Thank you for Attending
SCERP Annual Symposium
Friday April 1, 2011, 7pm in Chancellors Hall at Stony Brook Southampton
239 Montauk Hwy Southampton, NY

Video of the symposium is available here:

 

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmJAB2jFCII

 

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6EyoLemxNY

 

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd4fATS-mqM

What is the Stony Brook - Southampton Coastal and Estuarine Research Program (SCERP)?

Founded in 2003 as a partnership between Christopher Gobler and the Tamarind Foundation, the goal of SCERP is to conduct research which will assist in protecting and restoring Long Island coastal ecosystems. Research is aimed toward ultimately minimizing the impacts of anthropogenic stressors such as climate change, harmful algal bloom, runoff, and pathogens on coastal resources and human health and maximizing the distribution of fisheries and foundational species in estuaries such as filter feeding bivalves, eelgrass, and salt marshes. A secondary goal of SCERP is to forge solutions to environmental problems by sharing research results with municipal agencies, non-government organizations, and the public. SCERP became part of Stony Brook University's School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences in 2006.

Since 2003, marine science students and professors have conducted dozens of research projects on Long Island. Each spring, SCERP hosts its annual Environmental Symposium, which is a series of presentations of the most recent findings of SCERP and represents an opportunity for policy makers, non-government organizations, and the public to learn about recent research and new directions for SCERP. In addition to support from the Tamarind Foundation, additional support for SCERP projects have come from New York Sea Grant, New York State Department of Environmental Conversation, the Nature Conservancy, Suffolk County, and the Town and Village of Southampton.

Outreach by, and outcomes of, the Stony Brook - Southampton Coastal and Estuarine Research Program (SCERP)

Since a major objective of SCERP is to conduct research which will improve the health of, and services provided by, coastal ecosystems, SCERP has formed a series of partnerships with government and non-government organizations including:

Politicians: Senator Charles Schumer, Representatives Israel and Bishop.

Governing bodies: NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, Suffolk County Department of Health, Southampton Town, East Hampton Town, Brookhaven Town, Southampton Village, Peconic Estuary Program, South Shore Estuary Reserve.

Non-government organizations: The Nature Conservancy, Peconic Bay Keeper, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Northport Water Quality Improvement Committee, Cornell Cooperative Extension, East Hampton Shellfish Hatchery, Atlantis Marine World, Riverhead Foundation, Lake Agawam Conservation Association, Eastern Long Island Coastal Conservation Alliance, Save the Forge, Mill Pond and Little Fresh Pond citizen groups, and citizens.

These partnerships have lead to policy changes including drafting of a Fisheries Disaster Declaration for Great South Bay with Senator Charles Schumers office, the placement of multiple estuaries on New York State's impaired water bodies list, to closure of water bodies unsafe for human use, and the development of management strategies to improve coastal water quality. Finally, research conducted by SCERP has been published in many of the world's top, international, peer-reviewed journals (see publications page)

Current Research Focus Areas

-Harmful Algal Blooms: Causes and controls
-Effects of ocean acidification on coastal ocean organisms
-Eutrophic coastal ecosystems: Problems and solutions
-Promoting robust and successful bivalve shellfish populations
-Eelgrass beds: Distribution, biodiversity, and controls on growth
-Wetlands and marshes: Their role retaining or transporting land-derived materials
-Impacts of power plants on coastal ecosystems

Recent SCERP Publications

Gobler CJ. and 32 co-authors. 2011. Niche of harmful alga Aureococcus anophagefferens revealed through ecogenomics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Tang YZ, Gobler CJ., 2011.Allelopathic effects of the green macroalgae, Ulva lactuca, on seven common harmful algal bloom species. In press, Harmful Algae

Wall, C.C., Peterson, B.J., Gobler, C.J., 2011. The growth of estuarine resources (Zostera marina, Mercenaria mercenaria, Crassostrea virginica, Argopecten irradians, Cyprinodon variegatus) in response to nutrient loading and enhanced suspension feeding by adult shellfish. In press to Estuaries and Coasts

