Blue Acres: The Art and Science of Managing Flood-Prone Open-Space Properties in New Jersey

Looking north along a former block of Watson Ave in Woodbridge, NJ. Formerly a quiet residential street with houses, frequent flooding has resulted in this segment of roadway being repurposed into open space with a walking path through the Blue Acres program. Photo: Matt Drews

By Carol Peters, EOAS Communications A wildlife and conservation management expert for Rutgers Cooperative Extension, EOAS faculty member and Associate Professor Brooke Maslo works with local NJ municipalities to help them manage and restore properties in FEMA-established flood-prone areas purchased through the DEP Blue Acres program. Imagine the plight of families in New Jersey who own homes in the state’s …

Living Shoreline Combats Coastal Erosion Caused by Sea Level Rise

Rutgers scientists teamed up with high school students to build a living shoreline, near the New Jersey Aquaculture Innovation Center in Cape May, that helps reduce wave energy as it comes onto the beach. Photo: Dena Seidel

Rutgers scientists and high school volunteers from Camden are using nature to mitigate the effects of coastal erosion in southern New Jersey. Together they built a living shoreline, near the New Jersey Aquaculture Innovation Center in Cape May, that uses marsh grasses and recycled oyster and clam shells. The shells, incorporated into modified concrete blocks called oyster castles, fit together like Legos to …

Scientists Believe Evolution Could Save Coral Reefs, If We Let It

coral

Research shows protecting “hot reefs” is key to saving coral reefs. Coral reefs can adapt to climate change if given the chance to evolve, according to a study led by Coral Reef Alliance, Rutgers University, the University of Washington and other institutions. The recent study, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, finds that coral reefs can evolve and adapt …

Bee It Known: Biodiversity Is Critical to Ecosystems

Bumble Bee on Virginia Bluebells. Photo: Matt Drews

A Rutgers-led study on bees shows how different species pollinate the same plants over time. Rutgers has conducted the first study showing how many more species of bees are needed to maintain crop yields when a longer-term time frame is considered. In the paper, which was recently published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, scientists said biodiversity of the bee population is …

EOAS In the News: “Tiny Oysters Are a Hopeful Sign in the Hudson River”

Baby Oysters

New York Times reporter James Barron joined #EOAS faculty member Thomas Grothues and other #Rutgers scientists on a trip on the Hudson River in lower Manhattan to check on the “oyster habitat enhancements” they had installed last year and seeded with juvenile oysters. Barron reports “The oysters were small, barely the size of a thumbtack. The people measuring them, on a skiff rocking …

Is Decline in Bee Population a Natural Phenomenon or a Warning?

bees

Rutgers scientists track the decline at New Jersey and Pennsylvania farms asking what’s behind this dramatic trend A dramatic decline in the bee population at fruit farms in New Jersey and Pennsylvania has Rutgers scientists wondering whether it is a natural phenomenon or a warning about a future threat to the world’s food supply. In a study published in the science journal Insect …

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 …

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 …

Rutgers Researcher Uses Genomics and Gene Editing to Help Save Coral Reefs

Coral.

Debashish Bhattacharya, a professor at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, aims to identify the genes believed to be involved in coral bleaching. A Rutgers researcher who has been recognized for trying to save dying coral reefs will examine their genetic makeup to try to pinpoint the genes involved in coral bleaching caused by climate change, which could have …

Bee Diversity is Important for Maintaining Healthy Ecosystems and Life on Earth

A bee of the genus Ceratina on a plant of hte genus Ipomoea (morning glory). Photo: Joe Zientek.

Rutgers scientists assessing the level of diversity among bee species necessary for sustaining populations of wild plants have concluded that ecosystems rely on many bee species to flourish, not just a few dominant ones. The report, published in The Proceedings of the Royal Society B, supports the fundamental idea that biodiversity is key to sustaining life on Earth, notably in an era …