Senior Robert Becker is only the 5th athlete in the history of the IC4A Championships to win the mile race three different times. Photo from Stony Brook Athletics
The Stony Brook University men’s track and field team finished day two of the IC4A Championships in ninth-place overall out of 42 teams on Sunday at Boston University.
Senior Robert Becker added another IC4A title to his collection as he became only the 5th athlete in the history of the IC4A Championships (101 years) to win the mile race three different times.
In 2020, Becker earned his first IC4A title with a final time of 4:02.45. Last season, the graduate student crossed the finish line at 4:01.67. At the championship race today, Becker earned his triple title after finishing at 4:02.18.
Also in the mile race was senior Aiden Smyth. Smyth finished right-behind Becker in third-place, as he crossed the finish line at 4:04.30.
Stony Brook had another student-athlete who created history for the program. Senior Shane Henderson became the first athlete to get under the 8:00 minute barrier in the 3000m, as the Connecticut native crossed the finish line at 7:59.30, giving himself the new program record.
Becker earned a first-place finish in the mile with his final time of 4:02.18, securing his third career IC4A win. The fastest pace Becker ran at was at the end of the race, as he tallied 29.19 and 27.52 to finish at 4:02.18.
Smyth avenged his 4:09.12 finish that earned him ninth-place overall last season at the IC4A Championships with the time of 4:04.30.
Senior Colin Ross earned a 19th-place finish in the 3000 meter by finishing at 8:18.92.
“We are really happy with how everyone competed today. It was a great performance by Becker and Henderson in their last indoor meet as Seawolves. Extremely proud of the way our guys performed,” said head coach Andy Ronan.
India Pagan greets fans after a game in Marburg, Germany. Photo by Stefan Tschersich
India Pagan. Photo by Stefan Tschersich
India Pagan. Photo by Stefan Tschersich
India Pagan. Photo by Stefan Tschersich
India Pagan. Photo by Stefan Tschersich
India Pagan. Photo by Stefan Tschersich
By Daniel Dunaief
Learning a new basketball system was challenging: learning German was even harder.
For India Pagan, who speaks English and Spanish, communicating with her coach and fans in her first experience in professional basketball after graduating with a Master’s from Stony Brook University proved difficult.
Early in the season, playing for BC Pharmaserv in Marburg, Germany, head coach Patrick Unger spoke to her in English, but he’s “translating it in his head in German,” Pagan said. Sometimes, she took what he said the wrong way.
When Unger said something, Pagan recalled that she “took it in a personal way, which make me get in my head,” she said.
After speaking with Unger, she cleared the air, which helped her understand more of what he wanted.
Pagan lived and worked a continent away from her family in New London, Connecticut, who had been regular visitors and supporters during her college playing days as a member of the Seawolves.
Moises Pagan, India’s father, was grateful for the opportunity to connect with his daughter electronically. “Thank God for FaceTime,” he said. “That helped.”
Off the court, Pagan adjusted to life in a different culture while living in an apartment with three teammates. She and her teammates had some of the typical issues that affect college students who move in with strangers when they first start living life apart from their families.
Some of her teammates were more attentive to cleaning their dishes or buying necessities.
One of Pagan’s biggest frustrations was that she likes to sleep late. Some of her teammates would knock on doors and ask for something in the morning.
“One thing I learned is that when I get another roommate, I’m really going to set boundaries” so that she can get the rest she feels she needs, Pagan said.
In addition, Pagan, whose parents grew up in Puerto Rico and who has a strong cultural and national identity tied to the island territory, found it difficult to purchase the kind of foods she knows she enjoys eating.
Pagan’s parents Moises and Carmen sent their daughter a care package filled with spices and packaged foods. The only problem: it took 28 days to arrive. The parcel “sat in Frankfurt for eight days,” Moises Pagan said. He called the post office in the United States, and representatives said they also saw that the package wasn’t moving, but that there was “nothing they could do.” When the food items finally arrived, India brought a teammate who spoke German with her, to translate.
Amid local and global health concerns, Pagan said the team had its share of illnesses. In her first week in Germany, she was sick. “You have to be kidding me,” she recalled thinking. “I’m sick already and we weren’t even playing games.”
