The Oceanography Society (TOS) congratulates the Rutgers Center for Ocean Observing Leadership (RUCOOL) team on its selection as the recipient of the TOS Ocean Observing Team Award. This award recognizes innovation and excellence in sustained ocean observing for scientific and practical applications. The citation on the team’s certificate recognizes RUCOOL for transforming oceanography by sharing their pioneering sampling platforms, sensing methods, and their integration in models and education. Rutgers University’s Center of Ocean Observing Leadership has for over thirty-one years been a leader in oceanography innovating new technologies, exploring the ocean, developing integrated ocean observing/modeling networks, and educating the next generation of oceanographers. RUCOOL is a multi-generational group of senior and junior faculty that together have formed a transdisciplinary group addressing societal needs, promoting public outreach, and helping create an ocean-literate society. RUCOOL has distinguished itself with a focus on data transparency and open access. The representative members of the RUCOOL team recognized for this award are Scott Glenn, Thomas Grothues, Josh Kohut, Alex Lopez, Janice McDonnell, Travis Miles, Daphne Munroe, Grace Saba, and Oscar Schofield. The RUCOOL team’s achievements will be celebrated during The Oceanography Society’s Honors Breakfast taking place on February 21, 2024, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting.

MS of Operational Oceanography (MOO) students recently visited Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) in Monroe, NJ to learn about OPT’s diverse marine technologies and their applications. The visit was hosted by Maria Force, Jeremiah Mendez, Ariana Dyer (a Rutgers ’23 alum), and Luis Cartagena-Soto, who provided an informative tour of the facility. During the tour, our hosts detailed the company’s mission and history, as well as the various operational capabilities of their versatile WAM-V autonomous surface vehicles and their wave-powered PowerBuoy platforms. The MOO students, as well as everyone at RUCOOL, express their gratitude to everyone at OPT for the valuable opportunity to engage and gain insights into their field.

Students from the RUCOOL Masters in Operational Oceanography installed and configured a 5 MHz High Frequency radar in Sea Bright, NJ this past week.  The students installed the SeaSonde radar and configured the antenna pattern kit and communication router.  The data was flowing a few hours after they arrived.  This radar is being operated as part of the Mid Atlantic Ocean Observing System (MARACOOS). Rutgers would like to thank John Lamia and Joe Verruni from Sea Bright for providing access to the beach.

Multidisciplinary collaboration involving three schools and multiple departments will combine efforts of environmental and marine scientists as well as engineers A Rutgers research project focused on offshore wind energy is poised to make New Jersey a global leader in the field in a little more than a decade. The effort being launched by Rutgers researchers includes two key components: The design of a so-called Net-Zero Wind Energy Test (WET) Center, a warehouse-size testing facility to be potentially located somewhere close to the Jersey Shore; and the creation of a much smaller WET Lab which will be located on the Rutgers University–New Brunswick campus. Rutgers–New Brunswick Chancellor Francine Conway says new efforts in wind energy research focus on a “grand challenge of science and society.” The new venture, which aims to address scientific and engineering challenges in testing a floating offshore wind turbine, will position Rutgers at the center of what is expected to be one of the most ambitious wind power research projects in the United States. The project is one of four winning proposals selected for funding in March 2023 by Rutgers–New Brunswick Chancellor Francine Conway as part of her Chancellor Challenge fostering the development of transformational, campus-wide initiatives to fulfill the goals of Rutgers-New Brunswick’s Academic Master Plan. “This outstanding project was selected through a rigorous, competitive review of proposals to catalyze exploration, collaboration, concept-testing and risk-taking,” Conway said. “Its success will rest on the efforts of cross-disciplinary teams from multiple Rutgers–New Brunswick units. Importantly, it focuses the power of our research on a grand challenge of science and society.” The effort will capitalize on a surge of support for wind energy, including public funds that Gov. Phil Murphy invested into wind power development through the Wind Institute for Innovation and Training. The project will make Rutgers globally known for wind research, says Onur Bilgen, a leader of the project and an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Photo: Rutgers School of Engineering “Our broad vision is that, by 2035, New Jersey will be among the global