Rutgers Shellfish Breeding Program Enters the Genomic Era

Ximing Guo (right) and Sam Ratcliff examined selective bred oysters at Rutgers Cape Shore Farm. Micah Seidel

A consortium of scientists led by Rutgers University has developed a high-density DNA chip for the eastern oyster to better research and breeding. The Rutgers shellfish breeding program, an ongoing project supported by the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fishery Service, is testing a high-density DNA chip for genomic selection, which is expected …

Rutgers University Hosts Regional One Health Consortium Conference — SEBS Faculty Present on Ticks and Nutrition

From left to right, Amy Papi, Co-Chair, NJ One Health Steering Committee; Joshua W. Miller, professor and chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Rutgers; Cheryl Stroud, executive director, One Health Commission, North Carolina; James S. Holt, VMD, veterinarian at Brandywine Veterinary Services, chairman of the Pennsylvania One Health Task Force; Michael E. Zwick, senior vice president for Research at Rutgers; Brint Spencer, VMD, director at Brandywine Zoo, Delaware; and Gloria Bachmann, MD, MMS, associate dean for Women’s Health and Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Co-Chair of the New Jersey One Health Steering Committee, and core faculty member of the Rutgers Global Health Institute. Photo: Nick Romanenko.

Rutgers Office for Research brought together scientists and experts to form relationships and collaborate on efforts to improve issues affecting the interconnectedness of humans, animals, and the environment. A group of scientists, experts, and representatives from New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, and West Virginia convened for a mid-Atlantic Regional One Health Consortium Conference at Rutgers University last Friday.   In-person …

Nuclear War Would Cause a Global Famine and Kill Billions, Rutgers-Led Study Finds

Even a nuclear conflict between new nuclear states would decimate crop production and result in widespread starvation More than 5 billion people would die of hunger following a full-scale nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia, according to a global study led by Rutgers climate scientists that estimates post-conflict crop production. “The data tell us one thing: We must prevent a nuclear …

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 …

Cultivating Super Corals Alone Is Unlikely to Protect Coral Reefs From Climate Change

coral

Restoration efforts need to be conducted at much greater spatial and temporal scales to have long-term benefits A popular coral restoration technique is unlikely to protect coral reefs from climate change and is based on the assumption that local threats to reefs are managed effectively, according to a study co-authored by Rutgers, Coral Research Alliance and researchers at other institutions. …

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 …

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 …