Pagan got the first week off. After that, she said, players on her team passed along a few colds, which weren’t Covid but were still unpleasant.
On the court
While Pagan had an opportunity to play and continue to develop her game, the team didn’t make the playoffs and was heading into the final few weeks of the season with a losing record. “We know we’re a good team,” Pagan said. “The majority of games, we lost by a couple of points. We never found our rhythm this season.”
Pagan went from helping lead the Stony Brook women’s basketball team through successful seasons to debuting on a professional team that struggled to put wins together. “Basketball will always be fun, but losing so many games by five points got really frustrating and obviously isn’t for anyone,” she said.
In addition to receiving ongoing and positive support from her parents, India Pagan also remained in touch with Ashley Langford, who coached Pagan during her final year at Stony Brook.
“It’s always great hearing from [Coach Langford],” said Pagan. Langford reminded Pagan that she’s a great player, that she should attack and play her game, and should believe in herself. “Small phrases like that” really helped, Pagan said.
Langford said she tries to remind all first-year professional players that there’s a learning curve and that there will be moments they don’t enjoy. “What I tried to tell India, too, is that it’ll get better and stick with it,” she said.
Langford also highlighted how the officiating is different. Players might get called for travels more or less often in one league. She urged Pagan to dominate, which, the coach said, would make it difficult to take her out of the lineup.
“You’ve got to make him play you,” Langford urged.
Personal growth
Pagan felt she grew as a basketball player and as a person. She described the German style of play as “quicker and more physical.”
When a shot went up, her coach wanted everyone to go for a rebound, rather than sending one or two guards back to protect against a fast break on the other end.
“In some respects, I am a better basketball player,” she explained. “I learned some new moves and learned a lot about my game.”
During the season, Pagan and two of her teammates couldn’t go home for Christmas. They visited with their head coach and his family, which included three children. “I was thankful for the family I got to spend time with over here,” Pagan said. She also visited bigger cities, which were over an hour and a half from where she lived, as often as she could.
When she returns home, Pagan is looking forward to visiting with family, eating crab legs and taking a trip to Dunkin’ Donuts.
She has not decided where she’ll play next year and is exploring various options, including joining a Puerto Rican league.
The Stony Brook men’s lacrosse team (2-2) secured its second consecutive victory within three days as it defeated Sacred Heart (0-4), 15-12, at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium on Feb. 26. The Seawolves also defeated Air Force, 15-8, on the Island on Feb. 24.
Not only did graduate attacker Jonathan Huber record the first goal of the contest to give Stony Brook a 1-0 lead, but he also added two more goals throughout the game, tallying his 100th career goal with his second make. Huber found the back of the cage off an assist from graduate midfielder Matt Anderson to give the Seawolves a 12-7 lead with 2:36 left to play in the third quarter.
Senior attacker Dylan Pallonetti added four more goals to his stellar weekend. The Stony Brook native also registered a career-high tying six goals against Air Force on Friday. Senior attacker Blake Behlen and junior midfielder Noah Armitage followed behind Pallonetti, recording three goals and two goals, respectively.
The Seawolves jumped ahead early, recording the first goal of the contest. However, the Pioneers would answer back with two more. Sacred Heart took a hold of the lead, 2-1, courtesy of back-to-back goals from Carson Spooner and Jake Garb. Stony Brook would fall behind two more times in the first quarter and two more times the squad battled its way back.
The Seawolves took sole possession of the lead, 4-3, with 2:16 remaining in the first quarter when Armitage found the back of the cage off a helper from senior attacker Will Button. Stony Brook would not look back as it would control the lead for the remainder of the game and ultimately take the 15-12 victory.
“It’s pretty exhilarating and I am happy to do it as a Seawolf as well,” said graduate attacker Jonathan Huber on scoring his 100th career goal. “We are all playing to our strengths and playing well together and getting into a flow on offense,” said Huber.
