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September 30, 2007

Highlights

The Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve recently celebrated 10 Years of excellence in coastal research, education and stewardship. In honor of this milestone, a sweetbay magnolia tree was planted at the Cousteau Center in Tuckerton at a ceremony held on September 13, 2007, with JC NERR staff and state and federal partners. Pictured far left: Fred Grassle, Kate Barba (Dep. Dir., NOAA's Estuarine Reserve Div.), Mike De Luca, Tim Hart (Exec. Dir.,Tuckerton Seaport). Pictured left: Lee Fuiman (Reserve Manager at the Mission-Aransas Reserve in Texas), Jeff Sagdip (Congressman Saxton's Communications Director), Mike De Luca, Ken Able.

Kate Barba, Deputy Director, NOAA’s Estuarine Reserve Division, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resources Management, recognized Josephine Kozic as a recipient of the 2007 NOAA Environmental Hero Award. Sandy Condit, District Director and Jeff Sagnip, Communications Director for Congressman Saxton presented Josephine with an American flag that flew over the United States Capitol. Pictured left: Mike De Luca, Kate Barba, Josephine Kozic, Helen & Richard Zaengle (volunteers).

• Jennifer Francis was interviewed by NJN News Science Correspondent Patrick Regan on Arctic change. The story aired on 9/26/07.
• Jennifer Francis' and Eli Hunter's new paper on the disappearing Arctic sea ice was featured in a report by LiveScience.com, which was picked up by Fox News and MSNBC online news. Click here for link to the LiveScience story. (You can read text by clicking here.)
• IMCS scientists are involved in a major research initiative to assess the ecological condition of New Jersey's nearshore ocean waters. During August and September, benthic samples were collected at 100 nearshore ocean sampling sites from Sandy Hook to Cape May. Both seafloor sediment samples and benthic organsims are being analyzed to determine if habitat conditions are impaired in the region. This investigation, known as the Coastal Assessment Project, is headed by Mike Kennish of IMCS. It is a collaborative research project involving the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and Rutgers' Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences. To read more, click on "Digging deep on ocean floor" an article by David Benson of The Press of Atlantic City (September 1, 2007), highlighting the work being done by Mike Kennish and Rose Petrecca.
• At the end of August, John Dighton visited the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority (SSI) in Stockholm as part of an international three member team to select a candidate for a research position in radioecology to be funded by SSI and establish a new research and teaching program at an existing Swedish university.
• The Rutgers Marine Field Station held its annual open house on Saturday, September 22, 2007. Highlights of the tour included the following stations: Fish Identification, History & Overview, StriperTracker, LEO-15, Wet Lab and Field Research. A record number of visitors (588) attended this event and exit surveys indicated an overwhelmingly positive response by these visitors. The majority of these visitors (62.7%) were from surrounding towns and most (80%) of them indicated it was their first time visiting the Field Station. Over half these visitors learned about the open house via ads in local newspapers, but 28% heard about it from friends. We look forward to opening our doors to the public again next year.
• Peter Rona participated in the NSF workshop on Marine Heat Flow 5-8 September in Salt Lake City where he presented proposed plans to acoustically monitor seafloor hydrothermal flow as part of the NEPTUNE Canada regional cabled array.
• Alan Robock gave an invited talk "Will Reforestation Help Solve Global Warming?" to the Rainforest Alliance, New York City, September 12, 2007
• Bonnie McCay (Human Ecology) was appointed to the Scientific Advisory Committee of the California Current Ecosystem Based Management program of COMPASS, based at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

• Patricia Ramey a graduate student supervised by Fred and Judy Grassle attended the 9th IPC (International Polychaete Conference) in Portland Maine, August 12-18 2007. She presented "Undescribed diversity in the genus
  Polygordius: pygidial glands as a useful taxonomic character" which is research she has been pursing as a collaborative effort with Dr. Dieter Fiege from the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt, Germany.
• In September John Dighton attended the XV Congress of European Mycologists conference in St. Petersburg, Russia where he gave two oral presentations, two posters, co-authored a third oral presentation and co-chaired a session. Contributions were: (i) Dighton, Adams-Kumins and Gray, Fungal Succession on and Decomposition of Gypsy Moth Frass; (ii) Nix and Dighton, Dynamics and structure of the phylloplane fungal community of Vaccinium macrocarpon (American cranberry) under different agricultural management regimes; (iii) Zhdanova, Vasilevskaya, Tugay, Artishkova , Nakonechnaya, Dighton, Results of 20-years monitoring of soil micobiota of 10-km zone of alienation ChNPP; (iv) Dighton, Tgay, Zhdanova, Vasilevskaya, Zheltonozhsky, Biological activity of the microscopic fungi isolated from the 10-km alienation zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant; (v) Barron, Dighton, An applied model for macro-fungi conservation: fungal management in US National Parks.

