As we approach the winter solstice here in NJ, a team of RUCOOL graduate students have arrived in Antarctica for their summer research funded by the National Science Foundation’s LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) program. Joe Gradone and Quintin Diou-Cass are on the R/V Nathanial B Palmer which is just off the West Antarctic Peninsula. While they may not be going to a baseball game, or swimming in a pool or at the beach, they are enjoying views of ice bergs, snow covered peaks and penguins, while occasionally getting beaten up in rough seas. When time allows, Joe, Quintin and Oscar Schofield, the LTER team lead for Rutgers, are blogging about their experiences at https://rucool.marine.rutgers.edu/blog/. Pretty cool stuff going on down there!
Congratulations to Dr. Emily Slesinger who successfully defended her PhD on Wednesday, December 1st. Her dissertation “Black sea bass physiology and life history in the context of seasonal and long-term climate change” is an important contribution to our understanding of how increased ocean temperatures due to climate change might impact the physiology, distribution, migration patterns, and spawning behavior of important fish species, information relevant and necessary to inform both state and regional fisheries management. We wish her the best of luck in her new position as a NRC fellow working at a NOAA NMFS lab in Newport, Oregon. Her upcoming research will focus on the interactive effects of ocean acidification and ocean warming on three Alaskan fisheries species at the embryo and larval life stages.
This week, the Rutgers Center for Ocean Observing Leadership hosted colleagues from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). The attendees are active in the state’s development of 7.5 GW of offshore wind, as part of its goal to have 100% clean energy by 2050. Several representatives from each agency participated on a career panel with students in the Topics of Marine Sciences class, discussing their diverse career paths that led to their current positions with the state, and the myriad ways that today’s students might play a role in New Jersey’s blue economy. Following the class visit, they were given a tour of the COOLroom and glider lab, discussing the ways that RUCOOL and the state are working together to ensure the successful and responsible development of offshore wind for New Jersey.
It’s once again getting close to winter here in the northeast US, but in Antarctica, spring is in full bloom with summer just weeks away. Rutgers has been participating in the National Science Foundation’s Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) project at Palmer Station Antarctica for over 30 years. This week, graduate students Quintin Diou-Cass and Joe Gradone joined UConn Postdoc Jessie Turner on the R/V Nathaniel Palmer to head to the West Antarctic Peninsula. They are all happy to finally get to sea after almost a month of travel and Covid quarantine protocols. We wish them all well for their summer Southern Ocean exploration.
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Oscar Schofield, chair Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences (principal investigator) and Michael Crowley, MARACOOS technical director are working with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System (MARACOOS) on a $1,542,076 cooperative agreement funded through NOAA to collect unique ocean and coastal data that is transformed into information products that support jobs, the economy, safety and well-being for the more than 78 million people living, visiting, and working in the Mid-Atlantic region. MARACOOS is the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System, covering the region from Cape Cod, MA to Cape Hatteras, NC for NOAA’s U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System. MARACOOS is a regional association of partners that supports the resiliency, security, safety, and health of Mid-Atlantic people and ecosystems. Full article at Morning AgClips
Rutgers University Center for Ocean Observing Leadership (RUCOOL) hosted visitors from Bermuda based Cerulean H2O Ltd and the Ocean Tech charity. As part of their Coastal Lab, they are looking to develop a coastal ocean observing system for Bermuda, and they visited Rutgers to learn from our experience. They shared with us that Bermuda lacks the oceanographic data that is essential to deal with existing and future challenges for the island nation of 64,000 people. Dr. Hugh Roarty from RUCOOL met with Mr. Henrik Schroder and Mr. Jonas Schroder to discuss the oceanographic sensing capabilities of RUCOOL and how some of the technologies we utilize could be applied in Bermuda waters. They then toured two of the coastal radar stations that Rutgers operates, one in Old Bridge (pictured above) and the other on Sandy Hook. The station at Old Bridge is a cooperative with the Middlesex County Parks and Recreation and the station at Sandy Hook is hosted by the National Park Service.
The Antarctic’s unique environment and position on the globe make it a prime location to gain insights into how Earth and the universe operate. This report assesses National Science Foundation (NSF) progress in addressing three priority research areas identified in a 2015 National Academies report: (1) understanding the linkages between ice sheets and sea-level rise, including both a focus on current rates of ice sheet change and studies of past major ice sheet retreat episodes; (2) understanding biological adaptations to the extreme and changing Antarctic environment; and (3) establishing a next-generation cosmic microwave background (CMB) program, partly located in Antarctica, to study the origins of the universe. Read the Report Highlights Get the Report