“Men’s lacrosse is a very physical game, and we have a lot of guys banged up and when you play a quick turnaround game like this it is just about finding a way. I think we made enough plays there in the first half, specifically, to guide us through here. We knew it was going to be tough and I think these guys have to continue to have the mindset of this is what it is going to be like at the end of the year; we have to play good lacrosse,” said head coach Anthony Gilardi.
#8 Alyssa Costella scored a three-run home run during last Sunday's game. Photo from Stony Brook Athletics
The Stony Brook softball team (4-4, 0-0 CAA) slugged its way past the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils, 8-3, on Feb. 26 in the final day of the Battle at the Bay in Norfolk, VA.
The Seawolves hit two home runs, for a combined five runs, to roll past the Blue Devils. Senior catcher Corinne Badger started the scoring for Stony Brook by slugging her second home run of the weekend. In the top of the first inning, Badger blasted a two-run shot, which drove home junior shortstop Kyra McFarland to make it 2-0.
Stony Brook poured onto its lead in the top of the third inning. Junior center fielder Alicia Orosco led off the inning with bunt single. McFarland followed with a four-pitch walk and the Seawolves had runners on first and second base with no outs. Sophomore left fielder Alyssa Costello stepped up to the plate and smashed a three-run home run to right center to extend the lead to 5-0.
The Seawolves continued their success offensively in the top of the fourth. Senior right fielder Shauna Nuss led off the inning with a walk and Orosco dropped down a sacrifice bunt to move Nuss into scoring position. Then, McFarland came up and singled through the right side, driving in Nuss to extend the Seawolves’ lead to 6-0.
Central Connecticut State scored three-straight runs to cut the Stony Brook lead to three runs, but the Seawolves would tack on insurance in the top of the seventh. Costello scored on a wild pitch and senior third baseman Brooke Dye drew a walk to drive in Badger. Stony Brook led 8-3, and the score would hold. The Seawolves went 2-1 in the Battle at the Bay.
“I’m proud of our team for our effort today … We played well in all facets of our game and competed. It’s a good team win as we continue our progress,” said head coach Megan T. Bryant.
Nature plays a slow game, drawn out over millions of years, of hide and seek. First, spectacular and elaborate creatures lived hunted, reproduced, and avoided predators millions of years ago. After they died in places like Dorset in the United Kingdom, their bodies became preserved in the muddy, shallow marine environment. The sediment was then covered over by rock layers and safely preserved.
Eric Wilberg in Coyote Buttes, Utah in 2018
Fast forward about 185 million years, after waves crashing upon the shore erode those rocks on a beach and expose those fossils.
Indeed, in 2017, in a UNESCO World Heritage site where scientists and fossil hunters and paleontologists like 19th century star Mary Anning made key discoveries, archeology enthusiasts Paul Turner and Lizzie Hingley found the head, backbone and limbs of a creature scientists had imagined, but hadn’t, until then, discovered.
Called a thalattosuchian, which is an ancient sister of modern day crocodile ancestors, this finding extended the timeline of when these coastal marine crocodiles lived.
In late 2019, Dr. Roger Benson, who was then at the University of Oxford, reached out to Pedro Godoy, a postdoctoral researcher at Stony Brook who Benson co-supervised during his PhD, and Eric Wilberg, Assistant Professor at the Department of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University. The team, which included Alan Turner, Professor in the Department of Anatomical Sciences at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook, planned to describe and characterize the fossil.
Benson said he had never met Wilberg before but had “read his work on croc evolution and really admired his systematic approach.”
This ancient crocodilian creature, which was about six feet long and was likely either a sub adult or an adult, is the first “thalattosuchian fossil complete enough to definitively identify as a member of the group of rocks older than about 180 million years ago,” Wilberg explained.
Wilberg, Godoy (who is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sao Paolo), Turner and Benson (who is currently Macaulay Curator of Dinosaur Paleobiology at the American Museum of Natural History), recently published their study on this fossil in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Godoy said that Wilberg is “an expert in this group of animals and it was great working with him on this.” Godoy added that this was an “important finding, which helps us fill a gap in the evolution of thalattosuchians.”
Benson suggested that this fossil provides a glimpse into the origin of thalattosuchians, indicating that the group originated before this fossil. The particular organism is the first discovered in a new species gathered by the two fossil hunters (see related story on right).
