Image

Too Much of a Good Thing

Summer Student Fellow Claudia Mazur, of Mount Holyoke College (foreground), together with WHOI guest student Alec Cobban sampled sediments under oyster aquaculture sites in West Falmouth Harbor this summer. Both were working in WHOI scientist Ginny Edgcomb’s lab on an ongoing project to investigate oysters’ ability to stimulate nitrogen removal in sediments as a way to help combat eutrophication, or excess nutrients, in coastal waters. Communities around Cape Cod face environmental challenges from high nutrient levels—primarily nitrogen and phosphorous—that can cause rapid algae and plankton growth, leading to low oxygen levels and other problems in local waters.(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)