Rutgers turfgrass was installed in early May at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia for the World Cup. Nick Romanenko/Rutgers University

While soccer fans watch their favorite teams compete at this summer’s World Cup, Rutgers University’s plant biologists will be looking under the players’ cleats—eyeing the lush, green natural turfgrass they created.

Ten of the tournament’s 16 soccer stadiums in the United States, Canada, and Mexico hosting the World Cup will feature cultivated varieties (cultivars) of cool-season natural turfgrasses bred by the university’s team of experts. Rutgers turfgrass is being used in locations from nearby Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field to Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca at an altitude of more than 7,000 feet, to Vancouver’s BC Place domed stadium.

“This is one of our flagship programs that’s world-renowned,’’ said Stacy Bonos, a professor of turfgrass breeding in the university’s plant biology department. “Rutgers grasses are recognized for having good turf quality and being the best overall in multiple different trials all over the country.’’

While Rutgers’ turfgrasses were also in play at this year’s Masters golf tournament— and have been used at Yankee Stadium and the White House, not to mention for countless lawns, parks, and non-professional athletic fields—the spotlight is now on soccer.

FIFA World Cup fields—properly called pitches in the world of soccer—must be able to withstand intense wear and tear from multiple grueling matches, ensuring balls dropped from 2.0 meters bounce up between 0.6 meter and 1.0 meter, and play uniformly across the various host cities’ climates and stadium conditions. 

James Murphy, an extension specialist in Rutgers’ plant biology department, oversaw the tolerance tests on the university’s turfgrasses that helped confirm their durability for World Cup games. Nick Romanenko/Rutgers University

Michigan State University and University of Tennessee led FIFA’s research into which turfgrasses would perform best at each of the World Cup stadiums. Their experts settled on Rutgers-bred cultivars as their top choice in most cases in consultation with each venue’s groundskeepers and the seed companies, according to Bonos. In addition to Philadelphia, Mexico City, and Vancouver, Rutgers cool-season turfgrasses will be used in Toronto, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

Turfgrasses bred for warmer temperatures do not fare as well in chillier temperatures, in the shade, or in low-light areas like under domes compared with their cool-season turfgrass counterparts. MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands (renamed New York New Jersey Stadium for the tournament) is using a warm-season Bermuda grass variety not bred at Rutgers when the World Cup is played at the New Jersey venue.

James Murphy, an extension specialist in Rutgers’ plant biology department, oversaw the tolerance tests on the university’s turfgrasses that helped confirm their durability for World Cup games. He will be watching the matches, but his focus will be on seeing how well the turfgrasses perform.

“I can’t help but watch what the field does. That’s in my nature. That’s what I do for a living,’’ said Murphy, whose expertise includes turfgrass management. “It’s very rewarding to watch after an event how well the fields hold up. And it’s great to see them recover, so that by the next time they’re played on, they’re in good playing shape.’’

Testing turfgrasses for resistance to stress and then breeding the toughest surviving varieties over successive generations is vital for a successful World Cup, where 104 matches will be played from June 11 to July 19 at 16 venues—with most pitches set to host six or seven games each.

Rutgers’ turfgrasses are tested by a wear machine that whacks the blades with rubber paddles, which are about 12 to 15 inches long, 1 inch wide, and a half-inch thick, and attached in a triangular format to a spinning axle.

“This is one of our flagship programs that’s world known,” said Stacy Bonos, pictured at Rutgers Turfgrass Research Farm in Freehold. Nick Romanenko/Rutgers University

“It spins around and paddles away at the turf and kind of wears and tears the grass,’’ explained Murphy, noting the testing is done at a 206-acre Rutgers research farm in Freehold and a far smaller on-campus farm in North Brunswick. “It does dent the surface a little bit, like the cleat on an athlete’s shoe.’’

To get the most wear-tolerant turfgrasses possible that succeed in testing, professor Bonos and other plant biologists intercross the plants hardiest to the stress, repeating the gene cycles over and over again.

“We sort of speed up natural selection in that way,’’ said Bonos.

Tuckahoe Turf Farms in Hammonton, roughly 70 miles south of Rutgers–New Brunswick, grows sod on 900 acres, including their registered trademark Game Day Sod. This turfgrass contains a mix of Blue Note, Bolt, and Legend Kentucky bluegrass varieties—all developed at Rutgers—that was put down at Gillette Stadum near Boston in late March and at Lincoln Field in Philadelphia in early May, said Allen Carter, CFO of Tuckahoe Turf Farms.

“We maintain it here on the farm just as if it was at a stadium. So as soon as we unroll that carpet, they can play on it,’’ said Carter, who also heads the New Jersey Farm Bureau. “Our rolls are four-feet wide and approximately 40-feet long and they weigh almost 2,000 pounds. So when we put them in, they’re not going anywhere.’’

