July 2025 News and Press from SoMAS

Jul 31, 2025

Larry Swanson's Third Long Island Environmental Symposium

Photo above: Long Island elected officials and solid waste experts gathered to address the future of how Long Island will manage its ever-increasing waste at the Larry Swanson’s Third Long Island Environmental Symposium on June 25, 2025

Long Island elected officials and solid waste experts gathered to address the future of how Long Island will manage its ever-increasing waste at the Larry Swanson’s Third Long Island Environmental Symposium on June 25, 2025

Please join us in welcoming Captain Henry Fulmer to SoMAS. Henry has been hired as a Captain of the RV Seawolf and comes to us from a captain’s position on board the vessel Atlantic Surveyor.  In the coming weeks Henry will be familiarizing himself with the Seawolf, its systems and vessel operations here at the University.

Thank you to everyone who came out for the SoMAS Open Mic Night on July 11, 2025! Hosted by the SoMAS Graduate Student Club, this event featured performances by new band The Planktones and the return of Pumice, featuring Dr. Chris Gobler on drums, in their first live show in seven years! Graduate student AJ Mabaka shared some video clips from the event:

Additional video is available on the SoMAS YouTube Channel.

Dr. Dan Holstein, who will start at SoMAS this fall, recently received funding from the NOAA Transformational Habitat Program as part of an award entitled “USVI CMR3:  Coral and Mangrove Infrastructure Restoration for Resilience and Workforce Readiness”. This work is a collaboration with the University of the Virgin Islands as part of a 3-year $2.5M award ($225K coming to SBU).

Project summary: Coral and Mangrove Infrastructure Restoration for Resilience and Workforce Readiness. The University of the Virgin Islands will enhance ecosystem and community resilience by restoring coral reefs and  mangrove habitat. They will build local restoration capacity by forming multi-disciplinary teams that will establish coral nurseries and apply science-driven methods to improve the survival of coral outplants and mangrove seedlings. The team will develop a module for the Youth Oceans Explorer program, pilot a Corals in the  Classroom program, and train university and high school students to assist in restoration and community  engagement.

 

SBU News Features

The Office for Research and Innovation and Intellectual Property Partners (IPP) proudly celebrates all Stony Brook University inventors who dare to shape the future. Through dedication, ingenuity, and perseverance, they are transforming groundbreaking ideas into reality, embodying the spirit of innovation that defines our institution. ORI recognizes the following innovators for their recently issued patents:

Latest Videos

 

Latest Publications

Soetan, O., Zhu, Q., & Feng, H. (2025). Spatiotemporal evaluation of water quality, metal pollution, and human health risks in a dredged Urban River, New Jersey, USA. Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 47(7), 1-23.

Hill, D. T., Zhu, Y., Dunham, C., Moran, J., Zhou, Y., Collins, M. B., … & Larsen, D. A. (2025). Estimating the effective reproduction number from wastewater (Rt): A methods comparison. Epidemics, 100839.

Smolinski, R., Oates, M., Venkatesan, A., Gobler, C., & McDonough, C. (2025). Emerging investigator series: Identification and transformation of per/polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in residential wastewater and effluent from alternative treatment systems. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts.

Kelp, M., Burke, M., Qiu, M., Higuera‐Mendieta, I., Liu, T., & Diffenbaugh, N. S. (2025). Effect of recent prescribed burning and land management on wildfire burn severity and smoke emissions in the western United States. AGU Advances, 6(3), e2025AV001682.

Reed, K. A., Medeiros, B., Jablonowski, C., Simpson, I. R., Voigt, A., & Wing, A. A. (2025). Why idealized models are more important than ever in Earth system science. AGU Advances, 6(4), e2025AV001716.

Gil-Gomez, A., Leyland, B., Karthikaichamy, A., Adikes, R. C., Matus, D. Q., Rest, J. S., & Collier, J. L. (2025). Proteome remodeling in the zoospore-to-vegetative cell transition of the stramenopile Aurantiochytrium limacinum reveals candidate ectoplasmic network proteins. PloS one, 20(7), e0326651.

Schwartz, S. E. (2025). Three-compartment, two-parameter concentration-driven model for uptake of excess atmospheric CO 2 by the global ocean. Biogeosciences, 22(12), 2979-3009.

Bohorquez, J. J., Fine, M., Grieco, D. I., Gill, D. A., Al-Swalimih, A., Padilla-Gamino, J., … Pikitch, E.K., … McElroy, A.E., & Kleinhaus, K. (2025). United Seas for Resilient Reefs: A Blueprint for Coral Conservation through International Cooperation. Stony Brook University and The New York Climate Exchange.

Stepanuk, J. E., Nye, J. A., Record, N. R., & Thorne, L. H. (2025). Changes in the abundance and distribution of rorqual prey in the Northeast United States over four decades. Ecosphere, 16(7), e70303.

Agrawal, N., & Colle, B. A. (2025). Using a Convolution Neural Network to Improve Ensemble Tropical Cyclone Track Forecasts across the Atlantic Basin. Weather and Forecasting, 1(aop).

Zeng, Q., Zhang, M., Dai, Y., & Zeng, X. (2025). Research on Earth System Models and numerical simulations. Journal of Meteorological Research, 39(3), 467-484.

