Northward range expansion in spring-staging barnacle geese is a response to climate change and population growth, mediated by individual experience

By Gaitlyn Malone, SRC Masters Student As climate change continues to rapidly alter environments, it is important to investigate how these changes impact the species that utilize these areas. When faced with these alterations, organisms will often have to adjust their behaviors in order to increase their survival. Animals that migrate long distances in order […]

The Negative Effects to Prevalent Plastic Pollution

By Delaney Reynolds, SRC intern Plastic pollution has become one of the largest adverse impacts on marine life to date. In the last 70 years, plastic debris has become so prominent in layers of sedimentary deposits that it can be used as a primary indicator for the Anthropocene, a human-induced geological epoch (Puskic, et al. […]

Endangered Atlantic Sturgeon in the New York Wind Energy Area: implications of future development in an offshore wind energy site

By Enzo Newhard, SRC intern The environmental benefits of renewable energy sources have been well established as the “pro green” discourse emphasizes the importance of eliminating our input of greenhouse gasses into the environment. The negative impact renewable energy development may have on the environment, however, has not been as thoroughly discussed. Burning fossil fuels […]

Migrating eastern North Pacific gray whale call and blow rates estimated from acoustic recordings, infrared camera video, and visual sightings

By Bella Horstmann, SRC intern Previously almost hunted to extinction, the North Pacific gray whale population currently inhabits the waters off the coast of California. Distinguished by their extremely long and predictable migration patterns, these animals have been observed very close to shore, making them a model species for studying population dynamics and animal abundance […]

Securing Sustainable Somali Fisheries

By Peter Aronson, SRC intern Lots of people know about the issue of piracy in Somali waters in recent years, with mass coverage from American media and even Hollywood focusing on it with the 2013 movie Captain Phillips. However, many people don’t know that the loss of secure fisheries to illegal foreign vessels was the […]

The transfer of energy within a food chain: Why do large whales feed on small plankton?

By Meagan Ando, SRC intern The ten-percent rule toward energy transfer among levels of a trophic system is one that has been used to study ecosystems’ energy dynamics for a long time. But, in order to understand it, one must have a basic understanding of a food chain (Figure 1). Food chains describe the transfer […]