The Urban Coast Institute (UCI) has extended the deadline to March 27 for Monmouth students and faculty to apply for funding through its Heidi Lynn Sculthorpe Summer Research Grant program. Funding is available to support projects proposed by students of all disciplines with a faculty mentor or by faculty members with students conducting research under their supervision.

Grants are provided for research in natural and social sciences, art and humanities, economics, and public policy involving faculty and students from any school or department at Monmouth University. Past grants have supported projects ranging from the creation of a website dedicated to eco-friendly local businesses to the design of a disaster search and rescue training video game.

Proposals should address issues that advance the UCI’s mission and goals. The UCI seeks to fund research projects on topics including but not limited to:

• Assessing  and communicating coastal community vulnerability and risk
• The social and economic impact of climate change on communities
• The “blue” coastal and ocean economy
• Coastal and ocean ecosystem protection, restoration and management
• Enhancing community resilience and  adaptation planning in the face of sea level rise and coastal storms
• Furthering U.N. sustainability goals at the international, national and local levels
• Coastal community engagement and capacity building to address climate change
• Enhancing consideration for social justice and equity considerations in a changing climate
• Coastal and ocean law and policy
• Marine and environmental  arts and humanities

Funding is available for students at University research student rates for up to 10 weeks of work, capped at $2,860 per student. A stipend of $800 is available for faculty mentors.

Students must provide a final report or product summarizing their research at the end of the 10^th week. Science Students should apply for summer research support through the School of Science Summer Research Program.

Details about the Heidi Lynn Sculthorpe grants are available online  (must have My MU Portal login privileges). Additional questions may be directed to UCI Associate Director Tom Herrington at (732) 263-5588 or therring@monmouth.edu.

UCI Associate Director Thomas Herrington will serve on a national team of researchers focused on understanding climate change’s current and future influence on residential migration from America’s coastal communities.

The “People on the Move in a Changing Climate” project will build a Regional Coordination Network (RCN) led by representatives of 12 Sea Grant offices and Sea Grant-affiliated research institutions from the East Coast, West Coast, Gulf Region and Alaska. Herrington serves as the coastal community resilience specialist for the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium. The three-year project is being managed by the University of Georgia and supported with a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The RCN will leverage Sea Grant’s relationships with local communities to facilitate collaboration among scientists, practitioners, resource managers and stakeholders to study climate-induced human mobility (including displacement, migration and planned relocation), its socioeconomic consequences, and its role in building resilience. It will also provide the scientific infrastructure required to conduct regionally tailored educational and engagement strategies.

According to the project abstract, sea level rise could force millions of U.S. residents from their homes by 2100, but researchers have paid relatively little attention to the impact of climate-induced human mobility on the receiving communities. And few coastal communities appear to be preparing for the projected influxes of people from sudden disaster-induced relocations and, more slowly, in response to the progressive impacts of sea level rise.

Herrington said that while climate-induced human mobility has been the subject of some research in places suffering from sea level rise and increased flooding, such as Bangladesh, or climate-driven changes in crop yields in Central America, less attention has been paid on its ramifications for America. He said the signs are already apparent in parts of the country.

“We’re starting to see it happen in Alaska,” Herrington said. “The first tipping point has been the villages along the coast, where sea level is rising, the permafrost is melting rapidly and people’s homes are sinking.”

The RCN will host a series of workshops throughout the country to develop research questions around the subjects of climate mobility and coastal resilience. The first workshop for the Northeast region is expected to be held at Monmouth University in the fall and gather experts from Maine to North Carolina.

Due to the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic, this event has been canceled.

First Annual Climate Governance Roundtable

Sponsored by the Rechnitz Family/Urban Coast Institute Endowed Chair in Marine and Environmental Law and Policy

April 16, 4-6 p.m.

Monmouth University | The Great Hall Versailles and Pompeii Rooms

This free roundtable session will explore the scientific and economic dimensions of the public health threats from climate change, review existing public and private governance responses to these threats, and consider potential future threats and responses. The event is free and open to the public. Click the button above to register.

Speakers

• Dr. George DiFerdinando, Rutgers University School of Public Health
• Professor Michael Burger, Columbia University Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
• Dr. Rebecca Boehm, Union of Concerned Scientists Food & Environment Program
• Professor Josh Galperin, University of Pittsburgh School of Law

Moderator

• Randall S. Abate, Monmouth University Rechnitz Family/Urban Coast Institute Endowed Chair in Marine and Environmental Law and Policy

Questions may be directed to Randall Abate at rabate@monmouth.edu.