Tang YZ, Koch, F., Gobler CJ., 2010. Most harmful algal bloom species are vitamin B1 and B12 auxotrophs.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 107: 20756–20761

Talmage SC, Gobler CJ. 2010. Effects of past, present, and future ocean carbon dioxide concentrations on the growth and survival of larval shellfish.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 107: 17246-17251

Jiang X, Lonsdale DJ, Gobler CJ. 2010.  Density-dependent nutritional value of the dinoflagellate Cochlodinium polykrikoides to the copepod Acartia tonsa. Limnology and Oceanography 55: 1643–1652
Tang YZ, and Gobler CJ. 2010. Allelopathic effects of Cochlodinium polykrikoides isolates and blooms from the estuaries of Long Island, New York, USA on co-occurring phytoplankton. Marine Ecology Progress Series 406:19-31

Hattenrath TK, Anderson DA, Gobler CJ. 2010.  The influence of nutrients and climate on the dynamics and toxicity of Alexandrium fundyense blooms in a New York (USA) estuary. Harmful Algae 9: 402–412

Tang YZ, and Gobler CJ. 2009. Cochlodinium polykrikoides blooms and clonal isolates from the northwest Atlantic coast cause rapid mortality in larvae of multiple shellfish species.  Marine Biology 156: 2601-2611

Jiang X, Tang YZ, Lonsdale DJ, Gobler CJ. 2009.  Deleterious consequences of a red tide dinoflagellate Cochlodinium polykrikoides Margalef for the calanoid copepod Acartia tonsa Dana.  Marine Ecology Progress Series 390: 105–116

Talmage SC, Gobler CJ. 2009. The effects of elevated carbon dioxide concentrations on the metamorphosis, size, and survival of larval hard clams (Mercenaria mercenaria), bay scallops(Argopecten irradians),andEastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica). Limnology and Oceanography 54: 2072–2080

Davis, T.W., Berry, D.L., Boyer, G.L. Gobler, C.J., 2009. The effects of temperature and nutrients on the growth and dynamics of toxic and non-toxic strains of Microcystis during cyanobacteria blooms. Harmful Algae 8: 715–725

Koch, F., Gobler CJ., 2009. The effects of tidal export from salt marsh ditches on estuarine water quality and plankton communities, Estuaries and Coasts 32: 261-275

Tang YZ, Gobler CJ.  2009. Characterization of the toxicity of Cochlodinium polykrikoides isolates from Northeast US estuaries to finfish and shellfish. Harmful Algae 8:454-462

Carroll JC, Gobler CJ, Peterson BP. 2008 Resource limitation of eelgrass in New York estuaries: Light limitation and nutrient stress alleviation by hard clams.  Marine Ecology Progress Series 369:39-50

Wall, C.C., Peterson, B.J., Gobler, C.J., 2008. The facilitation of seagrass (Zostera marina) productivity by suspension-feeding bivalves. Marine Ecology Progress Series 357: 165–174

Gobler CJ, Berry, D.L., O.R. Anderson, Burson, A., Koch, F., Rodgers, B.S., Moore L.K., Goleski J.A., Allam, B., Bowser, P., Tang, Y., Nuzzi, R. 2008. Characterization, dynamics, and ecological impacts of harmful Cochlodinium polykrikoides blooms on eastern Long Island, NY, USA. Harmful Algae 7: 293–307

Weiss, M.B., Curran, P.B., Peterson, B.J., Gobler, C.J., 2007. The influence of plankton composition and water quality on hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria L.) populations across Long Island’s south shore lagoon estuaries. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 345:12–25

Gobler, C.J., Davis, T.W., Coyne K.J., Boyer, G.L. 2007. Interactive influences of nutrient loading, zooplankton grazing and microcystin synthetase gene expression on cyanobacterial bloom dynamics in a eutrophic New York lake. Harmful Algae 6: 119–133