Graphic credit: ARIS

Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences (DMCS) Department Chair Oscar Schofield and Professor Kay Bidle were honored for their work elevating research impact at the 2026 Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society (ARIS)’s 2026 Summit, “Impact by Design”, which took place March 30 – April 1. 

Schofield was awarded the Enduring Achievement Award, which honors those with a long and storied history of work that has demonstrated measurable and lasting societal impact. 

The citation emphasized his purposeful weaving of research and outreach across his career and within DMCS. His work includes leading marine and coastal training for educators, collaborating with the U.S. Coast Guard on rescue modeling, and partnering with the Rutgers SEBS Science in Action group to create two documentary films focused on science literacy.  

With this award, he joins past awardees such as Nalini M. Nadkarni (University of Utah), Portal to the Public and The Center for Science and the Schools (Penn State University).  

Bidle was awarded the Impact Innovations Award, which recognizes leaders in developing new strategies for societal impact. He was awarded for his work on the Tools of Science educational video series, a project focused on communicating the scientific process and science practices. 

The project seeks to highlight the collaborative nature of research and its impacts in society, with videos focused on tangible scientific methods—like “Modeling” and “Sampling” and more intangible concepts—like “Collaboration” and “Creativity”. The video series is designed to be used by students and educators, and it adheres to the U.S. Next Generation Science Standards.  

Graphic credit: ARIS

Bidle worked on the Tools of Science project with other collaborators, including Rutgers colleagues Janice McDonnell (SEBS Associate Dean of Research Impact) and Kim Thamatrakoln (Associate Professor, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences). With this award, he joins past awardees such as the Zooniverse project, MinuteEarth, and the Teen Science Cafe Network.  

The 2026 ARIS Summit’s theme was centered around how researchers and research impact professionals can elevate the results of research impact–focusing on what changed as a result of the research, who it changed for, and why the change mattered. 

In his acceptance, Schofield noted the importance of communicating science and its impacts. He credits collaborating with impact professionals with “allow[ing] me to elevate efforts to increase wider understanding of why the ocean is critical to all of humanity and that doing/learning about science is fun, creative, and important….Communities such as ARIS are so important, I thank the broad community of ocean communicators and science translators.” 

About ARIS 
The Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society (ARIS), formerly the National Alliance for Broader Impacts, was founded in 2014 and is the largest societal impact community organization in the U.S. ARIS supports practitioners, researchers and communities in achieving positive societal impact. With more than 1,800 members worldwide, ARIS offers resources, certifications, and programs to build capacity, grow partnerships, and enhance scholarship. Visit researchinsociety.org. 

  

Adélie penguins in Antarctica. Photo credits Oscar Schofield

Penguins waddling across Antarctic ice might seem far removed from a classroom in New Jersey, but a new study shows that these charismatic birds can be a powerful hook for teaching young people about climate change — and inspiring them to see themselves as future scientists.

The study was led by researchers at Rutgers University, including affiliates of the Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute Janice McDonnell, Associate Dean of Research Impact at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, and Oscar Schofield, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences. In addition, the lead author, Marissa Staffen, and co-author Matthew Newman are both county agents from the Department of 4-H Youth Development at Rutgers.

Published in the Journal of Geoscience Education, the study evaluates a program called Data to the Rescue: Penguins Need Our Help! — an eight-session after-school club designed for middle schoolers in grades 5 to 8. The program invites students to join a virtual research team studying real penguin population data from Antarctica, collected by the National Science Foundation’s Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program at Palmer Station.

Students work with actual scientific data using an online tool called CODAP to graph and analyze how Adélie, Gentoo, and Chinstrap penguin populations have changed over time — and why. The program ends with a creative “Data Jam,” where students turn their findings into poems, art, videos, or other projects to share with their communities.

The program directly connects climate change in the polar regions — where warming is happening much faster than the global average — to real consequences like sea ice loss and shrinking penguin populations. It also draws lines from those distant changes to local impacts like sea level rise and extreme weather, helping students understand that what happens in Antarctica doesn’t stay in Antarctica.

“This program shows that when you give young people real scientific data and a compelling story — in this case, penguins — they don’t just learn facts, they start to see themselves as part of the solution. Building that sense of identity and agency in students, especially for young people that don’t see themselves represented in STEM, is one of the most important things we can do for both STEM education and climate action,” said Staffen.

