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Restoring Seagrass In Virginia | Earth Wise

December 10, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Restoring seagrass in Virginia

Seagrass is found in shallow waters in many parts of the world.  They are plants with roots, stems, and leaves, and produce flowers and seeds.  They can form dense underwater meadows that constitute some of the most productive ecosystems in the world.  Seagrasses provide shelter and food to a diverse community of animals including tiny invertebrates, fish, crabs, turtles, marine mammals and birds.

In the late 1920s, a pathogen began killing seagrasses off the coast of Virginia.  In 1933, a hurricane finished them off completely.  For nearly 70 years thereafter, the bay bottoms of the Virginia coast were muddy and barren, essentially devoid of fish, shellfish, mollusks and other creatures that inhabit seagrass meadows.  The local scallop industry was no more.

The largest seagrass restoration project ever attempted has changed all that.  During the past 21 years, scientists and volunteers have spread more than 70 million eelgrass seeds within four previously barren seaside lagoons.  This has spurred a natural propagation of meadows that have so for grown to almost 9,000 acres, the largest eelgrass habitat between North Carolina and Long Island Sound.

The long-term research conducted by the team from the University of Virginia shows that the success of the seagrass restoration project is improving water quality, substantially increasing the abundance of fish and shellfish in the bays, and capturing carbon from the water and atmosphere and storing it in the extensive root systems of the grasses and in the sediment below. 

The study shows that marine restorations are possible on scales that contribute directly to human well-being.

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Some Good News: Seagrass Restored to Eastern Shore Bays is Flourishing

Photo, posted May 17, 2019, courtesy of Virginia Sea Grant via Flickr. Photo credit: Aileen Devlin | Virginia Sea Grant.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

High-Tide Flooding And Pollution

April 30, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Global sea levels are steadily rising.  They are up 8 inches in the past century and now increasing at an average of 1.3 inches per decade.  As a result, the incidence of high-tide “sunny day” flooding is on the rise, especially along the U.S. East Coast.

Norfolk Virginia experienced fewer than 2 days of high-tide flooding a year in the 1960s; it had 14 in 2017.  Up and down the East Coast, flood days have increased by factors of 5 and more.

This has led to a form of pollution that hasn’t gathered much attention in the past:  when these floodwaters recede, they can carry debris, toxic pollutants and excess nutrients into rivers, bays, and oceans.

In the aftermath of high-tide flooding in Norfolk, Chesapeake Bay was littered with tipped-over garbage cans, tossed-away hamburgers, oil, dirty diapers, pet waste and all manner of other things.  Water that comes up on the landscape takes everything back into the river or ocean with it.

Analysis of tidal flooding along the Lafayette River in Norfolk indicated that just one morning of tidal flooding poured nearly the entire EPA annual allocation of nitrogen runoff for the river – nearly 2,000 pounds – into Chesapeake Bay.  The effects of excess nitrogen in the water are well-known and responsible for the toxic algal blooms that endanger aquatic life as well as human health.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, high-tide flooding frequency along the southeastern coast of the U.S. rose 160% since 2000.  With the expected continuing rises in sea level, NOAA projects that as many as 85 days of high-tide flooding will occur along the coast by the year 2050.  It’s a big problem.

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As High-Tide Flooding Worsens, More Pollution Is Washing to the Sea

Photo, posted September 20, 2018, courtesy of SC National Guard via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Changing National Parks

January 12, 2017 By EarthWise

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/EW-01-12-17-Changing-National-Parks.mp3

America’s National Parks are special places of incomparable beauty and fascination.  When the National Park Service was first created 100 years ago, it was instructed to leave these places “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”   We now live in a time when the changing climate is altering many aspects of the landscape including in many national parks.  The parks are protected, but they are changing.

[Read more…] about Changing National Parks

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