Rutgers Marine Field Station: On the Edge of Climate Change

RU Marine Field Station by Micah Seidel

As the facility marks its 50th anniversary, here is a look back at its history and how it developed into a crucial research station in New Jersey.   Rutgers Marine Field Station stands at the heart of where climate change is happening the fastest in the world, providing a unique and crucial window into the future for researchers.  A former U.S. Coast …

Feasible Surfclam Husbandry Techniques for Northeast Shellfish Growers

Surfclams have a spawn-to-sale production cycle as short as 12-18 months. Photo credit: Michael Acquafredda.

Editor’s note: Michael Acquafredda (GSNB’19) earned a doctoral degree in Ecology and Evolution in the Rutgers School of Graduate Studies A study that provides technical aspects of Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima) husbandry supports the feasibility for the culture of the species in the U.S. Northeast region. “Overall, successful surfclam nursery culture aligns well with the Northeast’s established shellfish farming framework, and …

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 …

Rutgers Awarded $12.6 Million Grant to Create Oyster Habitat for Coastal Resilience

Oysters in a cement setting experiment from Richard Riman’s laboratory.

The university-led project is in response to a broader effort to protect critical coastal civilian and Department of Defense infrastructure and personnel at risk of climate change. Rutgers has been awarded $12.6 million by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop an oyster-based shoreline ecosystem to help protect coastlines from storm damage, flooding and erosion. The Rutgers-led project, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Rutgers Oyster History Preserved!

The houseboat Cynthia on Barnegat Bay, NJ circa 1915.

After longtime Rutgers Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory (HSRL) associate Walt Canzonier passed away in June 2021, a box containing historic data was returned to the lab. Canzonier had designed and overseen much of the construction of the current lab in Bivalve, NJ, according to professor David Bushek, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and director of HSRL.  The box contained old weather and tide information …

New Jersey’s Temperatures Rise by 4 Degrees Fahrenheit, Twice the Global Average Since 1900

Boyd Park, submerged under flood water from the Raritan River in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Ida.

Heavy rainfall, flooding, increasing heat waves and heat-related illness are likely to become more common in New Jersey by 2100, according to a report by researchers from Rutgers University-New Brunswick, the Office of the New Jersey State Climatologist and the University of Delaware. State of the Climate: New Jersey 2021 is an annual overview for state and local decision-makers, hazard planning …