leaders in offshore wind energy research, technology development and testing, and that Rutgers will be globally known for its multidisciplinary approach to the economics, engineering and the social and environmental science and policy of wind energy,” said Onur Bilgen, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the Rutgers School of Engineering (SOE.) Bilgen is leading the project with Josh Kohut, co-founder of the Center for Ocean Observing Leadership and a professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences in the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS.) The effort will receive about $1.1 million from the Rutgers–New Brunswick Chancellor’s Office. The WET Center is one of the first flagship interdisciplinary projects of the newly created Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute (RCEI), announced by Conway in October, and which is another initiative of Rutgers–New Brunswick’s Academic Master Plan. The WET Center is a “signature investment” for the university, says Julie Lockwood, interim director of the Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute. Photo: Rutgers Climate and Energy Center “The WET Center is a signature investment into cutting-edge climate change and renewable energy scholarship and education through RCEI,” said Julie Lockwood, RCEI’s interim director and a professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources at SEBS. “Its innovative design fosters collaboration among scholars from a variety of academic fields, which enhances the impact of Rutgers on next-generation wind energy production.” Studying offshore wind energy systems – constellations of turbines installed in the ocean as opposed to land – offers a unique opportunity to build bridges across campuses, Bilgen said. Wind energy systems, especially offshore, are more expensive to install and maintain than land-based wind energy and conventional energy sources. But there have been several recent technological advances that may change that, including the development of multidisciplinary design optimization tools; new light and strong composite materials, structures and coatings; and manufacturing and installation methods. Concentrated, collaborative efforts will continue to yield further innovations, Bilgen said. In the organizers’ vision for the larger test facility called WET Center, which will require governmental and industry support to build and operate, researchers will be able to test near-full-scale versions of Eiffel Tower-size wind turbines designed to float in the deep ocean, Bilgen said. Researchers working at the smaller WET Lab will be able to test much smaller versions of the giant machines. That facility also will be the center of efforts to give rise to and foster new interdisciplinary collaborations among faculty and students. Those leading the effort will develop and implement a laboratory course and course modules for integration into existing courses. Josh Kohut, a professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, will co-lead the project. The effort will engage a large cohort of engineering and marine science researchers. Photo: Rutgers Center for Ocean Observing Leadership Kohut, a marine scientist, praised Bilgen for developing the concept of a research facility for offshore wind power and engaging so many faculty members with diverse interests. “Onur had this really great idea of planning for a research facility necessary for advancing offshore wind in the region – and he generously engaged all the groups that were working in that space,” said Kohut. “There’s something like 60 faculty members across the university who are engaged in some aspect of offshore wind. The WET Lab that will be put together through this effort will engage the engineering and marine science researchers of this broader Rutgers offshore wind community at Rutgers.” Faculty from SOE, SEBS, and the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences will be involved in center research. In addition to Bilgen and Kohut, five other faculty members, spanning multiple departments, will play critical roles in the effort. Participating faculty from SOE include: Assistant Professor Laurent Burlion in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Assistant Professor Aziz Ezzat in the Department of Industrial Engineering; and Assistant Professor Roger Wang in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Those participating from SEBS include: Assistant Professor Travis