The Thalattosuchian group lived until the Early Cretaceous period, about 130 million years ago. These predators likely fed on fish or cephalopods like ancient octopi or squid.
Recently, another team of scientists discovered a thalattosuchian skull in Morocco, which is about five to 10 million years older than the Turnersuchus Wilberg described.
The discoveries “support our prediction that thalattosuchians evolved millions of years earlier —probably in the late Triassic” around 200 million or more years ago, Wilberg added. His analysis determined that the thalattosuchian lineage diverged from its last common ancestor with crocodile-relatives during the Triassic period.
Wilberg and other researchers will be on the lookout for additional specimens which can add details to the understanding of this species. This specimen was missing most of the front of the skull, all of the hindlimb and pelvis and most of the tail.
Specific features
By examining the spinal column and part of the forelimb, Wilberg explained that this species did not have forelimbs that evolved into flippers, like later descendants in the group. It would have been similar in overall body form to living crocodiles, which means that it likely had similar swimming capabilities.
The specimen included a couple of partial teeth. Like all living crocodiles, it likely continually replaced its teeth throughout its life. Its bite force would have been less than a similar sized modern crocodile. The modern crocodylian skull evolved structural reinforcements to allow it to withstand the massive bite forces it generated.
Thalattosuchians skulls were “not as well reinforced, so they were probably not able to bite as hard,” Wilberg wrote. It seems likely that the “muscles that generate fast bites were large in this group, so they may have evolved for fast bites to capture small-moving prey.”
The Turnersuchus probably lived close to the coast in relatively shallow water. Like living crocodiles, it also likely spent time out of the water to bask in the sun (it was also cold blooded) and lay eggs. The climate of the region when this species lived would have been warmer than the current climate of the United Kingdom.
This creature was likely not an apex predator, with larger hunters like ichthyosaurs, pleiosaurs and probably sharks likely preying on it.
“We don’t have any direct evidence of predation from these groups on thalattosuchians, but it probably happened,” Wilberg added.
This particular fossil, like many other discoveries, has numerous unknowns. The gender of the individual (which scientists often determine by comparing body sizes) is unclear.
This particular find will “continue to be important moving forward in determining how thalattosuchians are related to other fossil crocodiles — every new species discovered is a chance to test existing hypotheses of how they are related to one another” which is important in determining how evolution occurred in the group, Wilberg explained.
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The fossil hunters who lent their names to an ancient crocodile
By Daniel Dunaief
The beaches along the southern shore of the United Kingdom have rich and ancient stories to share.
Lizzie Hingley and Paul Turner. Photo from Lizzie Hingley
Lizzie Hingley and Paul Turner — friends who met on the beach and started working together in 2016 — are eager to gather clues about the past. Fossil hunters at the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Charmouth in the United Kingdom, which is about a three-hour drive southwest from London, Hingley and Turner discovered fragments of an unusual fossil starting in 2017. “Initially, we just saw random bones,” explained Hingley, who finds, prepares and sells some of the fossils on her website. Some fragments appeared to be a jaw in the clay next to an initial stone block containing multiple bones.
Hingley, who lives a ten minute walk from a beach that is also referred to as the Jurassic Coast, said that it’s “very unusual to come across anything with lots of bones in it on the beaches.” She took the find to her workshop, where she used an air abrasive and pneumatic chisel. She noticed it was semi-articulated, which means the bones were arranged in something resembling a natural order.
It took about one and a half years for Hingley and Turner to collect all the pieces of this fossil. Turner found the first main block, Hingley discovered the jaw next to it, Turner uncovered the next two and she found the last piece.
“It was quite difficult to collect as it was coming out of a huge glacial landscape,” said Hingley.It likely fell out of the cliff 50 years earlier and had been traveling to the front of the slip over the years. “This meant that, although we did try to dig for it, the best way to recover it was to wait for nature to uncover it for us,” she added.
Lizzie Hingley holding the ichthyosaur jaw she found when she was eight. Photo by Craig Chivers
Hingley and Turner visited daily to make sure they didn’t miss any pieces. The Charmouth Heritage Centre staff found a few loose vertebrae and reunited them with the rest of the fossil.
