Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences' Endowed Chair of Coastal Ecology and Conservation and SUNY Distinguished Professor Christopher Gobler will present, “The State of the Bays, 2025: Keep Calm and Carry On.” This annual lecture highlights the health of Long Island’s bays and water quality, including sharing Professor Gobler and his team’s research on harmful algae blooms (HABs) and seeking possible solutions to improve ground and surface waters.
Professor Gobler will discuss the state of Long Island’s waters including that the sole-source aquifer serves as the area's drinking water supply and is the primary source of freshwater, nitrogen, and other contaminants to coastal ecosystems. Other areas to be covered include:
- Recent trends in the quality of both groundwater and surface waters on Long Island have been concerning. Emerging contaminants such as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) 1,4-dioxane have contaminated some drinking water supplies.
- Since the late 20th century, nitrogen levels in groundwater have risen by more than 60%. Results include that critical marine habitats on Long Island including eelgrass and salt marshes have declined by up to 90%, landings of Long Island’s top shellfisheries have declined more than 90%, and HABs have become annual occurrences.
- In 2024, freshwater and marine HABs were widespread across Long Island with cyanobacteria HABs occurring in more than two dozen lakes and ponds. The overgrowth of algae can increase oxygen demand, and 2024 saw a record-breaking, 36 individual low oxygen, dead zones across Long Island that had levels of oxygen below state standards.
- 2024 provided clear evidence that climate change has arrived. It was the warmest year ever recorded on Earth with ocean temperature, also reaching all-time highs.
- 2024 also saw a recording-setting precipitation event in August on Long Island that destroyed dams and closed shellfish beds. While Vibrio vulnificus, the ‘flesh-eating bacteria,’ was responsible for several deaths and illnesses on Long Island in 2023, in 2024, it also grew to high levels with growth promoted by domestic wastewater.
- Given that continued climate change will intensify heat waves, hypoxia, HABs, and mass precipitation events, action is needed to mitigate these problems.
- In good news, Long Island has become a hub for novel solutions to mitigate water quality impairment and climate change. ‘In the water’ remediation approaches involving seaweeds and bivalves have locally ameliorated nitrogen loads, algal blooms and ocean acidification, and recent shellfish restoration efforts have led to estuarine ecosystem recovery.
Professor Gobler will also address how the New York State Clean Water Technology Center at Stony Brook University has identified cost-effective technologies that dramatically reduce the delivery of nitrogen and other contaminants from individual homes to coastal water bodies. Implementation of such technologies coupled with ‘in the water’ solutions will be required to restore water quality and fisheries.
The “State of the Bays, 2025: Keep Calm and Carry On” seminar will take place at Stony Brook Southampton’s Chancellor's Hall. A student poster display will open the evening at 7 p.m. to be followed by Professor Gobler’s talk at 7:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.
About Stony Brook Southampton
Stony Brook Southampton, on Long Island’s East End, is home to the Avram Theater and Avram Family Art Gallery, the Lichtenstein Center (MFA programs, Foodlab, and Southampton Writers Conference), School of Health Professions (graduate programs), and the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (Marine Sciences Center and the Semester by the Sea program).
About Stony Brook University
Stony Brook University is New York’s flagship university and No. 1 public university. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. With more than 26,000 students, more than 3,000 faculty members, more than 220,000 alumni, a premier academic healthcare system and 18 NCAA Division I athletic programs, Stony Brook is a research-intensive distinguished center of innovation dedicated to addressing the world’s biggest challenges. The university embraces its mission to provide comprehensive undergraduate, graduate and professional education of the highest quality, and is ranked as the #58 overall university and #26 among public universities in the nation by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges listing. Fostering a commitment to academic research and intellectual endeavors, Stony Brook’s membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU) places it among the top 71 research institutions in North America. The university’s distinguished faculty have earned esteemed awards such as the Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Indianapolis Prize for animal conservation, Abel Prize, Fields Medal and the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics. Stony Brook has the responsibility of co-managing Brookhaven National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy — one of only eight universities with a role in running a national laboratory. In 2023, Stony Brook was named the anchor institution for The New York Climate Exchange on Governors Island in New York City. Providing economic growth for neighboring communities and the wider geographic region, the university totals an impressive $8.93 billion in increased economic output on Long Island. Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/stonybrooku/ and X@stonybrooku.