Rutgers began its turfgrass breeding program in 1962 under C. Reed Funk (1928-2012), whose pioneering work included development decades ago of an earlier cool-season turfgrass that became the standard on European soccer fields.

Overall, Rutgers turfgrass varieties comprise between 35% to 40% of the world’s grass seed production, according to Bonos, with the university conducting research on 10 cool-season turfgrass species. These cultivated varieties include Bentgrass, which is used on golf greens because it can be mowed below 1/10th of an inch.

Rutgers turfgrass was installed in early May at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia for the World Cup. Nick Romanenko/Rutgers University

The university’s team works with about 25 seed companies worldwide, licensing the varieties, and recouping royalties from the commercial sales that help cover the program’s expenses and ongoing research.

Rutgers’ efforts through the decades have helped boost the sector’s economic growth, with the university’s most recent analysis determining the turfgrass industry contributed $4.9 billion to New Jersey’s economy and generated 59,159 jobs in 2019.

“Seeing Rutgers turfgrasses on the world stage is very rewarding because it validates the mission of the program that was initiated over 60 years ago and the research that we do each day, which is to develop the best quality turfgrasses that perform well under many stresses,’’ Bonos said.

Thes article first appeared in Rutgers Today.

Scientists are solving the mystery of how rats and mice are growing resistant to conventional pest control methods.

For years, pest control professionals throughout the Northeast have reported a troubling pattern. In some neighborhoods, rodents seemed increasingly more difficult to eliminate, even when standard control methods were used.

Now researchers at Rutgers University believe they may know one reason why.

A study found that 84% of house mice sampled from urban areas in the Northeast carried at least one genetic mutation linked to rodenticide resistance, suggesting many mouse populations may be evolving ways to survive the poisons commonly used to control them. The research was published in the international journal Pest Management Science.

“Pest management professionals often told us that rodent control was becoming more difficult in some areas, even though they applied the effective rodenticides,” said Jin-Jia Yu, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Entomology at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and the first author of the study. “I wanted to find out whether this was occurring in the northeastern United States, especially the metropolitan areas, and how widespread the problem might be.”

Yu works in the laboratory of Changlu Wang, an extension specialist in the Department of Entomology and one of the nation’s leading experts on the management of urban pests, including cockroaches, bed bugs and rodents.

Rutgers researchers Changlu Wang, right, and Jin-Jia Yu found that many urban rats and house mice in the Northeast carry genetic mutations associated with resistance to commonly used rodenticides. Credit: Wang Lab

The researchers analyzed DNA from 147 house mice and 143 Norway rats collected from urban areas in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. They focused on a gene called Vkorc1, where certain mutations have been associated with resistance to anticoagulant rodenticides, the most widely used rodent-control chemicals in the U.S.

The results were striking.

Among the house mice examined, 84% carried at least one mutation in the Vkorc1 gene, and nearly 70% carried mutations already known to help mice survive common rodenticides. About 35% of the Norway rats also carried mutations in the same gene.

“We found that resistance appears to be much more widespread in house mice than many people realized,” Yu said. “Norway rats also carried genetic mutations, but scientists do not yet know whether most of those mutations affect Norway rats’ susceptibility to rodenticides.”

The team also identified several genetic variants that had never before been reported in house mice or Norway rats. Scientists don’t yet know whether those newly discovered mutations contribute to rodenticide resistance.

The study emerged from several years of conversations between Rutgers researchers and pest-management professionals, many of whom reported persistent rodent problems despite repeated treatments.

The findings point to a long-running evolutionary contest between humans and one of their oldest urban adversaries. Anticoagulant rodenticides have been used for decades to suppress rat and mouse populations. Over time, rodents carrying mutations that help them survive exposure to those chemicals may gain an advantage, allowing resistance traits to spread through populations.

Researchers found that house mice appear to be adapting more rapidly than rats. One possible explanation involves behavior. Mice are naturally curious and more likely to investigate and consume unfamiliar food sources, including poison baits, Yu said. Rats, by contrast, tend to be cautious and suspicious of new objects.

“Rats are very clever,” Yu said. “They will approach the novel food many times before they really take the food or the bait.”

The findings have important implications for public health. Rodents, which contaminate food, damage buildings and infrastructure, can spread diseases and parasites. If commonly used rodenticides become less effective, communities may face greater challenges controlling infestations.

“This research provides some of the first information on rodenticide resistance in the northeastern United States,” Yu said. “By understanding how prevalent the mutations are and where resistance exists, pest management professionals and public health agencies can make better decisions about how to control rodents.”

