Conserving our Coasts

WHOI marine chemist Amanda Spivak studies salt marshes such as this one near Waquoit Bay in Mashpee, Mass. She is starting a project to understand how New England’s nearly century-old practice of digging ditches to increase drainage and reduce habitat for mosquitoes has affected marsh topography and carbon storage. Hers is one of six new projects recently funded by the Woods Hole Sea Grant Program to help maintain healthy coastal ecosystems in the face of climate change. Sea Grant also awarded funds to WHOI researchers Steve Elgar, Mark Hahn, Porter Hoagland, Rubao Ji, Hauke Kite-Powell, Joel Llopiz, Britt Raubenheimer, and Chris Reddy. (Photo by Véronique LaCapra, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)