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December 1, 2002
Meetings Attended
- On September 10, 2002, Professor Michael Gochfeld was an invited
speaker at the "Risk Communication and Terrorism: New clinical
approaches" conferences sponsored by the DOD and DOE in Alexandria,
Virginia. Dr. Gochfeld spoke on Occupational Health Risks from
Terrorism, focusing on the aftermath of the World Trade Center
and the Anthrax episode.
- Peter Rona presented a briefing on advances in marine scientific
research on September 25th at United Nations Headquarters in New
York. The briefing was sponsored by the UN Division of Ocean Affairs
and Law of the Sea and the UN Institute for Training and Research
on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the conclusion of the
UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Highlights
- Scott Glenn was awarded an ONR grant for using CODAR systems
to track ships.
- Oscar Schofield was appointed by the National Research Council
to be a member for the Committee of “Seafloor Observatory
Network for Oceanographic Research."
- Scott Glenn conducted a series of Coastal Radar experiments
off Andros Island (Bahamas) with Raytheon Canada.
- Peter Rona served as chief scientist on the Hudson Canyon Exploration
cruise 27 August-15 September involving a collaborative team from
Rutgers, the U.S. Geological Survey, and SUNY/Stony Brook working
with the NOAA Ship RON BROWN with support from the NOAA Office
of Ocean Exploration. The cruise successfully produced the first
coherent high-resolution bathymetric map of the NY-NJ continental
margin seaward of the shelf centered on Hudson Canyon, sampled
the water column for venting of methane, and was followed by school
visits in the port of New York.
- SAV Maps Now On-line - Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) maps
for Barnegat Bay, New Jersey are now online at http://crssa.rutgers.edu/projects/runj/sav/index.htm.
The Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve and the
Rutgers University Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis
(CRSSA) has created the new web site, in cooperation with the
Barnegat Bay Estuary Program (BBEP) and the New Jersey Department
of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), to provide coastal decision-makers
as well as the larger coastal community access to mapped data
on the location and status of our coastal SAV resources.
SAV is a key estuarine benthic habitat providing cover for vulnerable
life stages for many organisms, including commercially important
species. The two major species of SAV in New Jersey are Eelgrass
(Zostera marina) and Widgeon Grass (Ruppia maritima). Present
environmental regulations attempt to limit the impact of coastal
development on SAV beds and accordingly the NJDEP relies heavily
on mapped surveys of SAV in dock and bulkheading permitting decisions.
However, recent indications of SAV habitat decline within the
Barnegat Bay estuary prompted CRSSA Director, Richard Lathrop,
to synthesize past SAV surveys into a Geographic Information System
to examine temporal trends in spatial distribution.
These GIS data layers were used to create an interactive SAV web
page. The maps on the web show SAV location for the 1960s, 1970s,
1980s, and 1990s. The background is the color infrared aerial
photography taken in 1995 in cooperation by the NJDEP and the
USGS NAPP. All four surveys can be viewed together or individually
overtop of the photography.
The web site will continue to be updated as additional SAV surveys
are undertaken and put into GIS form. These original GIS files
can also be downloaded at the following web address http://crssa.rutgers.edu/projects/runj/bbdata/index.html.
The SAV web site is part of a larger newly revamped site that
highlights the habitats of the Barnegat Bay estuary and watershed.
Any questions or comments about the SAV web page should be directed
to Scott Haag GIS Coordinator for the Jacques Cousteau National
Estuarine Research Reserve at scotth@crssa.rutgers.edu.
Congratulations
- Congratulations to Dr. Debora Iglesias-Rodriguez, a former IMCS
post-doctoral researcher, who was offered a faculty position at
the University of Nottingham!!
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