Wang, a coauthor of the study, said the findings underscore the need for a broader approach to rodent management.

“Rodents are more than a nuisance,” Wang said. “As resistance becomes more common, it becomes even more important to use science-based management strategies that protect both public health and the environment.”

The scientists’ goal is to help communities manage rodent populations effectively while reducing environmental risks. “Studies like this help us understand how rodent populations are changing and how our management strategies need to evolve with them,” he added.

Rather than relying exclusively on chemical controls, researchers recommend combining multiple strategies, including sealing entry points, improving sanitation, modifying habitat and using traps when appropriate.

“Ultimately, we want to help communities maintain effective rodent control, reduce unnecessary pesticide use and protect public health,” Yu said.

Other Rutgers researchers who contributed to the study included: Alvaro Toledo, an assistant professor; Xiaodan Pang, a postdoctoral associate, and Babatunji Daramola, a graduate student, all in the Department of Entomology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

This article first appeared in Rutgers Today.

Image by ead72, licensed via Adobe Stock (Education License)

The world is losing plants, animals, and ecosystems at an alarming rate, with several causes of this biodiversity decline including habitat loss, climate change, and overexploitation. However, reversing these trends will likely require substantial amounts of funding. Experts estimate the gap between what’s currently being spent on biodiversity protection and what’s actually needed is at least $700 billion per year. One popular idea for closing that gap is to use market-based tools to mitigate damage to biodiversity, including new ideas like ‘biodiversity credits’ that provide funding from private entities directly to areas where biodiversity is being conserved. But do these tools actually work?

A new review published in the journal Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability takes a hard look at the evidence of how well market-based tools work to protect biodiversity.  Pamela McElwee, professor in the Department of Human Ecology and affiliate of the Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute, and author of the review, finds that the track record is mixed at best.

McElwee reviewed several past and current market-based conservation tools alongside reflections on the newest approach of biodiversity credits. Biodiversity credits are private investments that aim to produce positive biodiversity outcomes, such as corporations ‘buying’ a ‘credit’ (essentially providing funding with strings attached) for protection for endangered species or restoration of an ecosystem. These credits are gaining significant attention following the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which lent support for such privately-led efforts.

The review finds that most previous market-based tools have delivered only modest results and often fail to achieve their goal of stopping biodiversity loss.  Most importantly, communities — especially Indigenous peoples — are frequently left out of decision-making about financial and other programs that directly affect their livelihoods and their lands, where much of the world’s biodiversity resides.

“The lesson from decades of research is clear: the most successful conservation financing approaches aren’t just about getting prices right in markets — they’re about getting people’s participation right. Programs that involve local communities, respect their values, and provide fair compensation that fits with the community’s aspirations are far more likely to deliver real outcomes for nature and for people,” stated McElwee.

This review argues that policymakers should be cautious about rushing toward the newest market tool without learning from past failures. It calls for greater community involvement, stronger government regulation and standards for credits, and openness to non-market approaches — including direct public funding and unconditional payments to communities that steward natural areas. Given the increasing pressures on and impacts of biodiversity loss, developing effective conservation strategies will require a better understanding of how market-based interventions function and how they can be improved to produce positive outcomes for nature.

You can read the full study here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101557

This article was written with assistance from Artificial Intelligence, was reviewed and edited by Kenneth Tam, and was reviewed by Pamela McElwee, a co-author on the study.

Image by Alexmar, licensed via Adobe Stock (Education License)

To understand how Earth’s climate is changing, we first need to understand how it has changed before. One of the best tools for doing that sits at the bottom of the ocean — tiny, fossilized shells of microscopic, single celled creatures called foraminifera. A new study published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology takes a closer look at how reliably these shells can tell us about ancient ocean temperatures, specifically in the Indian Ocean.

Elisabeth Sikes, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and an affiliate of the Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute, is a co-author on the study alongside lead author Ryan Glaubke, a PhD student in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, and colleagues from the University of Maine and Old Dominion University.

When foraminifera are alive, the ratio of magnesium to calcium in their shells changes with water temperature. After they die and sink to the seafloor, those shells preserve a record in their shell chemistry of ocean conditions was like when they were alive — like a natural thermometer frozen in time. But the tool only works well if we know exactly how to read it, and that depends on having accurate “calibration” equations — essentially, conversion charts that translate shell chemistry into temperature.

The authors analyzed shells from 115 locations across the Indian Ocean to build and test these calibration equations for four species of foraminifera. Their key finding: for the two species studied, a simple linear relationship to temperature works best. More complex equations that also account for ocean acidity or salt content didn’t improve the results enough to justify their added complexity.