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, 106(6), E1077-E1086.

 

Latest Press Headlines

Smithsonian Magazine: Orcas Appear to Be Sharing Their Prey With Humans—but What Does It Mean?

  • Carl Safina, an author and ecologist at Stony Brook University, is not surprised that orcas are willing to share their food with humans. These highly intelligent creatures “understand us”—including our sentience—and seem to “comprehend the world better than we do,” he tells the Seattle Times.

Patch: Reworld™ Participates in Larry Swanson’s Third Long Island Environmental Symposium

  • Reworld™, a leader in sustainable waste solutions, recently participated in the Larry Swanson Long Island Environmental Symposium, held at Suffolk County Community College’s Brentwood Campus. The event was presented by the Evan R. Liblit Memorial Scholarship Committee in collaboration with Suffolk County Executive Edward Romaine and Michael White of Stony Brook University’s Waste Reduction and Management Institute.

East Hampton Star: Water Bodies Showed Improved Quality Before Rainfall

  • C.C.O.M., in collaboration with the Gobler Lab at Stony Brook University, also samples Fort Pond for harmful algal blooms. Results so far this year have shown low or lower than the detection limit for cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, indicating a low risk for a harmful or toxic algal bloom. Blooms have historically been recorded annually, typically starting in late August, though two were recorded in July last year.

Newsday: Long Island’s dearth of bunker sparks a question: Where did they go?

  • Stony Brook University marine sciences Professor Christopher Gobler noted that since menhaden are “highly migratory fish, there are many things that impact that population as they make their Florida to Maine journey.” He noted that many subpopulations keep nearby, but their “enormous range is part of the story.”

Shelter Island Reporter: Shelter Island Reporter Editorial: Ignoring the facts

  • Christopher Gobler, a professor at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and endowed chair of Coastal Ecology and Conservation, has spoken about rising sea levels: “This is all being driven by climate change. Rising sea levels occur because the oceans are warmer and expanding and the polar ice caps are melting, and storms are more intense because of climate change. Attacking climate change is therefore priority number one, and making these connections will then motivate people to move faster towards addressing climate change.”

South Shore Press: Study finds climate change delays shark migrations in North Atlantic

  • Certain migratory shark species in the North Atlantic may be delaying their migration south due to ocean warming, according to a study led by researchers at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS). The research tracked six shark species over five years using tagging and acoustic tracking methods.

Newsday: Sharks staying in Long Island waters longer as sea temperatures rise, Stony Brook study shows

  • Over five years, a team of Stony Brook scientists tagged 155 sharks along the East Coast and tracked their movements using underwater sound signals. The six highly migratory shark species studied annually migrate from the Northeast and Canada to waters ranging from the Carolinas to Florida during the early fall.

Newsday: Study: Sharks staying longer around Long Island (video)

  • The Stony Brook University study tracked six shark species over five years by tagging and acoustically tracking their movements. NewsdayTV’s Virginia Huie reports.  Credit: Newsday/Photojournalist: Drew Singh, Debbie Egan-Chin; Photo Credit: Joanna Steidle

ABC 7: Stony Brook University study finds sharks are staying longer near New York shores

  • A study by Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences found that sharks are now more likely hanging around New York shores for an extended period time, with some species lingering in northern waters nearly a month longer than usual. (Also in MSN)

Miami Herald: Sharks might be spending less time in Florida. That’s actually not good.

  • Manz, a doctoral candidate at Stony Brook University in New York, and colleagues from seven other U.S. institutions used National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data to create a model to project how their observations would play out on a grander scale. If the ocean surface temperature warms by 2.01 degrees Celsius, for example, species like the sandbar shark would arrive in Florida almost a month later than they used to.

WSHU/NPR: Classroom cuts

  • A study out of Stony Brook University finds sharks are sticking around in Long Island waters later than usual.

WRRV: Sharks Will Stay in New York Waters ‘Longer’ This Year, Research Says

  • In a recent post (below), the NYS DEC shared that a new research paper from Stony Brook University found evidence that several species of sharks are experiencing “delayed departure dates” from the waters where they spend their summer months, including New York State.

Greek Reporter: Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to Meet Trump During Official US Visit

  • The next day, on Saturday, September 20, which marks World Coastal Cleanup Day, Patriarch Bartholomew will be honored as the “Green Patriarch” during a special environmental event at the Stony Brook University Marine Station in Southampton. He will then lead the annual Assembly of Hierarchs of the Ecumenical Throne in the US at the Dormition of the Theotokos Church in Southampton. A Great Vespers service and formal dinner will follow.

Greater East End: How a marine scientist’s beer nights became an East End tradition

  • A Long Island native, Paparo has spent more than three decades exploring and documenting the island’s natural world. He manages the Marine Sciences Center at Stony Brook University’s Southampton campus, holds a degree in marine science, and is an award-winning member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America and the New York State Outdoor Writers Association.

LiveScience: Strongest nor’easters along US East Coast are becoming more intense as the world warms, study suggests

  • Edmund Chang, a professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University who was not involved with the study, told Live Science the latest research was largely well conducted, with the data supporting the conclusions.

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