News and Features by Research Area or Topic
Posted on February 15th, 2013 in Coastal Pollution, Ecological Forecasts & Tools, Ecology & Oceanography, Ecosystem Management, Harmful Algal Blooms, Hypoxia & Eutrophication, Invasive Species, Marine Spatial Planning, Monitoring & Event Response, Outreach, Prevention, Control & Mitigation, Rapid Response
The leading world venue for showcasing the latest research on oceans, coasts and lakes is the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Aquatic Sciences Meeting. The research programs sponsored by the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) lead management solutions for harmful algae, hypoxia and regional ecosystem-scale research. At the [...]
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Posted on December 2nd, 2012 in Coastal Pollution, Ecological Forecasts & Tools, Hypoxia & Eutrophication, News Clips
As a student in Port Aransas, Nancy Rabalais never had money, but she always had the sea. “Fish and oysters, crabs — whatever we needed we could always get something to eat somehow,” she said. “Plus it was fun to get them.” Her lifelong affinity and stewardship for the marine environment was recognized this fall [...]
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Posted on November 28th, 2012 in Chemical Contaminants, Climate Impacts, Coastal Pollution, Hypoxia & Eutrophication, News Clips, Ocean Acidification, Pathogens & Microbes, Sponsored Research
The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center’s DOOM lab (Dissolved Oxygen and Oyster Mortality) is examining how oysters respond to sudden drops in oxygen levels in shallow parts of the Chesapeake Bay at night. These fluctuations are partially natural, but appear to be made worse by nitrogen and phosphorus pollution. Oxygen depletion may make oysters more susceptible [...]
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Posted on October 29th, 2012 in Chemical Contaminants, Coastal Pollution, Hypoxia & Eutrophication, News Clips
There are things Iowa farmers and other landowners can do to reduce the flow of nitrate pollution into the Mississippi River and, eventually, into the Gulf of Mexico. But some possible solutions have been repeatedly side-tracked by cost, political stalemates and uncertainty over what benefits, if any, would result in the Gulf if measures to [...]
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Posted on October 28th, 2012 in Chemical Contaminants, Coastal Pollution, Hypoxia & Eutrophication, News Clips
CHAUVIN, La. — Generations of shrimpers, crabbers and oystermen have set out from this bayou village to net their catch. They share an emotional bond with Iowa’s farmers: Both harvest nature’s bounty to earn a livelihood. These fishermen depend on the sea, just as the nation’s top corn growers rely on the rich Midwest soil. [...]
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Posted on October 10th, 2012 in Coastal Pollution, Hypoxia & Eutrophication, News Clips, Sponsored Research
This post was co-authored with Bob Diaz, a WRI partner and professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. This year’s extreme weather events—a warm winter, even warmer summer, and a drought that covered nearly two-thirds of the continental United States—has certainly caused its fair share of damages. But despite the crop failures, water shortages, [...]
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Posted on October 5th, 2012 in Coastal Pollution, Hypoxia & Eutrophication, People and Infrastructure
Nancy Rabalais, the Executive Director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium was recently awarded the MacArthur Award, for her dedicated, long-term efforts spanning multiple decades, documenting and mitigating the effects of the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. Dr. Rabalais’s work has been instrumental in making the connection between nutrient inputs from the Mississippi [...]
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Posted on October 2nd, 2012 in Chemical Contaminants, Coastal Pollution, Hypoxia & Eutrophication, News Clips, Sponsored Research
Nancy Rabalais is a marine ecologist who is dedicated to documenting and mitigating the effects of hypoxic zones—aquatic areas with low dissolved oxygen levels commonly known as “dead zones”—that have expanded dramatically in the Gulf of Mexico and many other coastal systems around the globe. Since the mid-1980s, she has led a long-term monitoring program [...]
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