Students in the Data to the Rescue program explore real penguin population data collected at Palmer Station, Antarctica, connecting distant ecosystems to local climate change impacts. Photo credit Matthew Newman

Over three years and across 46 program sites in the U.S., 1,571 youth took part. The study found that after completing the program, students showed a statistically significant increase in ‘science identity’ — meaning students felt more like they belonged in science. This was especially meaningful given that the program intentionally reached out to groups underrepresented in STEM, including girls, Black and Hispanic youth, and students from low-income communities.

Students who started with little knowledge of polar science showed the biggest gains in learning. Many who began by answering “I don’t know” to questions about the Arctic and Antarctic finished the program with real, substantive answers.

Interestingly, overall fascination with science dipped slightly by the end of the program — but the authors suggest this may reflect a more realistic understanding of what science actually involves, including the hard work and challenges, rather than a loss of interest. Students with lower initial fascination actually showed gains.

The implications of this research go beyond penguins. The program offers a replicable, low-cost model for informal science education that can be run in after-school clubs, community centers, summer camps, libraries, or 4-H programs — and all materials are available for free in both English and Spanish. The authors argue that building climate literacy and data skills in young people, particularly those from underserved communities, is essential for developing an informed public and a diverse STEM workforce capable of tackling global challenges like climate change. Explore Data to the Rescue resources and read the full study here.

This article was written with assistance from Artificial Intelligence, was reviewed and edited by Oliver Stringham, and was reviewed by Marissa Staffen, Janice McDonnell, Matthew Newman, and Oscar Schofield, co-authors on the study.

  

Sampling rosette with gray sampling bottles at left, the ship’s rail at lower right, and the face of the ice shelf in the background. Photo: Rob Sherrell

For scientists who study the Southern Ocean, a long-standing silver lining in the gloomy forecast of climate change has been the theory of iron fertilization. As temperatures rise and glaciers in Antarctica melt, ice-trapped iron would feed blooms of microscopic algae, pulling heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow.

There’s just one problem: The theory doesn’t hold water.

In what researchers describe as the most accurate measurement of iron inputs from a glacier in Antarctica, marine scientists from Rutgers University-New Brunswick have discovered that meltwater from an Antarctic ice shelf supplies far less iron to surrounding waters than once thought.

The findings, published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, raise questions about the sources of iron in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, and could significantly alter how climate change predictions are forecasted and modeled, the researchers said.

“It has been widely assumed that glacial melting underneath ice shelves contributes considerable bioavailable iron to these shelf waters, in a process of natural glacier-driven iron fertilization,” said Rob Sherrell, a professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and the study’s principal investigator. 

Sherrell said the study modifies those assumptions by determining that the amount of iron in meltwater is several times lower than previously thought and that most of that iron comes from a different type of meltwater than is produced by ice shelves melting.

Despite being shrouded in darkness for several months a year, the Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean are a highly productive region for growth of phytoplankton – the vital food source for krill, which feeds penguins, seals and whales. As phytoplankton grow, they absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, making the region the world’s largest oceanic sink for the climate-warming gas. 

Previous research into iron sources in the Southern Ocean has primarily been through simulations and computer modeling. Together with researchers from Rutgers and several universities in the United States and the United Kingdom, Sherrell, who also is a professor at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, took a different approach. In 2022, they traveled aboard a now-decommissioned U.S. icebreaker, the Nathaniel B. Palmer, to the Dotson Ice Shelf, located in the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica, to collect melting glacial water at the source.  The Amundsen Sea accounts for most of the sea level rise driven by Antarctic melting. 

In the Amundsen Sea, glacial meltwater comes from beneath floating ice shelves – the seaward extensions of glaciers from the continent – and the melting is caused primarily by warm water that flows from the deep ocean into the cavities under the ice.

At the Dotson Ice Shelf, Sherrell and his team identified where seawater enters one such cavity and where it exits after meltwater is added. They collected water samples from entry and exit points.

Back in New Jersey, Sherrell’s colleague Venkatesh Chinni, a postdoctoral scholar and lead author of the study, analyzed the samples for iron content in both its dissolved state and in suspended particles.  Collaborators Jessica Fitzsimmons, a professor and chemical oceanographer, and Janelle Steffen, an assistant research scientist, both at Texas A&M University, measured the isotopic ratios to “fingerprint” and distinguish the sources. Steffen carried out initial isotopic measurements in the laboratory of Tim Conway, an associate professor at the University of South Florida.

