From April 7th to the 11th our GIS specialist Eric Manke had the opportunity to attend the 2025 JACIE workshop on remote sensing, held at the USGS headquarters in Reston, Virginia. The workshop is an annual collaborative effort between a variety of federal agencies (NASA, NGA, NOAA, NRO, USDA, & USGS) to bring together professionals … Read more
MRRI scientists have kicked off the field season by deploying the first of six sediment traps at Anderson Creek Marsh (Secaucus, NJ). A complex cluster of sensors, designed to monitor the mass of sediment carried in and out of the marshes on the back of the tide, were placed into the tidal creek. At every … Read more
At the Delaware Estuary Science and Environmental Summit on February 11, 2024, MRRI’s senior environmental scientist Joe Grzyb presented the marsh sediment elevation data from the Meadowlands District. MRRI is part of the New Jersey Tidal Wetland Monitoring Network (NJTWMN) with the oldest sediment elevation monitoring sites in New Jersey dating back 15 years. The … Read more
NJSEA hosted the Harbor Herons annual meeting on January 24, 2025, which was attended by 40 people in person and 40 virtually. The Harbor Herons Work Group is a subcommittee to the NY&NJ Harbor & Estuary Program and is a multi-organization, multidisciplinary, collaborative initiative created to coordinate colonial waterbird conservation projects. The conservation effort has … Read more
MRRI Scientists are leveraging 3D printing technology to enhance field-deployed sensing equipment by producing custom parts. This innovative approach allows researchers to design and print lightweight, durable components tailored to specific sensor configurations. By reducing production time and costs, 3D printing enables rapid prototyping and deployment of sensing equipment for monitoring water quality, air pollution, … Read more
Two MRRI staff members have recently obtained their Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessels (OUPV) licenses, also known as a “Six-Pack” license. This credential, issued by the U.S. Coast Guard, required them to pass rigorous exams covering safety, seamanship, maritime laws, navigation, and chart plotting. The license allows them to captain vessels carrying up to six … Read more
MRRI scientists attended Restore America’s Estuaries 2024 Coastal & Estuarine Summit in Arlington, VA, October 6-11, 2024. The five day summit brought together national and international experts on tidal and coastal wetland restoration. Amidst a diverse schedule, wetland practitioners, academics, environmental lawyers and policy makers discussed current successes and future possibilities in sustainable wetland restoration … Read more
The New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority (NJSEA) has upgraded the Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) system to the latest technology for the Meadowlands Research & Restoration Institute (MRRI) laboratory. From July 8-10, 2024, a field engineer from Agilent Technologies installed the new Agilent 7850 ICP-MS and provided training on this state-of-the-art instrument and … Read more
A recent study funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) aims to understand mineral formation in the oxygen-depleted sediments of the Hackensack estuary. The recently approved NSF proposal (worth $551,795) focuses on the concept of “reverse weathering”, which involves the creation of clay minerals from eroded terrestrial minerals in marine sediments. This research has significant … Read more
The 2023 water quality data collected in the Meadowlands Lower Hackensack Estuary has been checked with QA/QC procedures and shared with US EPA through national Water Quality Exchange (WQX). The Meadowlands Research & Restoration Institute (MRRI) has been sharing water quality data collected within the District since 2016. The water quality monitoring project was established … Read more