“More accurate calibrations based on empirical data mean better reconstructions of past ocean temperatures, and that’s directly useful for climate modeling. If we can more precisely portray how the Indian Ocean has warmed and cooled over thousands of years, we can better test and refine the climate models that inform today’s policy decisions.”, said Sikes

The Indian Ocean is a major driver of global weather patterns, including monsoons that affect billions of people. More accurate records of how that ocean has behaved in the past can sharpen our predictions about how it — and the climate system as a whole — may behave in the future.

You can read the full study here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2025.113190

This article was written with assistance from Artificial Intelligence, was reviewed and edited by Kenneth Tam, and was reviewed by Elisabeth Sikes, a co-author on the study.

From left: Shea Cinquemani, Emory Barrett and Esha Nauman.

Three Rutgers undergraduates achieved first-author status in peer-reviewed journals, transforming their marine science class projects into published research before graduation.

The work grew out of a course taught by Richard Lutz, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences within the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and a renowned oceanographer known for his research on hydrothermal vents. These sunless, deep-sea ecosystems, fueled by geochemical energy, offer insights into Earth’s origins and guide the search for extraterrestrial life.

In his “Hydrothermal Vents” course, Lutz assigns each student a scientific paper to expand into a comprehensive review. The exercise requires students to engage deeply with the research and think and write as scientists, synthesizing findings across the field.

“Normally, I spend four to five hours grading each paper, and there’s a lot of red ink,” said Lutz, who has taught the course for nearly three decades.

Most papers stop at the final grade – but three continued beyond the classroom.

Esha Nauman, a cell biology and neuroscience major with a minor in marine science, examined hydrothermal vents to better understand the biological limits of life and the increasing threats from deep-sea activity, including fracking. Her paper was published in Oceans in January 2026.

Nauman, who graduated in 2025 and is from Basking Ridge, New Jersey is now working as a medical scribe at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital while awaiting decisions on her medical school applications.

The publication process, Nauman said, changed how she approaches feedback and revision.

“Reviewers go line by line, and you have to justify everything,” she said. “Dr. Lutz guided me throughout the process and gave me direction, especially when I wasn’t sure where to go.”

Learning to accept criticism was part of that process.

“It taught me to be open-minded, especially when it comes to constructive criticism,” she said. “As a doctor, you’re going to get feedback from residents, attendings, even patients. It’s important to be receptive and not take it personally. It made me a stronger writer.”

Shea Cinquemani’s project pushed her into unfamiliar territory. Her paper, published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering March 2026, examined how asteroid impacts on early Earth may have created “hydrothermal cradles” capable of supporting the emergence of life. 

The work drew on data from sites such as the Chicxulub crater, showing how impact-generated heat sustained freshwater vent systems that provided the chemicals and energy for early life. 

“My assignment was to investigate whether hydrothermal vents on Mars could have sparked life,” she said. “At first, I knew nothing about the topic and wasn’t certain how to even begin.”

She expanded the class assignment into a paper that went through months of peer review, extending beyond her graduation in May 2025, with the final version published the following year. The research was later published in the science section of Popular Mechanics.

Cinquemani, a native of Frenchtown, New Jersey, is working in aquaculture and continuing to build on her interests in marine science.

Emory Barrett, who will earn his bachelor’s degree in May from the School of Biological and Environmental Sciences in biological oceanography, explored the potential for life in extreme environments beyond Earth. His paper, published in October in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Science, focused on the possibility of chemoautotrophy on Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, examining how microbes might generate energy by oxidizing inorganic compounds in the absence of sunlight.

All three papers listed the students as lead authors, with Lutz as the corresponding author.

For Barrett, the experience offered a foundation for what comes next. Barrett, of Milford, New Jersey, is preparing to begin a doctoral degree program in oceanography at Rutgers, where he will conduct pilot studies this summer at the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, a Rutgers field station in South Jersey. The laboratory focuses on the sustainable management and cultivation of shellfish, supporting coastal ecosystems and aquaculture development across the region.

Publishing as an undergraduate can shape the next phase of a career.

“It showed I could do this kind of work before even starting a Ph.D.,” Barrett said. “It’s an added layer of confidence, knowing I’ve already been through the process before.”

The publication process required persistence. In Cinquemani’s case, the work underwent extensive scrutiny before acceptance.

“It took about a year to get the paper into publishable shape,” Lutz said. “One of the reviewers was a leading expert in the field, and there were roughly 15 pages of comments across five rounds of review.”

Lutz, who has conducted more than 85 deep-sea dives and authored nearly 200 papers, said the experience reflects both the rigor of the course and the level of work the students were able to achieve.

