Suffolk Reporter

New York Sea Grant (NYSG) has allocated approximately $2.15 million to fund ten research projects, with five of these initiatives taking place at Stony Brook University. These projects aim to address key community, economic, and environmental goals across New York's coastal areas.

The two-year projects are administered by NYSG and funded through the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Sea Grant’s federal parent agency. They cover a range of topics designed to benefit residents in various coastal regions of New York.

One project focuses on "The Current and Future Impacts of Warming and Low Oxygen on the Sustainability of Shellfisheries Across New York." Led by Michael Doall and Christopher Gobler from the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS), this research aims to ensure the future viability of shellfisheries by analyzing temperature dynamics and dissolved oxygen levels in New York estuaries.

Another initiative is "Developing an End-to-End Ecosystem Model to Inform Management of the Hudson River and New York Bight Ecosystem," led by Yong Chen from SoMAS. This project seeks to understand ecosystem dynamics amid climate change by developing a model that couples physical and biological processes.

The third project, "Improving Risk Communication for Extreme Rainfall Events in Vulnerable Coastal Communities: A Case Study for Jamaica Bay," involves Donovan Finn, Kevin Reed, and Christine Gilbert from SoMAS. The team aims to enhance communication strategies regarding climate risks in Jamaica Bay, which has been affected by extreme weather events like Hurricane Sandy. “With our project we hope to uncover some of the communication barriers that exist between climate scientists and public officials on the one hand, and the messages that communities hear related to climate change induced risk on the other hand,” Finn said.

Kamazima Lwiza leads a fourth project titled "AI-Based Forecast Tool for Prediction of Hypoxia Occurrence in Long Island Sound." This initiative seeks to develop a machine learning tool for predicting hypoxic conditions in Long Island Sound. “We envision developing an attention-based convolutional neural network transformer to improve seasonal prediction of hypoxia occurrence in Long Island Sound with a 3-6 month forecast range,” Lwiza said.

The final Stony Brook project is "Characterization and Dynamics of Bay Scallop Marosporida (BSM), an Emergent Parasite of Argopecten irradians irradians," led by Emmanuelle Pales Espinosa and Bassem Allam from SoMAS. The research will focus on understanding parasite distribution among bay scallops. “This project is expected to generate information needed to understand factors affecting disease dynamics in the bay scallop in New York fisheries, and also evaluate the risk of disease outbreaks in other regional bay scallop fisheries,” Pales Espinosa said.

Additional projects supported by NYSG involve institutions such as Hofstra University, Cornell University, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. These efforts include developing educational curricula, creating eDNA-based tools for water body surveys, restoring native fish populations in Lake Ontario, examining LED light effects on crustacean fisheries, and studying invasive plant impacts on Great Lakes fish under changing conditions.

This funding cycle marks NYSG's largest support effort during any biennial research period. For further details, readers can refer to NYSG's complete press release.

New York Sea Grant operates as a cooperative program between Cornell University and the State University of New York under NOAA’s National Sea Grant College Program.