The NJMC's Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute takes amazing aerial photos with an unmanned helium balloon. Pictured above is a shot taken recently in Secaucus, including part of Mill Creek Marsh and Mill Creek Point..
Click here to see earlier MERI aerial photographs and other projects.
Click here to link to the MERI Web site.
Click "Continue reading ... " to see more Secaucus aerial photos.
For incredible aerial photography on a shoestring, it's tough to top the Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute,
This shot and the ones on the "jump" of this post were taken from a digital camera attached to a tethered helium-filled balloon.
To see a video of how MERI achieves these amazing shots, click here.
More posts on MERI are here. MERI's home page is here.
Click "Continue reading..." to view another photo of the NJMC campus at DeKorte, as well as the Saw Mill Creek WMA tidal mudflat.
Next time you visit DeKorte Park, you may notice algae floating in the Kingsland Tidal Impoundment.
We asked Dr. Francisco Artigas, head of the Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute, what was up with that, and he said not to worry:
"This is well known seasonal phenomena we experience in this particular basin in the Meadowlands."
Click "Continue reading..." to learn more.
Photo by Dr. Francisco Artigas, copyright 2009, MERI
Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute staff have been busy in the field. In the photo above, (left to right) Danielle Cioce, Ed Konsevick and Joe Gryzb take sediment samples at the Secaucus High School Marsh to see if the new clean sediments brought into the site
remain clean after being exposed to the tide.
More on MERI here.
More on the project here.
What impact do wetlands have on greenhouse gases?
Beginning this week, the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission will begin to find out.
The NJMC's research arm, the Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute (MERI), will measure the capability of urban wetlands to capture and contain a harmful greenhouse gas.
Click "Continue reading..." for more information on this project.
The Record had a wonderful full-page story on Sunday about Francisco Artigas, head of the Meadowlands Commission's research arm.
The story, by Scott Fallon, is a must-read for anyone who cares about environmental progress in the Meadowlands. Click here to read it.
Click here for a video of Francisco talking about his unique method of aerial-photography in marsh reserach.
The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission is participating in a federal program to measure sea levels as part of the commission's efforts to assess the vitality of its marshes and to prepare for flooding that could
result from global warming.
Measurements using a nifty gizmo 
called a sediment elevation table (pictured to right) are being taken by NJMC's scientific arm, the Meadowlands
Environmental Research Institute (MERI).
The Meadowlands Commission's sea-level monitoring is one of the first of its kind in New Jersey.
Click "Continue reading" to learn more about sea-level rise and why it is significant to the region's marshes.
One of the many cool and useful projects done by the Meadowlands Commission's scientific arm, MERI (the Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute), is aerial photography done from balloons.
The photo above was taken last Thursday along the Hackensack River looking north between the Upper Hackensack lift bridge and the HX drawbridge. The two railroad bridges cross the Hackensack between Lyndhurst and Secaucus.
More on MERI here.
More on the aerial photography here.
Click "Continue reading..." for more images.
The Hackensack River is slowly getting better in ways that most people never think of.
It's not just more fish and more species of fish -- or more birds, and more species of birds. It's what's happening in the mud on the river's bottom.
Today, the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission's scientific arm is announcing some encouraging news about the health of those little mud dwellers.
Research by the Meadowlands
Environmental Research Institute shows that the snails, worms and other tiny
organisms that live on t
he bottom of the river are making significant gains in both numbers and biodiversity.
(In the photo at left, researchers are gathering mud samples from the river bottom with a giant scoop. The creature pictured here, meanwhile is a Nereis succinea -- or clam worm.)
Click "Continue reading..." to read more.