At this stage in his career, Lutz said his focus is on mentoring the next generation of scientists.

“I’ve received many awards over the years, but none of that compares to seeing students succeed like this,” he said. “Toward the end of the course, one of the students gave me a leather-bound journal with a note that brought me to tears. On the cover, it said, ‘Great leaders inspire greatness in others.’ That means more to me than anything else.”

This article first appeared in Rutgers Today.

Drone image of a “living shoreline” at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, taken in October 2025. Offshore concrete reef structures reduce wave power, while smaller curved reefs and planted marsh and seagrass help slow water, trap sediment and create habitat. Together, the system is designed to protect the shoreline and grow into a natural, self-sustaining coastal ecosystem. Photo: Eric Sparks, Mississippi State University

Scientists report that a living reef coastal defense system can reduce wave power significantly, suggesting the approach could offer a new way to protect shorelines from storms and rising seas.

Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by an international team that included nine Rutgers University researchers, provide one of the most detailed tests to date of whether a hybrid reef system combining living organisms with artificial structures can function as coastal protection infrastructure.

View of a small, curved reef built from shell bags and mini modules. Made with recycled oyster shells, the structure is already attracting oysters, mussels and barnacles, and will continue to grow over time. Photo: Jenny Shinn

“We set out to build a kind of living reef, something that combines natural and engineered materials and can repair itself over time, to help protect coastlines from flooding, erosion and storm damage that are putting both communities and critical infrastructure at risk,” said David Bushek, a professor with the Department of Marine and Coastal Studies at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Studies and a lead author of the study. “So far, the results are encouraging. What we built is working.”

The study focused on a modular reef system placed offshore of a military site along the Florida Panhandle. The reef was designed to evolve naturally with marshes, seagrass and other aspects of coastal habitats to form what the researchers call a “Living Shoreline Mosaic^TM.” Built from porous concrete modules to reduce wave power, the hybrid structure combines engineering and natural processes and since has been colonized by oysters and other marine life, forming a natural reef that builds on and strengthens the original framework.

Researchers found the hybrid reef system reduced wave power by more than 90% in tests, while supporting reef growth and working together with surrounding coastal habitats to stabilize the shoreline.

Researchers based their conclusions on field measurements at the site, along with modeling and ongoing monitoring of wave energy, sediment movement and early reef development following installation.

The project was developed through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Reefense program and installed between October 2024 and March 2025 at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida. The base was heavily damaged by Hurricane Michael in 2018, prompting U.S. Department of Defense officials to investigate new ways to protect vulnerable coastlines.

Underwater view of oysters growing on Reefense Modules. Some were planted as tiny juveniles to jump-start reef formation, while others settled naturally, showing how the structure is becoming a living reef. Photo: Jenny Shinn

Researchers from Rutgers and partner institutions were brought in through the Reefense program to design the hybrid reef system and investigate whether it could function as coastal infrastructure and provide a longer-lasting alternative to traditional engineered structures.

In coastal engineering, reducing wave energy is the primary way to limit shoreline erosion and storm damage, Bushek said. The reef functions like a breakwater, an off shore structure that absorbs wave energy before it reaches land and became more effective over time as the reef grew.

If the system continues to perform as expected, researchers said it could represent a shift in how shorelines are protected, shifting the emphasis from structures that fight nature to systems designed to work with it.

“The Reefense Modules^TM and Living Shoreline Mosaic^TM strategy advance the field of nature-based solutions for shoreline protection and can be applied anywhere oysters form reefs,” Bushek said. “In the face of increasing storms and rising seas, it is critical to develop strategies that protect our coasts.”

Rutgers researchers on the study also included co-lead investigators Ximing Guo, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences; Hani Nassif, professor in the Department of Civil Engineering; and Richard Riman, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Other Rutgers researchers on the study included: Reid Holland, a doctoral student; and Michael Ruszala, a master’s degree student, with the Rutgers School of Engineering; and Zhenwei Wang, postdoctoral associate, Jenny Shin, field researcher, and the late Danielle Kreeger, research scientist, all with the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences in the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

This article first appeared in Rutgers Today.

Rutgers President William F. Tate IV and Debashish Bhattacharya, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, who received the 2026 Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Research.

Debashish Bhattacharya, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, was recognized with the Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Research, which honors tenured faculty members who have made distinguished research contributions to their discipline and/or society at large.

Bhattacharya was recognized on May 6 as part of the 2025-26 University-wide Faculty Year-End Excellence Awards for members of the community who have made outstanding contributions through teaching, research, and service.

A total of 33 awardees from across the university were recognized in nine categories during the event led by President William F. Tate IV and Executive Vice President Keena Arbuthnot. 

