The Rutgers Master Gardeners of Somerset County, a volunteer organization of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, are busy getting ready to open the Helpline office in Bridgewater on March 2… The Rutgers Master Gardener Helpline volunteers…
Archives for February 2015
Experts: Climate Change May Make Northeast Winter Storms Worse
Snow has been no friend to the Northeast this winter, and as another storm is ready to pummel the Northeast this weekend, climate change experts offer an explanation of why record-breaking amounts of precipitation may become a norm for the region. “Simple physical laws will tell you that a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture,” Dr. David Robinson, a state climatologist at Rutgers University, says. “So it’s related to warmer temperatures and more abundant moisture available in the atmosphere, but you still need an impetus. You still need a storm.” This weekend’s winter weather and the last few weeks’ rash of storms is that exact impetus.
Winter Wallop: Why the Next Week is Going to be the Worst
If you’re still making plans for the upcoming holiday weekend, you may want to keep them indoors. New Jersey will be stuck in a revolving door of dangerous cold and snow over the next week, with record cold, wind chills below negative 20 and disruptive wintry weather all possible… In fact, the likely snow on Saturday may help exacerbate the cold. Fresh snowpack can absorb lingering moisture in the air quickly following a storm, allowing heat to more readily radiate out into the atmosphere, according to David Robinson, the state climatologist at Rutgers University. “If the winds are calm and you have that fresh snowpack, that’s when you can see the temperature drop 5 or 10 degrees as the sun sets,” he said.
Give Mother Nature a Valentine’s Day Present This Year
You can give Mother Nature a valentine this year and show how much you care about birds in your neighborhood by simply counting them for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC… This year’s 18th annual count is taking place Friday, Feb. 13, through Monday, Feb. 16… The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual event that engages people of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are… In Middlesex County, The Rutgers Master Gardeners invite you to take part in their free “Great Backyard Bird Count” on Saturday at Davidson’s Mill Pond Park, located at 42 Riva Ave. in South Brunswick. Rain date Sunday.
Bringing Local Foods into Schools: A Food Innovation Center Partnership
School lunch quality has been getting a lot of attention on the web lately. Whether it’s images of tantalizing school lunches from around the world juxtaposed with a bland U.S. school lunch, or students’ snapshots of globs of unidentifiable food on school lunch trays, people are taking notice. The Rutgers Food Innovation Center is working […]
Opinion: Do our Urban Water Systems Have What it Takes to Handle Rapid Growth?
What if urban redevelopment is successful? There are major implications for water and sewer systems if our cities bounce back and thrive… Daniel J. Van Abs is currently associate research professor for Water, Society and Environment at the Rutge…
Cold Air Invasion Coming: What’s the Role of Warming?
Temperatures are set to drop to levels that are low even for the middle of winter across the eastern U.S. starting Thursday and again over the weekend as Arctic air makes repeated surges southward. Temperatures Sunday morning could be below freezing as far south as Florida… Rutgers University sea ice researcher Jennifer Francis was one of the first to suggest a link between the steady decline of Arctic sea ice caused by warming and the extreme twists and turns that the jet stream- the fast-moving river of air miles up in the atmosphere- can take northward and southward… “We’re learning that there are different mechanisms at play in different regions and seasons,” Francis said.
Dyes Act as Probes to Aid Food Quality
Food dyes can give cakes, candy and sodas brilliant colors of the rainbow. Now, a team of food scientists at Rutgers University in New Jersey has found that food coloring may be able to play more than its traditional esthetic role in food presentation… The Rutgers researchers wondered if the edible colors already added to many food products could act as fluorescent probes… “Fluorescent probes have been used in many applications, but the idea of using food colors for this purpose is new,” said Sarah Waxman, an undergraduate student who is working on a research project to study the fluorescent properties of food dyes in the lab of Rutgers food scientist Richard Ludescher.
EPA Considering Hackensack River for Cleanup Plan
In an acknowledgment that the Hackensack River remains seriously polluted with a century of industrial waste, the federal government will consider adding the river to the federal Superfund list, a program reserved for the country’s most contaminated sites… In addition, research conducted by Rutgers’ Judith Weiss over the past decade has showed that the mercury and PCBs in the Hackensack’s sediment are still so high that crabs and bluefish exhibit extremely odd behavior, making it hard for them to catch prey… “Are there environmental impairments in the Hackensack? I believe there are,” said Beth Ravit, the Rutgers University professor in charge of the study on the use of oysters to clean up the river.
Climate May Have Fluke on the Move
Like every other living organism, fish just want to be comfortable. That’s why, in the face of warming ocean water, they may be on the move. Dr. Malin Pinsky of Rutgers University, who studies the effects of climate change in fisheries, said many species are shifting to the north at a time when the climate has been warming… “We’re seeing a climate fingerprint in many of these shifts in species distribution,” Dr. Pinsky said… Dr. Pinsky and Rutgers have just begun a joint research project with Stony Brook University, George Mason University and the University of North Carolina to understand whether a changing climate played a role in the shift and what the economic and regulatory impacts will be.