Chinni and the team then calculated how much more iron was coming out of the cavity than went in and deduced from the isotopic data the type of melting that was responsible.

The results were surprising, Sherrell said. Total meltwater contributed about 10% of the outflowing dissolved iron, with the majority contributed by inflowing deep water (62%) and another 28% as inputs from shelf sediments.

“Roughly 90% of the dissolved iron coming out of the ice shelf cavity comes from deep waters and sediments outside the cavity, not from meltwater,” Chinni said.

Additionally, iron isotope ratios from the samples suggest that somewhere beneath the glacier is a liquid meltwater layer that lacks dissolved oxygen, a condition that promotes the dissolution of solid iron oxides in the bedrock, seemingly a larger source of iron than ice shelf melting, Chinni said.

Taken together, the findings challenge prevailing assumptions about iron sources in the Southern Ocean in a warming world, though additional research is needed to better understand how the subglacial processes are involved, the team said.

“Our claim in this paper is that the meltwater itself carries very little iron, and that most of the iron that it does carry comes from the grinding up and dissolving of bedrock into the liquid layer between the bedrock and the ice sheet, not from the ice that is driving sea level rise,” Sherrell said. 

For some colleagues, this will be a very surprising realization, he added.

This article first appeared in Rutgers Today.

  

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

Miles off the coast of New Jersey and New England, two major forces are converging: the rapid expansion of offshore wind energy and some of the most valuable fisheries in the United States. A new editorial published in Fisheries Oceanography takes stock of what we know — and what we urgently need to find out — about how these two uses of the ocean can coexist as climate change reshapes the sea.

Daphne Munroe, associate professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory at Rutgers University, and affiliate of the Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute, is the lead author. She and co-author Eileen Hofmann of Old Dominion University introduce a special issue of the journal dedicated entirely to this challenge.

The stakes are significant. East Coast fisheries generate $2 billion per year in revenue — about 40% of the national total — and many of the most productive fishing grounds sit squarely within zones already leased for wind farm construction. The Atlantic sea scallop fishery alone averages roughly $465 million in annual landings, and scallop habitat overlaps heavily with planned wind energy sites.

At the same time, warming ocean temperatures are pushing fish and shellfish to new areas, meaning the ocean these wind farms are being built in today will look different in 30 years — the typical lifespan of a wind installation. Research featured in the special issue projects, for example, that Atlantic surfclam populations will likely shift northward over time, potentially opening new fishing grounds in areas currently outside wind lease zones.

The collection of studies also highlights an opportunity. With several U.S. offshore wind projects currently delayed or stalled due to economic and political headwinds, there may be a window to conduct critical baseline studies before construction begins — research that would make it far easier to measure and manage the impact of these projects down the road.

“The offshore ocean is a shared resource, and decisions made today about wind energy development will shape the future of our fisheries for decades. Getting the science right — understanding how fish habitats, fishing communities, and renewable energy development interact — is essential for making sure we can have both a clean energy future and healthy, productive fisheries,” said Munroe.

You can read the full editorial here.

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

  

Laura Steeves (far right), a former postdoctoral student, collaborates with a fishing partner to prepare a surfclam cage for deployment, while Ailey Sheehan, a lab manager, activates sensors to facilitate the launch. Sarah Borsetti/Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory

Rutgers researchers have made a discovery that could change the future of seafood farming in New Jersey.

A study led by marine scientist Daphne Munroe has shown that Atlantic surfclams can be successfully farmed in the open ocean. Her research, published in the North American Journal of Aquaculture, proves that offshore aquaculture is not only possible but promising. This method could help meet the increasing demand for seafood while protecting wild clam populations.

“We’re among the first to show that offshore clam farming can really work,” said Munroe, an associate professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences in the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. “It’s exciting because it opens the door to a new kind of business for New Jersey’s farming and fishing industries.”

In Daphne Munroe’s study, clams harvested after the spring and summer season showed promising growth. Sarah Borsetti/Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory

The study was funded by a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and was done in partnership with commercial fishing companies. 

“We didn’t do this in a lab,” Munroe said, emphasizing the importance of working with industry partners. “We did it in the real world, with real fishermen. That’s what makes the results so meaningful.”

Aquaculture is the practice of farming fish, shellfish and other aquatic organisms. It’s similar to agriculture, but instead of growing crops on land, farmers raise seafood in water. Most aquaculture takes place near the shore in protected bays or in artificial ponds and lakes.