Hingley, who is one of about 15 people who regularly search parts of the seven miles of beaches almost daily, wanted to do more than collect this fossil — she wanted to know its history. Through her network, she found Roger Benson, who was a Professor of Paleobiology at the University of Oxford.
“It was great to work with him and see the scans being done,” she said. “He was instrumental” in bringing together a team of researchers who could analyze the finding and put it into historical context.
Indeed, Benson reached out to several researchers at Stony Brook University, including his former postdoctoral researcher Pedro Godoy, Assistant Professor Eric Wilberg and Professor Alan Turner (see related story on left) to gather information.
Close-up of ichthyosaur jaw. Photo by Lizzie Hingley
Their work concluded that this was a new species of marine crocodile. The ancient crocodile relative was named Turnersuchus hingleyae, after the fossil hunters who discovered it.
“It’s wonderful to have my name go down in history,” said Hingley, who also has a gastropod named after her.
Hingley, who is 35, started looking for fossils when she was six in Dorset, first on family holidays and then at every opportunity she could get. Over the years, she has found ichthyosaur skulls, ammonites measuring half a meter across, shark skin and teeth and numerous blocks containing hundreds of ammonites. When she was eight, she found a 20 centimeter ichthyosaur jaw, which is still part of her own collection.
Hingley is thrilled with her job, in which “every day is different and you never know what you are going to find or be working on,” she wrote. “I get to spend a lot of time in nature on the beach; the tide changes the beach every day, too.”
Benson described the beaches where Hingley and Turner search for new fossils as a European “pilgrimage for paleontologists.”
Hingley added that the process of erosion, which reveals fossils hidden in the cliffs along the beach, is something of a double edged sword, revealing fossils and threatening to carry them away.
A storm can decimate a beach and destroy fossils when the tide is too high to collect examples of creatures that lived as many as 185 million years ago. At the same time, erosion along the coast, caused by some of these same storms, reveals new fossils.
Walking along the beach, Hingley explained that it is almost incomprehensible to imagine the time scale separating her from the creatures who died so long ago.
The environment on the Jurassic Coast didn’t change much over those millennia.
“It is odd to think that you are collecting from the sea bed when it’s coming out of the cliff many meters above you,” she wrote. “The distance and time that these fossils have travelled to be found is incredible.”
James Lattimer, distinguished professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences at Stony Brook University, has been selected as a 2023 Fellow of the American Astronomical Society (AAS).
AAS Fellows are recognized for their contributions to the Society and its overarching mission – advancing the science that informs humanity’s understanding of the universe. For his part, Professor Lattimer has made formative discoveries about the structure and evolution of neutron stars.
Professor Lattimer has collaborated with other scientists to develop pioneering simulations of proto-neutron stars and their neutrino emissions, and he also helped enable the use of high-performance numerical simulations by creating the first open-source equation-of-state code and tables suitable for their application.
Professor Lattimer is the first Stony Brook faculty member selected as an AAS fellow since the inaugural class of 2019. He is also a fellow of the J.S. Guggenheim Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the American Physical Society (APS).
“I am delighted that Jim has been recognized by the recently established AAS fellowship program,”said Chang Kee Jung, PhD, Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.“Jim is an internationally renowned nuclear astrophysicist and has already received the prestigious Hans Bethe Prize given by the APS for truly outstanding work in the areas of astrophysics, nuclear physics, nuclear astrophysics, or closely related fields.”
Free event to highlight kid compositions and musical surprises
By Melissa Arnold
Music has a way of moving us both physically and emotionally. Regardless of culture, language or age, the right song can make just about anyone smile.
For more than 20 years, the Stony Brook University Symphony Orchestra, an all-student ensemble featuring undergraduate and graduate music majors as well as qualified non-music majors, has put on a special Family Orchestra Concert, aiming to instill an excitement for music in children while bringing generations together. The free event returns to the Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University on Tuesday, Feb. 28.
Featured soloist violinist Elvina Liu will perform the opening movement of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4.
