Six SEBS Faculty Selected for 2022-23 Provost’s Teaching Fellows Program

Ethan Schoolman

Congratulations to the six faculty in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences who are  among the 2022-23 Cohort of Provost’s Teaching Fellows announced by the Office of the Chancellor-Provost. The program was initiated in 2021 to support pedagogical innovation aimed at improving student learning outcomes. It includes full cohort sessions to share goals and build networks, as well as small group …

Ninth Annual Personal Bioblitz Results Break All Records, Again!

Pediastrum duplex, a colonial green algae, CC-BY-NC SEBS professor Lena Struwe.

The Personal Bioblitz was launched in 2014 by Lena Struwe, director of the Chrysler Herbarium and professor of botany in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, challenging participants to observe and report as many wild species as possible from everyday life using the global community science website and free app, iNaturalist. Congratulations to the top winners—every species and person—and to the Personal …

Nuclear War Would Rewire the Physical, Biological and Ecological States of Oceans

sea turtle

Rutgers scientist helps produce world’s first large-scale study on how nuclear war would affect marine ecosystems. Even the smallest nuclear war would devastate ocean systems, leading to sharp declines in fish stocks, expansion of ice sheets into coastal communities and changes in ocean currents that would take decades or longer to reverse, according to a Rutgers researcher and an international …

Offshore Wind Farms Expected to Reduce Clam Fishery Revenue, Study Finds

wind farm

An important East Coast shellfish industry is projected to suffer revenue losses as offshore wind energy develops along the U.S. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic coasts, according to two Rutgers studies. The studies, which appear in the ICES Journal of Marine Science (here and here), examined how offshore wind farms planned for the eastern United States could disrupt fishing of the Atlantic surfclam, a major economic …

Rutgers Launches Citizen-Led Project to Combat Tick-Borne Diseases

The only female Gulf Coast tick, Amblyomma maculatum, collected in NJ. Photo James Occi.

The Center for Vector Biology (CVB), part of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, launched New Jersey Ticks 4 Science!, a citizen-led science project supported by the state that asks New Jerseyans to submit tick specimens they find to help track tick populations and help prevent tick-borne illness. “The purpose of the effort is to better understand who …

Addressing Food Insecurity in New Jersey

wheat

By Carol Peters Rutgers University Faculty members and students have contributed to two recent reports that provide recommendations to help to help state and local governments, schools, childcare providers, community-based and faith-based organizations, emergency food providers, and others, to help mitigate hunger across the state. More must be done to alleviate food insecurity in New Jersey, argues a new report, Hunger …

The Dynamic Evolution of a Photosynthetic Organelle

The transition from a heterotrophic to a photosynthetic lifestyle by the amoeba Paulinella. This primary endosymbiosis led to the origin of a new organelle (the chromatophore) and gene movement from the endosymbiont to the amoeba nuclear genome. Image created by Victoria Calatrava.

Research provides key clues to primary endosymbiosis and the evolution of photosynthesis that may prove useful in crop improvement. Tiny bacteria and massive trees are both integral to sustaining our planet. A few billion years were required for the evolution of biological complexity and therefore it is a challenge to elucidate critical, early events that triggered this diversification. A paper, “Retrotransposition …

SEBS Faculty Pamela McElwee and Malin Pinsky to Begin Earth Leadership Program Training

Pamela McElwee, professor, Department of Human Ecology, and Malin Pinsky, associate professor, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, who were named Fellows of the Earth Leadership Program (ELP), will join their colleagues in the North American Cohort in an ELP training session in Racine, Wisconsin, from June 12-18. Elected in 2021, McElwee and Pinsky are among 22 academics working within a wide …

RU COOL Awarded $2.5 Million Funding for New Jersey Offshore Wind Studies

Grace Saba prepares to deploy an autonomous underwater glider equipped with sensors to monitor for ocean acidification on the New Jersey coastal shelf. Photo credit: Eric Niiler, WIRED.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) recently announced the award of funding for studies to provide enhanced scientific information on the impacts of offshore wind energy development off New Jersey’s coastline as well as the state’s entry into a regional offshore-wind science collaborative. The development of New Jersey’s offshore wind resources is …

SEBS Faculty Win Rutgers Global Grants

global grans banner

SEBS faculty, representing a broad range of majors and programs at the school, were awarded 2022 Rutgers Global Grants, annual seed grants open to all Rutgers faculty, including tenured, tenure-track, clinical, and non-tenure track faculty.   These grants help to support a strong core of SEBS faculty who are dedicated to international research and collaborations. This international component to SEBS research and …