These areas are easier to manage and safer from storms, but they are crowded with other user groups like homeowners and boaters and can be subject to poor water quality which can hinder farm operations. Offshore aquaculture avoids these challenges, Munroe said, by using the vast, cleaner waters of the open ocean, where there is more room and less potential for pollution.

Members of Munroe’s team wanted to test whether surfclams, which are large, hard-shelled shellfish that live buried in sandy ocean bottoms, could be raised offshore, where space is more available. The clams, commonly used in chowders and fried clam strips, are an important part of New Jersey’s commercial fishing industry.

Video: Deploying the clams

Researchers placed more than 300,000 young surfclams into cages in ocean waters miles off the coast of New Jersey. They tested the clams in both spring and fall to see how the seasons affected their growth and survival.

The cages used in the study were specially designed to protect the clams in several ways. They kept the shellfish safe from predators such as crabs and fish, which are common threats in the wild. The cages also helped reduce the buildup of sand and sediment, which can make their meat gritty.

By keeping the clams elevated off the ocean floor, the cages allowed cleaner water to flow through, resulting in clams with very little sand in their meat, making them ideal for eating steamed or on the half shell. In addition, the cages were built to withstand strong waves and rough ocean conditions, making them reliable even during storms.

Clams are stacked on the deck of a scallop fishing vessel before being hoisted into the Atlantic Ocean as part of a research study. Sarah Borsetti/Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory

The researchers found that clams put out in spring grew faster and had higher survival than those put out in fall. Spring conditions were calmer, with fewer storms and less sediment, making it easier to retrieve the cages and check on the clams. Another important finding was that clams in less crowded cages were healthier and grew better, showing that space matters when farming shellfish.

Munroe said that the results were especially encouraging because they showed that offshore aquaculture could be both productive and environmentally responsible. “We saw that the clams were not only surviving, but they were also thriving,” she said. “And the meat quality was excellent, with very little grit. That’s a big deal for consumers and for the industry.”

She said there are still hurdles to surmount, such as making sure the gear lasts in challenging weather and properly navigating and following governmental regulations. But Munroe said the potential is huge.

“This could be a win-win,” she said. “We can grow more seafood in a sustainable way and support local jobs.”

Rutgers scientists who contributed to the study included: Laura Steeves, a former postdoctoral researcher at the Rutgers Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory and now at the Flødevigen Research Station in Norway; Sarah Borsetti, a fisheries researcher at the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory; and Rachel Davitt, a doctoral student in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences.

This article first appeared on Rutgers Today.

  

Corday Selden, assistant professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences. Photo credit: Heshani Pupulewatte

Corday Selden, assistant professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, has been selected to receive The Oceanography Society (TOS) Early Career Award. The honor recognizes outstanding early-career research contributions, leadership in ocean sciences, and exceptional promise for future impact in oceanography. Selden will be recognized at the TOS Honors Breakfast on February 24, 2026, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

A marine biogeochemist, Selden investigates how microscopic marine organisms shape ocean chemistry and influence Earth-system function. Her research integrates stable isotope geochemistry, molecular biology, numerical modeling, and field-based oceanography to address fundamental questions about nitrogen cycling, microbial metabolism, and interactions between the biosphere and geosphere.

Selden’s work has significantly advanced understanding of marine dinitrogen (N₂) fixation across oxygen-deficient zones, continental shelves, and oceanic frontal systems. By clarifying where and why nitrogen fixation occurs and identifying methodological artifacts that complicated earlier measurements, Selden has helped refine the scientific framework for studying one of the ocean’s most critical nutrient cycles. More recently, her pioneering research on transition metal isotopes has opened new pathways for interpreting microbial physiology and reconstructing paleoceanographic conditions.

Having successfully completed a two-year term as a Rutgers Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow, Selden joined the university as a tenure-track faculty member in 2025, continuing her rapid ascent. She has published in leading scientific journals, secured major competitive research grants, and will serve as co-chief scientist with Rutgers colleague Joe Gradone on an August 2026 research expedition.

“Corday Selden represents an ideal candidate for this award,” wrote Oscar Schofield, chair, and Travis Miles, assistant research professor, DMCS. “She is an exceptional researcher, teacher, mentor and thought leader, and has quickly become a core part of our academic family.”