Conductor Susan Deaver works hard each year to dream up a fun and creative theme for the performance. Some are obvious — recent concerts have focused on contrasts or weather, to name a few — but others are more subtle.
This year’s theme, “Musical Surprises,” will challenge the audience to listen for something unexpected in each piece.
“Everybody likes surprises, right?” joked Deaver, who’s been with the university since 2000. “There are a few ways we’ve included surprises in this show. For example, we have two [portions] from Sir Edward Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations,’ which offer surprising changes in mood and tempo. There’s also ‘Thunder and Lightning’ [by Johann Strauss II], which reflects the surprise of being caught in a sudden thunderstorm.”
The concert includes both recognizable and lesser-known pieces, but the majority are short to provide as much variety as possible. And the program is just an hour long, helping to keep the littlest concertgoers happy while getting everyone home at a decent time. It is a school night, after all.
A surprising new addition to the program this year are mini-melodies composed by young orchestra students in the community.
Elementary school musicians from the Hauppauge Public School District have attended the concert for the past several years as a nighttime field trip. Interest in the concert continues to grow, and this year, Deaver approached music teacher Timerie Gatto with an exciting idea.
“There are three elementary schools in Hauppauge, and each one has an orchestra. We started with each child bringing one parent to the concert, so that they could all see what a future in music can look like if they work at it. Now we are also involving younger siblings,” Gatto said.
“Susan Deaver is fantastic, she interacts with the audience and does whatever she can to help the kids develop a greater appreciation for music. This year, she asked if my students would make up melodies for the orchestra to play!”
With the help of classroom iPads, students were able to compose, hear and perform their own one-line melodies.
“It’s been an impressive experience for me, watching them develop their own titles and musical ideas. Some kids even put groups of notes into chords and developed more complex syncopated rhythms,” Gatto said.
The orchestra is comprised of about 75 university students from diverse backgrounds and fields of study. Among them is 20-year-old Elvina Liu, a senior music major from Auckland, New Zealand. Liu is also the orchestra’s concertmistress — a lead violinist who serves as liaison between the orchestra and conductor.
Liu will perform a solo from Mozart’s “Concerto No. 4 in D Major,” which she said can be surprising in its own way.
“I think classical works, such as this Mozart concerto, are commonly perceived as pieces that don’t allow for a lot of freedom in interpretation. A lot of teachers and musicians believe that there are certain elements that have one “correct” way of being played, which is a pretty outdated way of tackling these pieces in my opinion,” Liu explained. “I do make a great effort to respect Mozart’s writing and stylistic ideas, though I admit that I enjoy testing the limits and boundaries when I play. Sometimes I surprise myself in the moment as well!”
Liu and Gatto agreed that music provides children opportunities for development, self-expression and community in a way little else can.
“Music is one of those things where it doesn’t matter how bright, strong or fast you are. It’s accessible to all kinds of people regardless of their ability, and it offers the chance to connect with others in a nonverbal way,” Gatto said.
Stony Brook University’s Staller Center for the Arts, 100 Nicolls Road, Stony Brook will host the annual Stony Brook Family Orchestra Concert on the Main Stage on Tuesday, Feb. 28from 7:30 to 8:30p.m. Admission is free and tickets are not required. Children of all ages are welcome. For more information, call 631-632-7330 or visit at www.stonybrook.edu/music.
When they can’t stand the heat, bay scallops can’t get out of the proverbial kitchen.
A key commercial shellfish with landings data putting them in the top five fisheries in New York, particularly in the Peconic Bay, bay scallops populations have declined precipitously during a combination of warmer waters and low oxygen.
In a study published in the journal Global Change Biology, Christopher Gobler, Stony Brook University Endowed Chair of Coastal Ecology and Conservation and Stephen Tomasetti, a former Stony Brook graduate student, along with several other researchers, showed through lab and field experiments as well as remote sensing and long-term monitoring data analysis how these environmental changes threaten the survival of bay scallops.
Stephen Tomasetti. Photo by Nancy L. Ford/ Hamilton College
Bay scallops are “quite sensitive to different stressors in the environment,” said Tomasetti, who completed his PhD last spring and is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. Of the regional shellfish, bay scallops are the most sensitive to environmental stress.