Support for the event is being provided by Monmouth University’s Health and Wellness Institute and Urban Coast Institute.

Due to the cancellation of classes and activities on campus this week, this event has been canceled. We hope to reschedule this event at a later time.

Members of the public can register now for the free panel event “Accountability for Climate Change Harms in New Jersey: Scientific, Legal and Policy Perspectives,” to be held on March 10 at Monmouth University. The event is being organized by the Climate Integrity Project, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute.

This event is intended to educate the state’s legal and policy communities and the public on local climate impacts and associated costs now facing communities and taxpayers, and to initiate a dialogue on the growing trend of climate damages litigation in the U.S. Panelists will discuss the extent of climate harms in New Jersey as well as the scientific basis for holding the fossil fuel industry accountable for them. Panelists will also offer legal and community perspectives on damages litigation as a means to shift some of the burden from taxpayers to polluters.

Panel members will include Bob Kopp, director of the Rutgers University Institute of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences; Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science with the Union of Concerned Scientists Climate & Energy Program; Jonathan Abady, a partner with Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP; and Toms River Township Councilwoman Laurie Huryk. The discussion will be moderated by Monmouth University Rechnitz Family/Urban Coast Institute Endowed Chair in Marine and Environmental Law and Policy Randall Abate. Opening remarks will be delivered by New Jersey State Sen. Vin Gopal and Zach McCue, deputy state director for U.S. Sen. Cory Booker. The names of additional speakers will soon follow.

The event will take place from 3:30-5:15 p.m. at the Great Hall Auditorium. A free reception will follow.  For more information, contact Aliya Satku at asatku@monmouth.edu or (732) 263-5662.

The Urban Coast Institute welcomed Nicole LeBoeuf, acting assistant administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Ocean Service, to Monmouth University on Jan. 30 to talk with students about the NOS’ work and careers in the agency.

The mission of the NOS is to provide science-based solutions through collaborative partnerships to address evolving economic, environmental and social pressures on our oceans and coasts. It observes, measures, assesses, and manages the nation’s coastal, ocean, and Great Lakes areas; provides critical navigation products and services; and conducts response and restoration activities to protect vital coastal resources.

Guest lecturing to School of Science Assistant Dean John Tiedemann’s coastal zone management (CZM) class, LeBoeuf described her work guiding the strategic vision of the 1,800-member agency.

“We’re small, but we’re scrappy, and we’re doing lots of amazing things,” she said.

LeBouef praised the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 for bringing much-needed consistency to how the states deal with their shorelines and waters. The goal of the act, which is administered by NOAA, is to preserve, protect, develop, and where possible, restore or enhance the resources of the nation’s coastal zone. Currently, 34 states have Coastal Zone Management Programs in place – every state along the shore or Great Lakes but Alaska.

The vast diversity of America’s coastlines presents one of the greatest challenges for NOS’ work, she said. Flipping between PowerPoint photos of a rural bluff overlooking the sea and a densely developed waterfront city, LeBouef noted, “This is every bit as much a coastal zone arena.”

LeBouef outlined the critical economic importance of coastal zones in the U.S. About 40 percent of Americans live in coastal counties, and beach tourism and recreation adds over $100 billion to the nation’s GDP annually, she said. U.S. commercial ports alone are responsible for 13 million jobs.

“I would challenge you to find anything in this room that didn’t come through a port,” she said. “So it is very important that our ports are taken care of.”

With a broad network of monitoring stations, ocean buoys, satellite communications, autonomous gliders and other scientific equipment at its disposal, the NOS provides data, tools, and services that help protect the ports and coastal economies and prepare them for future challenges, she said. To learn more about the NOS, visit https://oceanservice.noaa.gov.

Due to developments with the Coronavirus/COVID-19, this event has been cancelled.

Registrations and abstract submissions are now being accepted for the Atlantic Estuarine Research Society (AERS) Spring Meeting, to be held March 26-28 at Monmouth University. With a theme of “Estuarine Science in a Changing Climate,” the event will feature expert presentations, networking opportunities, a poster session, field trips and a concurrent Margaret A. Davidson Coastal Careers Workshop on March 26.

AERS brings together students, scientists, managers, and educators from the states of Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington, D.C., to discuss estuarine and coastal environmental issues and policies. The group’s mission is to a foster broader interest in our environment by increasing public awareness of current issues.

