Denis Blackmore, Ph.D., professor of mathematics at New Jersey Institute of Technology, is a member of a multi-institutional team of scientists awarded a National Science Foundation planning grant to develop a proposal for a biocomplexity project exploring the ecosystem structure and dynamics in urban salt marshes.

The team includes scientists from Columbia University, Florida State University, Rutgers University and Yale University. They will use new mathematical approaches to analyze the connectivity of components of marshes in Florida and New York/New Jersey. Marshes to be studied include Arthur Kill in Staten Island, N.Y., which is highly impacted by oil pollution; the Meadowlands, in northern New Jersey, which has high levels of mercury and other heavy metals; Tuckerton, in south Jersey, which is relatively untouched; and the Marks Wildlife Refuge in Florida.

Blackmore will integrate the disparate biological, hydrological and meteorological elements of the research into a dynamical system that can be studied using complexity theory, fractal analysis, non-linear dynamics and statistical analysis. The goal is to obtain both qualitative and quantitative measures of overall ecosystem complexity of an urban salt marsh.

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