Rutgers-New Brunswick’s scientific diving class was created through a collaboration between the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and Rutgers Recreation. The class is taught by Rutgers Recreation’s scuba coordinator, Debbie Miller, and leads to certification as a recreational diver, a rescue diver, and – by the American Academy of Underwater Sciences – a scientific diver. Read the full article , which gives mention to our lab’s fieldwork on clownfish larval dispersal in the Philippines, to find out more!
Becca Selden teamed up with DataSpire’s Kristin Hunter-Thomson to develop an educational resource with Science Friday’s educational director Ariel Zych. The resource teaches 7-12th grade high school students to interpret the impacts of warming oceans on marine ecosystems. Lab members Katrina Catalano, and Lisa McManus provided valuable scientific review of the resource prior to its publication.
The ocean is changing. As it changes, the ecosystem and the species within the ocean are impacted, sometimes in surprising ways. This is a story about how some of those changes—in temperature, where fish populations live, and the fishing communities that rely upon them—could play out along the Atlantic Coast in the next century. It’s also a story about making predictions and using evidence from data. Here’s how it’s going to work:
Read a story from the docks of New England: What’s changing?
Meet a scientist and think like one: How do we collect data on the oceans?
Think like a fish: Use data to model changes in fish populations.
Make predictions: Use your model to make predictions and inform the community
Tim Spaanheden Dencker, a PhD Student out of the Technical University of Denmark’s National Institute of Aquatic Resources, just returned home to Denmark after more than three weeks visiting the Pinsky Lab! Tim had a chance to collaborate with members of the lab, and presented on his and others’ work at the National Institute of Aquatic Resources.
Our lab members went to several conferences in early 2018!
Lisa and Malin are at the 2018 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland, Oregon this week. They are both giving talks (Lisa: “Ecological implications of thermal stress and larval connectivity in the Coral Triangle”; Malin; “Climate, species distributions, and increasing species richness in North American marine communities”), and Malin is on a panel about engaging with decision-makers to navigate ocean change.
Portland, OR
Becca recently led a discussion, “Mechanisms and Outcomes of Predator-Prey Interactions: Scaling Across Space and Time”, at the Gordon Research Conference in Ventura, CA.
Gordon Research Conference, Ventura, CA
Emily attended the Andina workshop in Patagonia, in which the group discussed knowledge gaps and future directions in invasion biology and range expansion due to climate change.
View at Andina Workshop, Patagonia
Katrina attended the 150th annual American Society of Naturalists conference in January in Pacific Grove, CA, where she gave a talk: “Going with the flow: connectivity in a variable ocean”.
Members of the Pinsky Lab helped to organize a COMPASS Science Communication Workshop for Rutgers grad students, researchers, and faculty. Participants were introduced to the “Message Box”, an organizational tool for communicating science, and had the opportunity to practice delivering an elevator pitch on their current work. The trainers included Nancy Baron (COMPASS), Kendra Pierre-Louis (New York Times), Maddy Sofia (NPR), David Malakoff (Science), John Upton (Climate Central), and Rick Weiss (SciLine), We had a great time!
Jennifer, Malin, and Chris Chambers of NOAA Sandy Hook received funding from the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium for their project, “Quantifying the effects of a changing climate on summer flounder recruitment.”
Marine species that occupy a wide thermal gradient may be able to adapt to their local environmental conditions, and may be differentially resilient to climate change. This grant from the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium will allow us to assess how ocean warming may alter growth, development and survival of young summer flounder, an important fishery species along the east coast of the United States, under future climate scenarios. To do this, we will be quantifying the thermal performance curves of embryonic, larval, and juvenile summer flounder from parents that resided in different thermal conditions in the species range.
