing after Flux Adjustment in CESM2. Journal of Climate, 38(4), 1037-1050.

Roberts, M. J., Reed, K. A., Bao, Q., Barsugli, J. J., Camargo, S. J., Caron, L. P., … & Zhao, M. (2025). High-Resolution Model Intercomparison Project phase 2 (HighResMIP2) towards CMIP7. Geoscientific Model Development, 18(4), 1307-1332.

Tang, Y., Wang, M., Venkatesan, A. K., Gobler, C. J., & Mao, X. (2025). Biologically active filtration (BAF) for metabolic 1, 4-dioxane removal from contaminated groundwater. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 137827.

Wallace, M. K., Kudela, R. M., & Gobler, C. J. (2025). Environmental factors driving microcystin contamination of estuarine bivalve populations downstream of freshwater cyanobacterial blooms. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 214, 117798.

Zhang, R., Chang, E. K., & Nakamura, N. (2025). Wave Packets and Life Cycles of Troughs in the Framework of Local Finite-Amplitude Wave Activity. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

Geerts, B., Baeuerle, B., Diao, M., Delgado, R., Hallar, A. G., Lundquist, J. K., Mak, J. E., … & Vivekanandan, J. (2025). Recommendations for the NSF Facilities for Atmospheric Research and Education (FARE): Access and Capabilities. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Sun, M., Wo, J., Ren, Y., & Chen, Y. (2025). Hybrid total allowable catch strategy can sustain productive mixed fisheries and conserve both target and non-target species. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 82, 1-14.

Şen, B., Che‐Castaldo, C., LaRue, M. A., Krumhardt, K. M., Landrum, L., Holland, M. M., Lynch, H.J., … & Jenouvrier, S. (2025). Temporal and spatial equivalence in demographic responses of emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) to environmental change. Journal of Animal Ecology.

Dzambo, A. M., Bruning, E., Oue, M., Brunner, K., Singewald, D., Rosky, E., … & Ascher, B. (2025). Forecasting for ESCAPE: A multi-institution hybrid forecasting and nowcasting operation for sea-breeze convection supporting a ground-based and airborne field campaign. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 106(3), E456-E472.

Liu, P., Reed, K., Zhao, M., Garner, S., Lau, N. C., Silvers, L., & Colle, B. (2025). Record-breaking persistent high-pressure systems fueled unprecedented Canadian wildfire disasters in 2023. Environmental Research Communications.

Latest Press Headlines

Times Beacon Record: SBU’s Christopher Gobler to be honored by the Sierra Club

• Dr. Christopher Gobler, a professor in the School of Marine and Atmosphere Sciences (SoMAS) at the State University of New York at Stony Brook’s Southampton campus, was honored by the Sierra Club’s Long Island group for his outstanding environmental contributions on March 15.

TheFisherman.com: Shell Shock: Blue Claws & Clams

• Growing up in Riverhead on the East End of Long Island, A.J. Mabaka was surrounded by seemingly endless estuaries and prime access to the Atlantic Ocean. This environment not only shaped A.J.’s childhood but also inspired his journey into marine science.

Patch: New York Climate Exchange’s Partners Offer Summer Youth Programs

• The New York Climate Exchange’s network of partner universities, research institutions, and community organizations in New York City and nationwide are offering more than 80 different camps, classes, workshops, internships, and other educational opportunities for youth this summer. Offerings provide immersive opportunities for students, primarily grades K-12, to engage in climate action, build STEM skills, conduct environmental research, develop solutions to real-world problems, participate in career-based learning, earn college credits, and more.

South Shore Press: Stony Brook University launches new lecture series on clean energy transition

• Stony Brook University has initiated a new lecture series, “Navigating the Clean Energy Transition,” with a breakfast reception held on March 6 at the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology. This program is part of an effort by the Center for Continuing Education to promote clean energy, supported by New York State’s Offshore Wind Training Institute.

LI Herald: What is really recyclable?

• In the Town of Hempstead, residents currently recycle roughly 25 percent to 30 percent of their total waste, below the national average of 32 percent, according to Yiyi Wang, a researcher at Stony Brook University.

Newsday: How Trump tariffs could affect home improvement, renovation projects

• “The economic hardships from the pandemic, we were just starting to emerge from them, and now we’re dealing with a self-inflicted woe,” said Richard Murdocco, adjunct professor at Stony Brook University’s public policy graduate program who also studies economic development. “[The tariffs] will throttle growth and investment because [they add] economic friction. These tariffs are amplifying pre-existing weaknesses in our regional economy.”

27east.com/Southampton Press: “State of the Bays, 2025: Keep Calm and Carry On” (posting in events)

• On Wednesday, April 2nd at 7:00 PM, Dr. Christopher Gobler of SoMAS at Stony Brook University will present his annual lecture “State of the Bays, 2025: Keep calm and carry on”.

Newsday: With 500 species, Long Island is a birders’ paradise

• Of course, woodpeckers aren’t the only species of bird to be found here. “We have land birds, freshwater birds, we have open ocean birds, we have long distance migrating birds,” said Stony Brook University marine ecologist and author Carl Safina. “There is an incredibly high number of species.”

