Expertise freshwater ecosystems, Hudson River
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Stuart Findlay has worked on the Hudson River for over 30 years. His research on sensitive wetlands, shoreline restoration, and environmental monitoring is helping to guide the river’s recovery.
Human activities can have positive and negative consequences on the environment. It is important to reinforce the positive through effective management, while rapidly detecting and mitigating the negative. Findlay aims to identify impending problems and devise suitable solutions in streams, wetlands, and the Hudson River.
Aquatic vegetation provides essential nutrients and habitat for small animals, yet these plants are threatened by human-induced habitat alterations, including climate change. To improve the management, protection, and restoration of aquatic systems, it is essential to know how environmental conditions influence these communities and what humans can do to support them.
Findlay works closely with the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System (HRECOS) and directed the installation of a monitoring station that continually records the river’s salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, and water elevation – a key management tool to facilitate a quick response to threats such as harmful contaminants or floods. He also studies the impacts of shoreline modification and guides sustainable management practices to protect native species and their habitats.
Findlay is committed to carrying science from discovery to dissemination and is actively engaged with a wide array of management, outreach, and educational programs. He has been an advisor to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for more than 25 years and works with several other private, state, and federal organizations.
Lessons learned on how the Hudson River has responded to invasive species such as zebra mussels and water chestnut, how shoreline development impacts water quality, and habitat response to sea level rise and saltwater intrusion.
The effects of rock salt on streams are most dramatic in streams in urban areas. These would be streams in proximity to roads The roads would receive a lot of rock salt and eventually as that dissolves, it moves on into the streams.
In the winter, rock salt is routinely spread on our roads to keep them free of ice. We now know that the rock salt can enter into our soil, groundwater, rivers and streams and can stay there year-round, effecting the ecosystem and people.
Have you ever wondered what happens when a fish encounters a dam or a culvert? Too often, these structures are barriers to breeding and nursery sites, feeding grounds, and vital genetic mixing. In a warming world, barriers also prevent fish from seeking refuge as stream temperatures change.
