Climate Change
As Right Whale Population Plummets, Focus Turns To Their Falling Birth Rates
For many decades, the North Atlantic right whale was a conservation success story. After being hunted to near extinction, a series of protective actions that began in the 1930s, and accelerated in the 1960s, helped the population begin to rebound.
Read MoreAs Storms Become Stronger, What’s In Store For Coastal Drinking Wells?
Hurricanes can push extra sea water toward the shore. And that water, called storm surge, can flood streets and basements. But scientists at the University of Rhode Island are wondering, how can that water impact coastal drinking wells?
Read MoreResearchers: Acid Rain Success Story Shows Value Of Science Informing Public Policy
Remember acid rain? In the 1970s and ‘80s, scientists found that rain 100 times more acidic than normal was harming the mountain forests of New England and New York. The pollution was linked to fossil fuel plants in the Midwest. Now, a new study shows red spruce trees are recovering thanks to tighter pollution laws.
Read MorePlum Island Residents Weigh ‘Green’ Or ‘Gray’ Infrastructure In Struggle Against Erosion
On the northern tip of an island surrounded by river, marsh and sea, a few dozen volunteers sink shovels into a mound of sand, digging 10,000 holes to plant 20,000 stalks of beach grass.
Read MoreSouth County Beach Community In Rhode Island Continues To Retreat As Ocean Creeps Inland
The cottages in these rows are in a prime oceanfront location, but they won’t be here for long. Within the next two years, they will be moved about a quarter mile inland, because the ocean is creeping in closer and closer every year.
Read MoreMassachusetts Residents Worry Time Is Running Out For Salt Marsh Islands
Salt marshes are coastal wetlands that span up and down the East Coast. They help protect coastal properties from strong waves during storms, absorb carbon from the atmosphere, and serve as nurseries for fish and critical habitat for birds, such as ospreys. However, residents and fishermen started noticing these marsh islands, especially in the west branch of the river, rapidly disappearing.
Read MoreArchaeologists Find Eroding Coastlines Threaten Past as Much as Present
New Hampshire’s Seacoast is home to some of the earliest history of European settlers anywhere in the country. Believe it or not, much of that history is still being uncovered. But now climate change and sea-level rise is adding new urgency to those efforts.
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How The New England Aquarium Seeks To Urge Visitors To Act On Climate Change
The Aquarium MBTA station was closed due to flooding, and the aquarium itself, nearby on Boston’s Central Wharf, was closed out of caution for its visitors.
To Understand Great Bay’s Decline (and How to Stop It), Start on the Water
New Hampshire’s Great Bay and the Piscataqua River estuary have been in bad shape for years – and the latest data doesn’t show a lot of improvement.
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On New Hampshire’s Coast, Preparing for Future Storms with Grass, Sand and a Bit of Time
As New Hampshire’s coastline prepares for a world with rising seas and stronger storms, communities and homeowners have different options, none of them simple: seawalls, raised structures, a retreat from the shoreline.
But some scientists in New Hampshire are pitching a more natural approach. All it takes is a little grass and some time.
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