Indeed, since 2019, bay scallops have declined by between 95 and 99 percent amid overall warming temperatures and extended heat waves. These declines have led to the declaration of a federal fishery disaster in the Empire State.
Tomasetti used satellite data to characterize daily summer temperatures from 2003 to 2020, which showed significant warming across most of the bay scallop range from New York to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He monitored four sites with sensors in the water in addition to satellite data during a field deployment with scallops.
At the warmest site, which was in Flanders Bay, New York, the temperature was above the 90th percentile of its long term average during an eight-day period that overlapped with the scallop deployment. The bay scallops in Flanders Bay were “all dead by the end of the heat wave event,” Tomasetti said.
At the same time, low levels of oxygen hurt the bay scallops which, like numerous other shellfish, feed on phytoplankton. Oxygen levels are declining in some of these bays as nitrogen from fertilizers and septic systems enter these waterways. High nitrogen levels encourage the growth of algae. When the algae die, they decay, which uses up oxygen and releases carbon dioxide into the water.
Field and lab studies
In the field, Tomasetti measured the heartbeat of bay scallops in East Harbor, Massachusetts by putting optical infrared sensors on them that took heartbeat readings every 15 minutes for a month.
Stephen Tomasetti conducts field work in East Harbor during the summer of 2020.
When the average daily temperature increased, their average heart rate climbed, which the scientists used as a proxy for their respiration rate. A higher respiration rate meant that the scallop was expending energy more rapidly, potentially leading to reductions of energy reserves.
Additionally, Tomasetti measured how quickly the scallops fed on algae in the lab under warm temperatures and low oxygen.These conditions caused the scallops to stop feeding or to feed slowly. Tomasetti interpreted this as a sign that they were waiting out the stress.
In the lab, bay scallops in the same conditions as the bays from Long Island to Massachusetts had the same reactions.
While a collection of fish and invertebrates feed on bay scallops, the effect of their die off on the food web wasn’t likely severe.
“I think there are other prey items that are likely redundant with scallops that cushion the impact,” Gobler explained in an email.
Solutions
Stephen Tomasetti with his wife Kate Rubenstein in East Harbor during the summer of 2020.
As for solutions, global warming, while an important effort for countries across the planet, requires coordination, cooperation and compliance to reduce greenhouse gases and lower the world’s carbon footprint.
On a more local and immediate scale, people on Long Island can help with the health of the local ecosystem and the shellfish population by reducing and controlling the chemicals that run off into local waters.
Waste management practices that limit nutrients are “super helpful,” Tomasetti said. “Supporting restoration (like the clam sanctuaries across Long Island that are increasing the filtration capacities of bays) is good.”
Gobler is encouraged by county, state and federal official responses to problems such as the decline in bay scallops, including the declaration of a federal disaster.
Long Island experience
A graduate student at Stony Brook for five years, Tomasetti was pleasantly surprised with the environment.
He had lived in New York City, where he taught high school biology for five years, before starting his PhD.
His perception was that Long Island was “a giant suburb” of New York. That perspective changed when he moved to Riverhead and enjoyed the pine forest, among other natural resources.
He and his wife Kate Rubenstein, whom he met while teaching, enjoyed sitting in their backyard and watching wild turkeys walking through their property, while deer grazed on their plant life.
Initially interested in literature at the University of Central Florida, Tomasetti took a biology course that was a prerequisite for another class he wanted to take. After completing these two biology classes, he changed his college and career plans.
Teaching high school brought him into contact with researchers, where he saw science in action and decided to contribute to the field.
At Hamilton College, Tomasetti has started teaching and is putting together his research plan, which will likely involve examining trends in water quality and temperature. He will move to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, MD this fall, where he will be an assistant professor in coastal environmental science.
As for his work with bay scallops and other shellfish on Long Island, Tomasetti looked at the dynamics of coastal systems and impacts of extreme events on economically important shellfish in the area.
Tomasetti is not just a scientist; he is also a consumer of shellfish.His favorite is sea scallops, which he eats a host of ways, although he’s particularly fond of the pan seared option.