Beyond her research accomplishments, Selden is deeply committed to education and public engagement. She mentors undergraduate and graduate students and leads a laboratory that actively supports student interns and early-career scientists. Her outreach spans K–12 programs, libraries, community events, and national science initiatives, broadening access to ocean science and inspiring the next generation of researchers.

Through innovative scholarship, collaborative leadership, and dedication to mentoring and outreach, Selden exemplifies the spirit of the TOS Early Career Award—advancing oceanography while shaping the field’s future.

  

The R/V Falkor (too) is a state-of-the-art research vessel operated by the Schmidt Ocean Institute. Photo: Courtesy of the Schmidt Ocean Institute

Long before leaving port, Rutgers oceanographers Joe Gradone and Corday Selden are focused on packing crates of sensors, autonomous underwater gliders and instruments—some “as delicate as a potato chip”—for a mission to probe one of the ocean’s most elusive processes. In August 2026, the pair will lead a 28-day expedition aboard the state-of-the-art R/V Falkor (too), operated by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, to study salt fingering, a small-scale mixing phenomenon that may shape ecosystems and global climate.

Corday Selden (left), an assistant professor, and Joe Gradone (right), an assistant research professor, are in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences in the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Photo: Courtesy of Rutgers University

Gradone, an assistant research professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences (DMCS), studies the physics that stir the sea. Selden, an assistant professor and biological oceanographer, also in DMCS, investigates how that mixing affects marine life and chemistry. Together, they are bridging microscopic ocean processes with climate-scale consequences. Ocean mixing regulates everything from hurricane intensity to nutrient supply, influencing phytoplankton growth and the biological carbon pump—the mechanism that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The mission, “Surveying Salt Fingering in the Caribbean,” will target the western equatorial North Atlantic, a hotspot for thermohaline staircases—layered waters where warm, salty water overlies cooler, fresher water, triggering vertical exchanges of heat, salt and nutrients. The team will deploy four autonomous gliders, a vertical microstructure profiler to measure turbulence, a CTD rosette to sample discrete water layers and an Imaging FlowCytobot to photograph individual phytoplankton cells.

Researchers will investigate whether salt fingering has intensified as ocean salinity patterns shift and whether the process delivers enough nitrogen to stimulate phytoplankton growth and carbon export. Supported at no cost by the Schmidt Ocean Institute through a highly competitive selection process, the expedition brings together 24 scientists, including students from Rutgers and partner institutions in Barbados, Brazil and Sweden.

As the R/V Falkor (too) departs Trinidad for the equatorial North Atlantic, it will carry more than advanced instruments. It represents a rare opportunity for early-career Rutgers scientists to lead an international effort aimed at understanding how fine-scale ocean mixing can ripple through marine ecosystems and the global climate system.

Read the full article, which first appeared in Rutgers Today.

  

The makers of the documentary, “Marine Field Station: The Retreat,” used a drone for this aerial shot of the research site in Tuckerton, N.J. Photo credit: Rutgers University

Marine scientists in Tuckerton, N.J., are witnessing firsthand how rising ocean waters will one day permanently shut down their research station.

The researchers share their thoughts on eventually losing this critical hub of marine and coastal research in Marine Field Station: The Retreat, a 10-minute documentary made by a Rutgers University-New Brunswick professor and his production crew of film students and alumni.

The documentary, which was screened during the 2025 New Jersey International Film Festival, features three Rutgers scientists – ecologists Thomas “Motz” Grothues and Lisa Auermuller and oceanographer Oscar Schofield – as well as the Rutgers University Marine Field Station, a facility of the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences within the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. The station, which serves as a working lab where graduate- and postdoctoral-level research is conducted year-round (the space is occupied by researchers about 69 hours a week on average), sits across from the Little Egg Inlet in the Mullica River-Great Bay estuary. 

“We know with sea level rise, water isn’t just going to come and go,” Auermuller said in the documentary. “It’s going to come and stay. And so, what we know as of today’s high tides and where the water is, that it’s going to be the permanent condition moving forward.” 

Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation Hub, a Rutgers-led consortium of 13 institutions whose mission is to conduct research to develop effective, evidence-based responses to coastal climate change risks, supported the film with funding from the National Science Foundation.

View the documentary and the original article on Rutgers Today.

  

An Amsterdam albatross, among the world’s rarest seabirds, seen during a Southern Ocean research expedition.