Distinguished Professor Debashish Bhattacharya pictured with Distinguished Professor Max Häggblom, chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology.

President Tate told the group of scholars that their work in the areas of education, discovery, and service fulfilled the model of higher education in the United States established by the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890, which enabled states to establish public colleges across the nation. 

“You all, the ones who are going to be recognized today, represent the very best of the Morrill Act tradition,’’ Tate said. “This is one of the best groups of scholars and teachers I have ever seen, and I could not be more proud to be Rutgers’ president.’’

The Bhattacharya lab pursues several areas of evolutionary genomics and applied research with a focus on marine species such as corals, seaweeds, and shellfish.

His group generates knowledge about these often-threatened species and then develops tools to diagnose their health and assess their resilience, with the goal of aiding local stakeholders.

“I have loved the ocean since childhood and am thrilled to be at Rutgers in a time when the needed, sophisticated tools are available to better understand and protect marine ecosystems for future generations.”

Read more about Debashish Bhattacharya’s research and impact.

Honored alongside Bhattacharya with the 2025-26 Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Research were:

Stephen Crystal, Distinguished Research Professor and Board of Governors Professor at the Rutgers School of Social Work and Director of the Rutgers Center for Health Services Research at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research.

Michael D. Anestis, Professor, Department of Urban-Global Public Health, School of Public Health, Rutgers Health.

Ashutosh Goel, Professor, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, School of Engineering, Rutgers University–New Brunswick.

Christian S. Hinrichs, Professor, Department of Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Co-Director of the Duncan and Nancy MacMillan Cancer Immunology and Metabolism Center of Excellence and Chief of the Section of Cancer Immunotherapy, Rutgers Cancer Institute, Rutgers Health.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH winners: (left to right) Debashish Bhattacharya, Biochemistry and Microbiology, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences; Michael D. Anestis, Urban-Global Public Health, School of Public Health; Ashutosh Goel, Materials Science and Engineering, School of Engineering;, Stephen Crystal, School of Social Work; and Christian S. Hinrichs, Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers Cancer Institute.

Scientists looking for sources that generated life on Earth are considering hydrothermal vents of different types, from vents found in the deep sea to others created by meteor impacts.

Meteor impacts may have helped spark life on Earth, creating hot, chemical-rich environments where the first living cells could take shape, according to research integrated by a recent Rutgers University graduate. 

“No one knows, from a scientific perspective, how life could have been formed from an early Earth that had no life,” said Shea Cinquemani, who earned her bachelor’s degree in marine biology and fisheries management from the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences in May 2025. “How does something come from nothing?”

Shea Cinquemani, who earned her bachelor’s degree from the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences in May 2025, has published a paper based on research she started during the spring of her senior year. Photo: Courtesy of Shea Cinquemani

Cinquemani is the lead author of a scientific review, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, examining where life may have first formed on Earth. The paper focuses on hydrothermal vents, places where hot, mineral-rich water flows through rock and emerges into surrounding water, creating the chemical conditions and energy gradients needed for complex reactions.

Her research points to hydrothermal systems created by meteor impacts as a potentially critical and underappreciated setting for the origin of life, strengthening the case beyond conventional deep-sea vent theories. Cinquemani said such systems would have been widespread on early Earth, making them especially compelling environments for life to begin.

The paper, co-authored with Rutgers oceanographer Richard Lutz, marks a rare achievement for a recent undergraduate whose work began as a class assignment and was transformed into a publication in a highly respected scientific journal.

“It’s amazing,” Lutz said. “You often have undergraduates that are part of papers – faculty choose undergraduates all the time to work on papers and projects. But for an undergraduate to be the lead author is a huge deal.” 

The project started in the spring of Cinquemani’s senior year in a course called “Hydrothermal Vents,” taught by Lutz, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences. Cinquemani’s assignment was to examine whether hydrothermal vents on Mars could have been harbingers of life there.

“I was like, ‘I know nothing about this topic,’” she said. “Thinking about the origins of biology on another planet was like, whoa. Not sure how I’m going to do this.” The topic went beyond her usual comfort zone of biology and extended into chemistry, physics and geology, she said.

Distinguished Professor Richard Lutz emerges from the research submersible, Alvin, after a deep-sea dive. Lutz was part of the team that discovered hydrothermal vents.
Photo: Courtesy of Richard Lutz

Cinquemani expanded the assignment after graduation into a full scientific review of both impact-generated and deep-sea vent systems, which was accepted after what Lutz described as a demanding peer-review evaluation.

“I have never seen such a rigorous review process,” Lutz said. “There were 15 pages of comments and five different rounds of reviews. She had the patience and perseverance, and the paper turned out magnificently.”