Rutgers University Center for Ocean Observing Leadership (RUCOOL) has been awarded a $250,000 gift from the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation to support climate, weather and ecosystem research and capacity building in the Caribbean Sea. “The G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation has been an invaluable supporter of Rutgers and the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences (DMCS) in the development of glider technology to conduct long range ocean exploration and filling data gaps critical to meeting the societal needs on a changing ocean planet,” said Distinguished Professor Oscar Schofield, chair of DMCS, and co-principal investigator on the project. Other Rutgers investigators include Distinguished Professor Scott Glenn, assistant professor Travis Miles, and postdoc researcher Joseph Gradone, along with Douglas Wilson, director of the Ocean Glider Laboratory at the University of the Virgin Islands. This is the 12th year of funding from the Vetlesen Foundation to RUCOOL, which has been at the forefront of global exploration and collaboration with international partners, including the circumnavigation of the North and South Atlantic, and cross ocean basin missions in the Indian Ocean with an underwater robot. The center’s efforts have not only driven new and innovative research. They’ve established a global network of gliderports and served as catalysts of science communication and story-telling for our ocean planet. This has included numerous short films and full length documentaries in locations including South Africa, Sri Lanka, the Virgin Islands and Martinique. This new Vetlesen Foundation gift will continue to support Gradone’s work at RUCOOL. “The foundation’s support has been pivotal in shaping my growth as a scientist throughout my doctoral research at Rutgers. It has enabled me to explore my intellectual curiosity of the Caribbean Sea’s role in global climate and enhance my teaching and communication skills through various community engagement initiatives,” said Gradone. In addition, the gift will support autonomous underwater robot sampling of the Caribbean Sea between Puerto Rico and Curacao, with the goal of understanding the role of the Caribbean through-flow as a critical region for the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The AMOC is a system of ocean currents that is commonly referred to as an “ocean conveyor belt” as it transports warm, salty surface waters from the tropics and South Atlantic to the North Atlantic, where they cool, become denser, and sink to the deep ocean, facilitating the redistribution of heat and regulation of climate. Recent evidence has suggested that the AMOC, and its associated water properties, is changing, which has implications for regional weather, sea level rise, ecosystems, food security, and resilience. Original article at Rutgers NJAES Newsroom

A 4-H youth development program changes perceptions, making students insiders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics Role models, often parents or other close family members, serve as crucial sources of inspiration for students engaged in making career choices in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), according to research studies. A big part of what Janice McDonnell is doing with a program known as Rutgers 4-H STEM Ambassadors is to connect students without a STEM role model in their families or communities with working scientists. McDonnell is an associate professor and Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Agent in the Department of 4-H Youth Development, at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS). She runs the program, funded by Bristol Myers Squibb, with Chad Ripberger, the county extension department head of the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Mercer County. McDonnell discussed the importance of the STEM Ambassadors program. Full article at Rutgers News

This article was authored by Grace Saba, associate professor, and Josh Kohut, professor,  faculty in Rutgers University’s Center for Ocean Observing Leadership (RUCOOL) in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences. From late April to late September, Rutgers researchers used underwater robots, called gliders, to track ocean water quality along the New Jersey coast. Through a series of glider deployments, water quality measures of oxygen concentrations and pH were mapped from surface to bottom along the New Jersey coast. From August through September, much of the bottom water sampled from Sandy Hook south to Tuckerton, and from nearshore (15 meter, or 50 feet, water depth) to deeper depths (60 meter, or 200 feet, water depth), exhibited dissolved oxygen concentrations less than 5 mg/liter and pH values less than 7.75. Coast-wide, hypoxic levels of dissolved oxygen (concentrations < 3 mg/liter) were observed at shallower, more inshore locations. In addition to low pH measured in bottom waters, which is indicative of ocean acidification, aragonite saturation state (a relevant metric for biological impacts of ocean acidification) was calculated to be < 1 in several locations. Normal, more optimal levels in seawater typically include dissolved oxygen concentrations > 7 mg/liter, pH of 8.1, and aragonite saturation states > 3. Saba and Kohut discuss the implications for their summer observations of low dissolved oxygen and pH off the coast