Among the planned field trips are a walking and birding tour of Sandy Hook, a Cheesequake State Park and Matawan Creek shark attack tour, and a ride aboard Monmouth University’s research vessel Heidi Lynn Sculthorpe in the Sandy Hook Bay area. Keynote speakers include Rutgers University Climate Institute Co-Director Anthony Broccoli, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary Senior Science Director Danielle Kreeger, and Monmouth University Marine and Environmental Biology and Policy Program Director John Tiedemann. Participants may submit abstracts until Feb. 18 for oral presentations or poster presentations.

Students are eligible for discounted registration costs and early bird rates are available through Feb. 22. Registration will also include an opening night social and a day two continental breakfast, lunch and evening banquet.

Separate registration is required for the career workshop, which will feature a morning of talks on career options, employment prospects, successful pathways toward local opportunities and opportunities around the nation, as well as inspirational testimonies from coastal professionals. The afternoon will offer a series of smaller group discussions about various skills needed to succeed, such as leadership, networking, mentors, publishing, resumes, and more. Students and young professionals in the coastal and environmental field are encouraged to attend.

Questions may be directed to Jason Adolf at jadolf@monmouth.edu.

Due to the cancellation of classes and activities on campus, this event has been canceled. We hope to reschedule this event at a later time.

The Urban Coast Institute (UCI) will welcome one of the nation’s leading scholars at the intersection of animal and environmental law to Monmouth University on March 25 to deliver the guest lecture “Fish Suffering, Climate Change, and the Public Trust Doctrine.” Pace University Professor David Cassuto’s lecture, the latest installment in the UCI’s Marine Science and Policy Series, will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in Bey Hall’s Turrell Boardroom (201).

The talk is free and students and members of the public are welcome. Pizza and light refreshments will be served.

The following is an abstract for the talk: Fish are sentient — they feel pain and suffer. Yet, while we see increasing interest in protecting birds and mammals in agriculture, precious little attention has been paid to the suffering of fish in the fishing industry. This talk will explore fisheries management practices, the effects of anthropogenic climate change on those practices, the moral implications of fish sentience, and the role of the Public Trust Doctrine in enacting meaningful protections for aquatic animals.

Cassuto recently wrote more on this topic in the Canadian Journal of Comparative and Contemporary Law.

Cassuto is a professor of law and member of the Global Center for Environmental Legal Studies at Pace University’s Elisabeth Haub School of Law, where he also directs the Brazil-American Institute for Law & Environment (BAILE). He is also the Class of 1946 Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies at Williams College, a Fulbright Fellow, a visiting professor at law schools in both Brazil and Spain, and the Senior Counsel for International Affairs for the Animal Legal Defense Fund. He has written extensively on the interweaving of environmental and animal law, as well as the larger legal issues raised by industrial agriculture and the human/animal relationship. He holds a J.D. from the University of California,   Berkeley, a Ph.D. from Indiana University, and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. Prior to entering legal academia, he was a Professor of English and founder of the Literature & Environment program at the University of Missouri-Rolla.

For more information on the lecture, please contact Randall Abate, Rechnitz Family/Urban Coast Institute Endowed Chair in Marine and Environmental Law and Policy, at rabate@monmouth.edu.

Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. held a press conference at Monmouth University’s Thomas Edison A. Edison Science Hall on Jan. 17 to discuss the framework of the CLEAN Future Act, a federal proposal to achieve a 100 percent clean economy by 2050. Pallone was joined at the podium by New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Catherine McCabe, and several other public officials and environmental advocates.

Monmouth University President Patrick Leahy and Urban Coast Institute Director Tony MacDonald delivered introductory remarks.

“I saw a t-shirt the other day that said, ‘The greatest threat of global climate change is thinking that somebody else will do something about it,’” Leahy said. “That really struck me, and I’m really pleased to have everyone who is assembled here this morning, tackling this important issue not just for our country but for our planet.”

The CLEAN Future Act outlines a sector-by-sector plan for America to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions in 30 years. Among its components, the draft legislation calls for electricity suppliers to increase their supplies of clean energy beginning in 2020 and reach 100% green levels by 2050.

Pallone is the chair of the House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee, which announced the legislative framework last week.

