VIRTUAL TOUR @ SBU-SH >>> Students, faculty, and state and local officials gathered late last month at the Southampton Campus of Stony Brook University to celebrate the opening of the new Marine Sciences Center, which can be explored virtually via this three-minute-plus YouTube clip: youtu.be/xIv7KWwDRgM The new 15,000-square-foot, two-story building - which features classrooms, teaching labs, conference rooms, an outdoor wet lab and a computerized 2,500-square-foot indoor seawater lab - is part of an effort to expand the waterfront marine sciences facilities at the Southampton campus. It overlooks Old Fort Pond, a small body of water that opens up into the Shinnecock Bay. The facility will be used for courses that explore the natural flora, fauna and habitats of the East End, as well as to conduct research on climate change, nutrient pollution, and harmful algal blooms, which are especially relevant today due to the rust tide that is plaguing Peconic Bay waters. Rust tide is a algal bloom that can be lethal to marine life, particularly shellfish. It is caused by human waste, fertilizers and other pollutants, and can kill fish within just a few hours of blooming. This summer marks the tenth year that the algae has been detected in Peconic Bay Waters. "Every student that gets their degree in marine science in New York will be coming here to take classes, using this facility and the boats that come along with it," said Dr. Christopher Gobler, lead researcher at the Gobler Laboratory at the Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. Students will use three research vessels – the Paumonok, Peconic and the Shinnecock – to access regional waters, harbors and the Atlantic Ocean. But the central feature of the new facility – the indoor seawater lab –will allow students to study marine life in virtually every ecosystem. "[The seawater lab] allows us to investigate any organism in a marine environment, and in any season," said Gobler. The seawater lab, which pulls water from the Shinnecock Bay, is able to adjust the temperature and salinity of water to mimic any marine ecosystem on the planet.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 13:18:50 +0000
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