In a groundbreaking study of ancient ocean geochemistry, a Rutgers researcher and a former Rutgers graduate student have found evidence that the end of the latest ice age some 18,000 years ago, a period of rapid planetary warming, coincided with the emergence of salty water that had been trapped in the deep ocean.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, shed new light on how salt levels in the Earth’s deepest waters may influence the amount of carbon dioxide – a principal heat-trapping gas – in the atmosphere. 

“In today’s oceans there are different major water masses, and each has a distinctive salinity,” said Elisabeth Sikes, a professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Studies at Rutgers-New Brunswick. “Researchers have long speculated that deep ocean salinity levels were linked to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide across ice age cycles. Our paper proves it.” 

Oceans contain vast amounts of carbon dioxide, which absorbs infrared energy and contributes to global warming. Much of this carbon is taken up by marine organisms at the surface during photosynthesis. As these organisms live, die and sink, their remains break down and release the carbon dioxide into the deep waters. The differences in salinity of the deep layers of the ocean help form a barrier between the layers, keeping the gas from returning to the atmosphere.

Warming and cooling are cyclical, and this speeds up and slows down ocean overturning circulation – known as “the global ocean conveyor belt.” During warm periods, like today, the ocean circulates faster, keeping deep water from gathering as much carbon dioxide. When ocean circulation slows and denser water sinks in cool regions, more carbon dioxide is trapped with it. Eventually, the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the deep ocean helps cool the planet, and the cycle repeats.

During the latest ice age, which peaked about 20,000 years ago, the deep ocean stored carbon dioxide more efficiently than today, Sikes said, which helps explain why average temperatures were much lower.

Scientists know that the planet’s warming at the end of the last ice age was marked by a huge release of the carbon dioxide from the deep ocean. But what happened to the salt that supposedly helped lock carbon dioxide away has remained a mystery.

“The exact mechanism, the actual physical explanation for why that happens, is something researchers have been trying to resolve,” said Ryan H. Glaubke, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Arizona and lead author of the study. Research for the study was conducted while Glaubke was a graduate student in Sikes’ lab at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

“This paper supports the idea that it’s the salinity of deep ocean water – the ‘salty blob’ – that keeps carbon dioxide locked away for long periods of time,” Glaubke said. 

Read more on the study in the original article, which appeared on Rutgers Today. 

  

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

About 3.3 million years ago, during a period called the Pliocene epoch when Earth’s atmosphere contained CO₂ levels similar to today’s, a short but intense cooling event occurred that scientists call Marine Isotope Stage M2. Understanding what happened during this 25,000-year period matters today because it reveals how sensitive ice sheets are to changes in ocean circulation—a process currently being disrupted by global warming.

A new study in the journal Nature Communications has developed a technique three times more precise than previous methods for measuring ancient ocean temperatures and ice volume. Yair Rosenthal, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and affiliate of the Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute, co-authored the study.

The research reveals that sea levels fell by approximately 55 meters (about 180 feet) as ice sheets expanded in both hemispheres. Critically, the study shows this massive ice growth was triggered not by a drop in CO₂, but by changes in how ocean currents transported heat around the planet. Specifically, the opening and closing of seaways near Central America and Indonesia redirected warm water away from polar regions, allowing ice to accumulate rapidly.

Here’s why this matters for our warming world: today’s climate change is already disrupting ocean circulation patterns. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation—which includes the Gulf Stream—is slowing due to melting ice adding freshwater to the North Atlantic. While the Pliocene event shows ice growing when ocean heat transport decreased, the reverse process applies today: as warming oceans deliver more heat to polar regions and disrupt protective circulation patterns, ice sheets become vulnerable to accelerated melting. The study demonstrates that relatively small changes in ocean heat distribution can trigger dramatic shifts in ice volume—in this case within just 10,000 years.

“This research reveals how quickly ice sheets can respond to changes in ocean circulation, even when CO₂ levels are moderate,” said Rosenthal. “In today’s warming climate, we’re disrupting these same ocean circulation patterns, but in reverse—delivering more heat to polar regions where our ice sheets sit. Understanding that ice sheets can change rapidly in response to ocean dynamics helps us recognize that sea level rise may accelerate faster than models based solely on atmospheric warming would predict, making adaptation planning for coastal communities even more urgent.”

The improved measurement technique can now help scientists better predict how Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets will respond as warming continues to alter global ocean circulation.

You can read the full study here. For more on related research by Yair Rosenthal, read his recent study published in Science.

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