of New Jersey, and offer some next steps in their research. Why are these values concerning? As is true for land animals, oxygen is essential to ocean animals. Dissolved oxygen concentrations at or below 5 mg/liter is considered problematic for marine life. Although concentrations between 3-5 mg/liter may not be low enough to directly cause death in many marine animals, research focused on New Jersey species has identified other negative impacts such as reduced metabolism, feeding, growth, and reproduction at these levels. Lower hypoxic concentrations of dissolved oxygen (< 3 mg/liter) have been directly associated with mortalities in some organisms in New Jersey and in other coastal regions around the world. Increased carbon dioxide in seawater leads to a series of chemical reactions that increases the acidity of the ocean (measured as a reduction in pH) and reduces carbonate ions that are vital to the production of shells and other protective structures of marine animals (made of calcium carbonate, such as aragonite). As such, aragonite saturation state is used as an indicator of ocean acidification because as the ocean absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide, both pH and aragonite saturation state decrease, and can lead to reduced survival, calcification rates, growth, and reproduction in marine animals. When aragonite saturation state is less than 1, shells and other calcium carbonate structures begin to dissolve, but some organisms become susceptible at levels below 3. Any one stressor may not itself be an issue due to the resiliency of many coastal species to fluctuating natural environmental conditions. However, when more than one stressor occurs simultaneously, an organism may become unable to fully withstand changes. The impacts of multiple stressors occurring simultaneously on organism health is much less well known. The co-occurrence of low dissolved oxygen and pH may exacerbate negative responses in organisms, or increase their susceptibility to either or both oxygen and pH.   Left: Mission tracks of three gliders (ru28, ru39, ru40) deployed off the coast of New Jersey in August and September. Gliders ru39 and ru40 were deployed as a pair along the same mission track. All gliders had sensors measuring temperature and salinity. Gliders ru28 and ru40 each had an additional sensor measuring dissolved oxygen (no pH or aragonite saturation state), and glider ru39 had an additional sensor measuring pH (no dissolved oxygen). Right: Locations of hypoxic levels of dissolved oxygen (magenta; < 3 mg/liter) and low aragonite saturation state (cyan; < 1) measured along the glider mission tracks and locations of reported fish, lobster, and/or crab mortalities (red X).   Complete cross-sections of dissolved oxygen concentrations (left top and bottom), pH (right top), and aragonite saturation state (right bottom) measured along the mission tracks during the deployments of the three gliders (ru28, ru39, ru40) during August and September. Dissolved oxygen concentrations between 3-5 mg/liters are expressed as orange & yellow, and hypoxic concentrations < 3 mg/liter are expressed as red. pH values < 7.75 and aragonite saturation states < 1 are highlighted in cyan.   Reports of fish, lobster, and crab mortalities During the time when low dissolved oxygen and pH were observed, numerous mortalities of fish, lobsters and crabs within the sampling area were reported. The mortalities were observed in bottom waters primarily off the coast of Monmouth and Ocean Counties and included the Mud Hole, as far east as Lillian wreck, and southward in Sea Girt and Axel Carlson Reefs and the surrounding areas. Mortalities were reported for American lobsters, Jonah crab, Atlantic rock crab, spider crabs, black sea bass, and tautog were reported not only in pots where trapped organisms would not have been able to escape poor conditions, but also on the open bottom. This observation suggests that if low dissolved oxygen and/or pH were indeed the culprit for these reported mortalities, the area may have been extensive enough that they could not escape in time. Mortalities associated with low dissolved oxygen in New Jersey coastal waters or other locations is not new. The most extreme hypoxic event documented in the State occurred during the summer of 1976, whereby mass mortalities of marine organisms occurred over a 12,000 km2 area. More recently, numerous fish, lobster, and crab mortalities were associated with low dissolved oxygen in Cape Cod Bay in September 2019, and hypoxic conditions have been identified as the culprit of mortalities and changes in bottom water communities in the Gulf of Mexico’s notorious summer-time ‘Dead Zone’ since the beginning of annual observations that started in 1985. What causes low dissolved oxygen and pH in bottom water? A common seasonal phenomenon in New Jersey coastal shelf waters is strong summer stratification whereby cold water near the bottom is capped off by