Deep-sea hydrothermal vents have long been considered a possible birthplace of life. Discovered in the deep ocean in the late 1970s, these systems host entire ecosystems that thrive without sunlight. Instead of photosynthesis, microbes use chemical energy from compounds released by vent fluids, such as hydrogen sulfide, in a process known as chemosynthesis.

Some deep-sea vents are powered by heat from the Earth’s interior near volcanic activity while others are driven by chemical reactions between water and rock that generate heat without magma. This heat facilitates chemical processes and provides a warm oasis in the otherwise barren seafloor of the deep ocean. 

Cinquemani’s paper places more focus on a different category that has recently begun gaining attention: hydrothermal systems created by meteor impacts.

When a large meteor strikes Earth, the impact generates intense heat and melts surrounding rock. As the area cools and water fills the crater, a hot, mineral-rich environment can form, similar in some ways to deep-sea vents.

“You have a lake surrounding a very, very warm center,” Cinquemani said. “And now you get a hydrothermal vent system, just like in the deep sea, but made by the heat from an impact.”

To explore how these systems might support life, she examined research on three well-studied crater sites that span vastly different periods of Earth’s history. The oldest is the Chicxulub impact structure beneath Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, formed about 65 million years ago and later shown to have hosted a long-lived hydrothermal system. Next is the Haughton impact structure in the Canadian Arctic, formed about 31 million years ago. The youngest is Lonar Lake in India, created about 50,000 years ago, where the crater still contains water and offers clues about how these systems evolve over time.

Hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor spew black smoke, which forms when super-hot vent water hits the cold ocean. Scientists view them as candidates for where life may have started, because they provide heat, minerals and chemical energy that early life could have used to form and grow. Photo: Richard Lutz

These impact-generated systems may last thousands to tens of thousands of years, giving simple molecules time to form more complex structures that could lead to life.

Scientists say such environments may have been especially important on early Earth, which experienced frequent asteroid impacts. In that sense, events often seen as destructive also may have helped create the conditions for life.

The idea builds on decades of research into deep-sea vents while expanding the search for life’s origins into new territory.

Lutz helped explore these deep-sea environments several decades ago when they were still a scientific mystery. As a young postdoctoral researcher, he joined the first biological expedition to study hydrothermal vents and descended more than a mile beneath the ocean surface in the research deep-sea submersible Alvin, where he observed thriving communities of organisms in total darkness.

Those dives helped open a new field of research and shaped scientists’ understanding of how life can exist in extreme environments without sunlight.

“We have talked for many years about the possibility that life may have originated at deep-sea hydrothermal vents,” Lutz said.

Cinquemani’s work brings together those long-standing ideas with newer evidence that impact-generated systems also could play a role and may in some cases offer favorable conditions for early chemical reactions.

Scientists pilot the research submersible Alvin in the deep ocean to explore that world. Rutgers scientists have played an important role in discoveries made through Alvin. Photo: Richard Lutz

The implications extend beyond Earth. Hydrothermal activity is thought to exist on the ocean floors of icy moons such as Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus, and may have existed in impact craters on young Mars. If these environments on Earth can support the chemistry of life, they could become key targets in the search for life elsewhere.

For Cinquemani, the work is driven by curiosity.

“Humans are insanely curious beings,” said Cinquemani, who works as a technician at Rutgers’ New Jersey Aquaculture Innovation Center in Cape May, N.J., where she supports aquaculture research while preparing to pursue advanced study in marine science. “We question everything. We may never know exactly how we began, but we can try our best to understand how things might have occurred.”

Image by ead72, licensed via Adobe Stock (Education License)

Scientists have developed a powerful new statistical approach that can reveal complex patterns in how fish move and adapt to their environments—information that’s been hiding in plain sight within fish ear stones.

A study published in the journal Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries introduces an advanced framework to analyze chemical signatures in fish otoliths—small calcium carbonate structures in fish ears that act like natural recorders of a fish’s life history.

Joyce Ong, research and grants facilitator of the Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute, served as a co-author on the study.

The research team applied this new method to tropical snapper populations across the Indo-Pacific region and discovered that while phylogenetic processes affecting strontium regulation in otoliths remained consistent across vast geographic distances, other chemical signatures (incorporation of barium and magnesium) revealed region-specific differences reflecting local environmental conditions or physiological adaptations.

Traditional analysis methods often oversimplify data by grouping measurements into group means based on sampling regions or across calendar years, potentially missing important patterns at smaller scales. Additionally, traditional approaches use linear regression models, however, most biological processes do not have linear relationships. This new approach captures continuous, non-linear changes throughout a fish’s life, while also accounting for individual variation among fish and changes over time. Together, these provide much more detailed insights into fish movement strategies and how they respond to environmental changes.