27 East: Nature & Bird Watching Cruise with Stony Brook Southampton

• Let’s venture by boat into the remote areas of Shinnecock Bay onboard Stony Brook University/Southampton’s 45-ft. research vessel, R/V Peconic, and marvel at the wealth of migratory birds and waterfowl that inhabit the region at this time of year. We’ll cruise along areas of the salt marsh and flats that are not visible by land and hopefully witness the activities of a variety of wildlife. Bring binoculars and a light snack.

27 East: Blue-Green Algae Levels in Wainscott Pond Continue Annual Increases

• The blue-green algae levels in Wainscott Pond continued to skyrocket past New York State Department of Environmental Conservation standards in 2024, Dr. Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University announced in his annual water quality report to the East Hampton Town Trustees.

Newsday: Oyster Bay razes out-of-service smokestacks and recycling plant at Old Bethpage landfill

• David Tonjes, the former director of the Waste Data and Analysis Center at Stony Brook University, said the removal of the smokestacks signals “the end of an era.” The complex is centrally located in the town — making it a convenient site for a recycling plant, Tonjes said. “The town may be looking at current markets and thinking, ‘we could manage our recyclables and it wouldn’t cost us very much money,'” Tonjes said.

East End Beacon: This Morning’s Bulletin — 3.26.25

• Looking ahead to next week, Dr. Christopher Gobler of SoMAS at Stony Brook University will present his annual “State of the Bays” lecture, this year themed “Keep Calm and Carry On,” on Wednesday, April 2 at the Duke Lecture Hall at Stony Brook Southampton. Student researchers will share their work in the lobby beginning at 7 p.m. and the lecture begins at 7:30.

The Providence Independent: As Right Whales Shift, Cape Cod Remains Safe Haven for Now

• The Endangered Species findings reported in January were based on research led by Taylor Evans, then a postdoc at the State University of New York at Stony Brook studying marine biology. Evans looked at “plankton tows” done by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration between 1980 and 2019 to see how the plankton communities were changing in the Northeast. What she found was that C. finmarchicus had broadly declined across its range — particularly in the Bay of Fundy.

Science: AAAS names 2024 Fellows

• AAAS proudly congratulates the newly elected 2024 Fellows. In 2024, the AAAS Council elected 471 members as Fellows of AAAS. Election as a Fellow honors members whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications in service to society have distinguished them among their peers and colleagues. Presented by section affiliation, they are…Gordon T. Taylor, Stony Brook Univ…Katherine B. Aubrecht, Stony Brook Univ…Michael A. Bender, Stony Brook Univ.

Innovate LI: No. 959: Preserving plastics, rewarding robots, affirming The Atlantic – and rub-a-dub in the hot tub!

• Three Stony Brook University faculty members have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science: Gordon Taylor is a professor in the SBU School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, head of the SoMAS Marine Sciences Division and director of the university’s NAno-Raman Molecular Imaging Laboratory. Katherine Aubrecht is an associate professor in the SBU College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Chemistry and in the SoMAS Division of Sustainability Studies.

New York Times: L.A. Firefighters Who Fought Blazes Show Elevated Mercury and Lead Levels

• But Minghao Qiu, an assistant professor at Stony Brook University who has studied the health effects of wildfire smoke but was not involved in this study, said that he gave “quite some weight” to the findings. He said that they began to answer questions on which data had not been available. Previous research had measured toxins in the air, but not inside firefighters’ bodies.

Times Beacon Record: Stony Brook University faculty members join ranks of elite scientists as AAAS Fellows

• Stony Brook University’s Gordon T. Taylor, Katherine B. Aubrecht, and Michael A. Bender were recently named 2024 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows. The AAAS Fellows program was first established in 1874. To be considered as a Fellow, AAAS members must be nominated by the Steering Committee of their respective sections by three Fellows or the CEO of AAAS. Nominations are reviewed by the AAAS Council, which then votes on the nominations. To become an AAAS Fellow is a lifetime honor.

South Shore Press: Stony Brook University celebrates 3 faculty named as AAAS Fellows

• Stony Brook University has announced that three faculty members have been named 2024 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). This prestigious honor was bestowed upon Gordon T. Taylor, Katherine B. Aubrecht, and Michael A. Bender for their significant contributions to their respective fields.

LongIsland.com: Stony Brook University Faculty Members Join Ranks of Elite Scientists as AAAS Fellows

• Stony Brook University’s Gordon T. Taylor, Katherine B. Aubrecht, and Michael A. Bender were recently named 2024 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows. The AAAS Fellows program was first established in 1874. To be considered as a Fellow, AAAS members must be nominated by the Steering Committee of their respective sections by three Fellows or the CEO of AAAS. Nominations are reviewed by the AAAS Council, which then votes on the nominations. To become an AAAS Fellow is a lifetime honor.

East End Beacon: This Morning’s Bulletin — 4.1.25

• Dr. Christopher Gobler of SoMAS at Stony Brook University will present his annual “State of the Bays” lecture, this year themed “Keep Calm and Carry On,” tomorrow evening, April 2 at 7 p.m. at the Stony Brook Southampton lecture hall. Find out more in The Peconic Bathtub.