A Conversation with Polar Oceanographer Rebecca Jackson

Rebecca Jackson at work. Photo courtesy Rutgers University.

This article by John Dos Passos Coggin continues Climate.gov’s series of interviews with current and former fellows in the NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Program about the nature of their research funded by NOAA and what career and education highlights preceded and followed it. Over the past 30 years, the Postdoctoral Program, funded by NOAA Climate Program Office, has hosted over 200 …

On the Banks of a Pristine Raritan River

Rutgers Cooperative Extension faculty member Michele Bakacs is leading an effort to study pathogens in the Raritan River, aiming to ensure the river eventually meets fishable and swimmable standards in New Jersey and becomes a resource that is cherished and celebrated.

Rutgers Cooperative Extension faculty member Michele Bakacs is leading an effort to study pathogens in the Raritan River, aiming to ensure the river eventually meets fishable and swimmable standards in New Jersey and becomes a resource that is cherished and celebrated.  By Carol Heher Peters On a sweltering day in May, Rutgers students gather on the banks of the sparkling Raritan River and …

How Rocks Rusted on Earth and Turned Red

The colorful banded Tepees are part of the Blue Mesa Member, a geological feature about 220 million to 225 million years old in the Chinle Formation in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. Photo: NPS

Important phenomenon could help assess future climate change How did rocks rust on Earth and turn red? A Rutgers-led study has shed new light on the important phenomenon and will help address questions about the Late Triassic climate more than 200 million years ago, when greenhouse gas levels were high enough to be a model for what our planet may be like …

Bacteria and Algae Get Rides in Clouds

Microbes could pose health, ecosystem risks when rain brings them to Earth Human health and ecosystems could be affected by microbes including cyanobacteria and algae that hitch rides in clouds and enter soil, lakes, oceans and other environments when it rains, according to a Rutgers co-authored study. “Some of the organisms we detected in clouds and rain are known to …

Deadly White-Nose Syndrome Changed Genes in Surviving Bats

Deadly White-Nose Syndrome Changed Genes in Surviving Bats Study has big implications for management of bat populations

Study has big implications for management of bat populations Scientists have found genetic differences between bats killed by white-nose syndrome and bats that survived, suggesting that survivors rapidly evolve to resist the fungal disease, according to a Rutgers-led study with big implications for deciding how to safeguard bat populations. White-nose syndrome has killed millions of bats in North America since 2006, following …

Important Climate Change Mystery Solved by Scientists

Revised Holocene temperature record affirms role of greenhouse gases in recent millennia Scientists have resolved a key climate change mystery, showing that the annual global temperature today is the warmest of the past 10,000 years – contrary to recent research, according to a Rutgers-led study in the journal Nature.   The long-standing mystery is called the “Holocene temperature conundrum,” with some skeptics contending …

Nuclear War Could Trigger Big El Niño and Decrease Seafood

Nuclear War Could Trigger Big El Niño and Decrease Seafood

Unprecedented warming in equatorial Pacific Ocean could last up to seven years A nuclear war could trigger an unprecedented El Niño-like warming episode in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, slashing algal populations by 40 percent and likely lowering the fish catch, according to a Rutgers-led study. The research, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, shows that turning to the oceans …

#EOAS in the News: Science Friday interviews Asa Rennermalm Today

Streaming live at 3:20-3:28 p.m ET on Fri. Jan. 22 on https://www.sciencefriday.com/. Science Friday (Public Radio) interviews Asa Rennermalm.

Streaming live at 3:20-3:28 p.m ET on Fri. Jan. 22 on https://www.sciencefriday.com/. Science Friday (Public Radio) interviews Asa Rennermalm.  An associate professor in the Department of Geography, at Rutgers University New Brunswick, Rennermalm is a physical geographer specializing in climate change, hydrology, and glaciology of the polar regions. In 2019 she was both a Kavli Fellow (National Academy of Sciences) and …

Greenland Melting Likely Increased by Bacteria in Sediment

A supraglacial stream and sediment floodplain in southwest Greenland. Photo: Sasha Leidman

Microbes in meltwater stream sediment may help boost island’s contribution to sea-level rise Bacteria are likely triggering greater melting on the Greenland ice sheet, possibly increasing the island’s contribution to sea-level rise, according to Rutgers scientists. That’s because the microbes cause sunlight-absorbing sediment to clump together and accumulate in the meltwater streams, according to a Rutgers-led study – the first of …

Big Differences in How Coral Reef Fish Larvae are Dispersed

Rutgers-led research could help scientists improve conservation of species

Rutgers-led research could help scientists improve conservation of species How the larvae of colorful clownfish that live among coral reefs in the Philippines are dispersed varies widely, depending on the year and seasons – a Rutgers-led finding that could help scientists improve conservation of species. Right after most coral reef fish hatch, they join a swirling sea of plankton as tiny, …