“Understanding the life-history strategies of commercially important fish populations is crucial for predicting how species respond to environmental change, especially in the data-poor and tropical Indo-Pacific region that is characterized by immense fishing pressures and environmental changes,” Ong explained. “This framework provides a powerful methodological approach for unraveling complex life-history and movement strategies in fish populations, offering critical insights into their adaptive responses to changing environments—information that’s essential for effective fisheries management and conservation as our oceans continue to change.”

Beyond fish, this statistical framework can be applied to analyze similar time-resolved chemical data from coral skeletons, shark vertebrae, bivalve shells, and other biological structures that record environmental history, opening new possibilities for understanding how aquatic species interact with their rapidly changing world.

You can read the full study here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-025-09993-0

This article was written with assistance from Artificial Intelligence, was reviewed and edited by Oliver Stringham, and was reviewed and edited by Joyce Ong, a co-author on the study.

Microfluidic system used by the researchers to study the dissolution of calcium carbonate in marine snow mounted. Photo: Yuval Jacobi

As any diver knows, oceans can be cloudy places. Even on sunny days, snow-like particles drift through the water column, obscuring the aquatic world below.

Scientists have long known that this “marine snow” carries inorganic calcium carbonate – the building block of shells – but couldn’t explain how the mineral dissolves in the upper part of the ocean.

New research from Rutgers University-New Brunswick points to the culprit: bacteria.

“Think of marine particles as the megacities of the ocean,” said Benedict Borer, an assistant professor of marine and coastal sciences at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and lead author of the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Within these tiny spaces, there are huge amounts of microbial activity. It’s here where calcium carbonate dissolves.” 

The findings could reshape how climate scientists model carbon sequestration – the natural or engineered process by which carbon dioxide gas is removed from the atmosphere – and ocean carbon cycling (the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and the ocean), Borer said.

Benedict Borer.

“Oceanographers often think about the macro-scale, but in this instance, what’s happening in microscopic particles is controlling the entire ocean,” he said. 

Oceans are central to the planet’s biological carbon pump. At the surface, microscopic algae called phytoplankton absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – including that released by the burning of fossil fuels – and convert it into biomass and, in the case of a phytoplankton called coccolithophores, calcium carbonate shells. 

When marine organisms die and sink, billions of tons of organic and inorganic carbon are carried downward each year. The deeper the carbon sinks, the longer it is stored. Eventually, in the cold, acidic depths, calcium carbonate dissolves, carbon dioxide is released, and the cycle continues.

However, while oceanographers have long known that calcium carbonate dissolves in the upper few thousand meters of the ocean, they could not explain the mechanism. The chemistry doesn’t favor it, Borer said.

Recent studies have provided clues, showing that acidic microenvironments in the guts of zooplankton enhance calcium carbonate dissolution, and suggesting that the interiors of marine snow particles may be additional hotspots for calcite dissolution, the crystalline form of calcium carbonate.

To test this theory, Borer and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution studied how the chemistry of marine snow behaves in shallow seas.

In the lab, Borer built a three-layer microfluidic chip to mimic marine snow sinking through the water column. The middle layer held marine particles with calcite and marine bacteria. The top and bottom layers sealed the system, while artificial seawater flowed through the narrow channel between them, simulating particle sinking.

By controlling gas pressure, temperature, oxygen, and bacterial abundance, the team recreated the conditions within a sinking particle and measured how bacterial growth affected calcite.

As particles settled, bacterial respiration increased acidity around them, accelerating calcite dissolution. As a critical consequence, less calcite acting as ballast means that particles sink more slowly.

The results suggest that microbially driven changes in marine snow may dissolve enough calcite near the surface to slow sinking rates and reduce the efficiency of carbon sequestration. And because growing bacteria release carbon dioxide as a byproduct, the process may accelerate the return of heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere, Borer said.

More work is needed to confirm the findings in the open ocean, but the discovery clarifies bacteria’s role in carbon cycling and could improve future climate models and inform geoengineering approaches, he said.

“Our results provide a critical first step to decipher the influence of microbial-enhanced calcite dissolution in marine snow particles, and how it impacts the ocean’s ability to sequester carbon at the global scale,” Borer said.

He added: “The question now is how the biological carbon pump will change in the future. Will the transport of carbon to depth become more efficient, or will bacteria respire the carbon more quickly, releasing carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere? To predict this, we need to understand all mechanisms that impact carbon transport to depth, such as the microbially enhanced dissolution of ballasting calcite. What I find quite scary, honestly, is that this process could go either way.”

This article first appeared in Rutgers Today.