Scene from last Sunday's game. Photo from Stony Brook Athletics
The Stony Brook women’s basketball team (16-9, 10-4 CAA) dominated the UNCW Seahawks (4-21, 1-13 CAA), 64-46, in Wilmington, NC on Feb. 19.
The Seawolves were led by three student-athletes who scored in double digits. Senior guard Gigi Gonzalez led the way with 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the floor and 4-of-6 shooting from three-point range.
Sophomore forward Sherese Pittman dropped 18 points and tied a team-high with nine rebounds on the afternoon. Pittman shot 6-of-15 from the field and 6-of-8 from the free-throw line.
Graduate guard Annastasia Warren added 11 points and four rebounds. She shot an efficient 4-of-8 from the field in the win.
It took Stony Brook a little more than a quarter to find its groove. UNCW held a 14-11 lead after the first frame, but the Seawolves exploded for a 21-point second quarter as a team.
With about 8:30 remaining in the first half, Gonzalez drove down the right side of the lane and dished off to Pittman, who fought through contact and finished a tough layup to give Stony Brook a 15-14 lead.
The Seawolves began to control the remainder of the game, after outscoring UNCW, 21-8, in the second frame. The squad led 32-22 at the break.
Stony Brook came out strong to start the second half, going on a 11-0 run. About 1:30 into the third quarter, graduate guard Daishai Almond dumped off a no-look bounce pass to Pittman who finished the layup. The play gave the Seawolves a 14-point lead.
After trailing going into the second quarter, the Seawolves dominated for the remainder of the game and picked up their third-straight win and a season sweep of the Seahawks.
“Proud of our team for closing out the weekend with another win. I thought we executed defensively and rebounded the ball well. Wins are hard in February and especially on the road. Glad to be going home 2-0,” said head coach Ashley Langford.
The team will return to Island Federal Arena to take on the Hampton Pirates on Friday, Feb. 24. Tip-off is set for 6:31 p.m. and the game will be broadcast
The team celebrated their first win of the season last Friday. Photo from Stony Brook Athletics
For the first time since the 2015 season, the Stony Brook women’s lacrosse team opened its season at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium on Feb. 17 and rolled past the Michigan Wolverines, 17-10.
Michigan got off to an early lead, scoring the first goal of the game within the first two minutes of the contest. However, that would not last long as Stony Brook’s offense picked up right where they left off last season.
Junior midfielder Jaden Hampel fueled the Seawolves offense, tallying a career-high five goals to lead all players in the contest. Hampel’s first two goals came back-to-back early in the first quarter. The junior finished the first one off an assist from senior midfielder Charlotte Verhulst to tie the Wolverines, 1-1. Within less than two minutes, Hampel found the back of the cage again to give Stony Brook a 2-1 lead.
The Seawolves would not look back as the squad would go on to score nine of the 11 goals to end the first half. Junior midfielder Ellie Masera recorded her first hattrick of the season, scoring three of her four goals in the second quarter alone.
Midway through the third quarter, Stony Brook captured back-to-back goals in one minute by Hampel, a man-up goal byssenior attacker Morgan Mitchell and a goal by Masera, all one after another, gave the Seawolves a 15-4 lead, its largest lead of the match.
With 11:27 remaining in the game, Michigan’s Josie Gooch found the goal which would spark four more Wolverine goals in the fourth. However, goals from Mo. Mitchell and sophomore midfielder Alexandra Fusco would secure the lead for the Seawolves and ultimately the 17-10 victory.
“I am definitely proud of our athletes, I thought we came out against a top-20 team and had a great effort,” said head coach Joe Spallina. “I thought the first half was super-efficient. I think coming into your first game you always worry about doing too many first game things, especially with the other team having already played a couple of games, but our athletes stepped up and played really well. I thought we were efficient; goals were spread around, and I think that is a little different then where we have been in the past where we just have so many different weapons. Defensively, early on especially, we were locked down and we were in running time for most of the second half against a top-20 team, so we have a lot to build on for us.”
The team returns to Kenneth P. LaValle stadium on Feb. 25 to take on Yale. First draw is scheduled for 12 p.m. and the game will be broadcast live on FloSports.
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