• Curchitser, Enrique. Minerals Management Service, "Modeling of Circulation in the North Aleutian Basin." 09/13/07-09/30/09, ($278,000)
• Sherrell, Robert. National Science Foundation, "SGER: Science -of-Opportunity Abroad Icebreaker Oden: Bioactive Trace Metals in the Amundsen and Ross." 09/15/07-08/31/08, ($80,821)
• De Luca, Michael. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Mid-Atlantic Bight National Undersea Research Center. 03/01/05-02/29/08, ($400,000, additional funding)
• Kustka, Adam. National Science Foundation, Collaborative Research: "Expression Profiling & Functional Genomics of a Pennate Diatom." 09/15/07-08/31/10, ($265,474)
• Curchitser, Enrique. National Science Foundation, Collaborative Research: "Downscaling Global Climate Projections to the Ecosystems of the Bering Sea." 09/15/07-08/31/08, ($51,639)
• Haidvogel, Dale. National Science Foundation, "US GLOBEC Coordinating Office at Rutgers University." 09/15/07-08/31/10, ($828,791)
• Grothues, Thomas. Hudson River Foundation, "Association of Adult Fishes with Peers in the Lower Hudson River Hydroacoustic Surveys." 06/01/07-05/31/09, ($109,262)
• Seitzinger, Sybil. University of Maryland, SFP2006: "Measuring & Modeling Nutrient Uptake in Florida Bay" (continuation). 06/01/06-05/31/08, ($41,048)
• Sebastian, M. European Union, Marie Curie Fellowship, Science Support (through Spain-DSFM-CSIC). Marine bacterial role in phosphorus cycling. 05/16/07-05/15/09. ($26,136). Marta is a postdoctoral fellow in Jim Ammerman's lab.
• Joanna Burger and Michael Gochfeld received a $193,000 two-year grant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to develop a teaching module on "Radiation Risk Evaluation and Environmental Assessment"
• Richard Anyah, P.I., Alan Robock, Co-P.I. NSF Climate Dynamics, ATM-0730463, "Modeling Climate Variability and Change of the Greater Horn of Africa," October 1, 2007-September 30, 2010, $382,602.

Publications

• Dighton, J. (2007) Nutrient cycling by saprotrophic fungi in terrestrial habitats. In: Kubicek, C. P. & Druzhinina, I. S. (Ed.) The Mycota IV Environmental and Microbial Relationships (2nd Edn.) Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 287-300.
• Falkowski, P. G., Oliver, M. J. 2007. Mix and match: How climate selects phytoplankton. Nature Reviews Microbiology 5: 813-818.
• Francis, Jennifer and Eli Hunter. Drivers of Declining Sea Ice in the Arctic Winter: A Tale of Two Seas. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, doi:10.1029/2007GL030995.
• Francis, Jennifer and Eli Hunter. Changes in the Fabric of the Arctic's Greenhouse Blanket, Environmental Research Letters, in press.
• P. Ramey and Fiege, D. 2007. A 'famous-or infamous' marine worm? JMBA Global Environment, 5: 16.
• Robock, Alan, 2007: Nuclear power challenges and alternatives (Reply to comments on "Nuclear power's costs and perils. (Letter to Editor)"), Physics Today, 60, No. 9, 16.
• Robock, Alan, 2007: Correction to "Volcanic eruptions and climate," Rev. Geophys., 45, RG3005, doi:10.1029/2007RG000232.

Student News

• Teresa Johnson successfully defended her doctoral dissertation in the Ecology and Evolution program on September 25, 2007. The dissertation is titled "Integrating Fishermen and Their Knowledge in the Science Policy Process: Case Studies of Cooperative Research in the northeastern U.S." Her advisor was Bonnie McCay and members of her committee were Eric Powell, George E.B. Morren, and Douglas Wilson.
• Aixa Aleman-Diaz is a new graduate student in the Anthropology program who hopes to develop doctoral research on human uses and management of coastal beaches in the Caribbean. (Bonnie McCay, Advisor)

Congratulations

Congratulations to Louis and Suzanne Bowers on the birth of their son, Thor Benjamin Bowers, on September 30th at 4:29 PM, weighing 7 lbs. 7 oz, and 19 inches tall. Best wishes to Louis who has accepted a position as a Wind Resource Analyst with an international renewable energy company.