“I need to thank [Congressman Pallone] on behalf of the ocean because people are increasingly recognizing the climate-ocean nexus,” MacDonald said. “This is a real issue. Twenty-five percent of carbon that is emitted goes into the ocean. Ninety percent of the excess heat that comes from greenhouse gases goes into the ocean, and we can’t handle much more of it.”

Visit the links below for multimedia and news coverage of the event and the CLEAN Future Act.

• Full press conference video
• Album of photos from the event
• News story on NJ.com

Take a state-by-state tour of active federal offshore wind energy leases from New York through Virginia in this story map on the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal. The “Ocean Stories” feature provides a primer on the areas where wind farms could be operational in the coming decade and how the Portal is helping inform decisions on where they can be constructed while posing the least amount of conflict with other ocean users, wildlife and ecosystems. The feature was developed by UCI Communications Director Karl Vilacoba, who serves as the Portal’s communications lead and project manager, and Avalon Bristow of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO).

Vilacoba also recently moderated this webinar with U.S. Coast Guard personnel demonstrating how the Portal was used to design new anchorage areas proposed for the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay areas. He and UCI Director Tony MacDonald will be among the speakers in a Feb. 27 Mid-Atlantic Committee on the Ocean webinar dedicated to recent developments in regional ocean planning.

A poster co-led by Monmouth University students Erin Conlon and Skyler Post earned the top prize for work presented by undergraduates at the 10^th U.S. Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) Symposium, held in November in Orange Beach, Alabama. The poster highlighted the students’ ongoing research on low-oxygen conditions and toxic organisms in Branchport Creek, a Shrewsbury River tributary located in Oceanport and Long Branch, New Jersey.

Post and Conlon attended the symposium with fellow Monmouth University Phytoplankton and Harmful Algal Bloom Lab (PHAB Lab) student researchers Maria Riley and Ariel Zavala, and Endowed Associate Professor of Marine Science Jason Adolf. All four students presented at the poster session and Post (seen in photo at the conference), who represented the Branchport Creek project, won Best Undergraduate Poster for her presentation of the work at the meeting. The trip and research was supported with grants through the UCI Scholars Program.

According to Adolf, the symposium’s focus has shifted over the years from a near total focus on saltwater environments to a now 50/50 split between saltwater and freshwater HABs.

“In 2014 in the U.S., more than 400,000 people living around Lake Erie had toxic water coming out of their tap as a result of a harmful algal bloom,” Adolf said. “The fact that many drinking water plants were not built to remove algal toxins speaks to the recent emergence of the problem.”

New Jersey recently experienced what may be remembered as a summer of HABs, with blooms causing use restrictions and closures in the summer tourist destinations of Lake Hopatcong and Greenwood Lake, and the Manasquan Reservoir, a drinking water source for several Jersey Shore towns. This year the PHAB Lab has focused on monitoring water quality issues in Monmouth County coastal lakes, surfing beaches and local river systems and estuaries.

“Last year over the summer we were researching Sandy Hook Bay, the Navesink River and the Shrewsbury River, and every time we went out there was a hot spot of chlorophyll in Branchport Creek,” said Conlon (seen in photo sampling the creek). “We didn’t really have any stations set up there and we wanted to look at that more.”

What they found were phytoplankton biomass levels 10 to 100 times higher than anywhere else in the system. Adolf also said that they observed phytoplankton stratified in a “super-concentrated layer” at the top of the water, while the layer below was had little or no plankton or oxygen at all.

Warning signs were posted around the creek over a decade ago when it was determined that stormwater runoff from the Monmouth Park horse racing track had caused high fecal coliform levels. The problem was later addressed as part of a settlement between the Department of Environmental Protection and the track’s former operators.

“Even though there are signs up saying things like ‘Polluted: Don’t Touch,’ we saw people there who were fishing and crabbing in that water. They definitely should not be,” Post said. “You can almost always count on seeing dead fish or fish hopping out of the water there.”

Adolf said the students’ work could offer new insight on fish kills that have occurred in the creek in recent years. A decade ago, the UCI and School of Science conducted real-time monitoring of water conditions in the creek to study the impact of low-oxygen conditions on menhaden kills. The PHAB Lab work is focused both on water conditions and the microscopic plankton and bacteria living in the water. Organisms they found are known to make toxins that can irritate or kill wildlife.

“What [Conlon and Post] did was elucidate the fact that there’s also a toxic dinoflagellate bloom – a massive bloom, with very high levels of biomass in that creek at the same time,” Adolf said. “It fills out the story of the fish kills in the creek.”