We're living in a time where the pace and dimensions of environmental change are faster
than any other time in human history.
More than half the population in the world lives within 100 miles of the coast and even
more depend on coastal resources.
Healthy and resilient coastal ecosystems protect coastal communities from sea level rise and
storms.
Coastal ecosystems including seagrasses are being lost at increasing rates.
And they're very important in taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
One of the exciting things about the work that we're doing in Virginia, is that we're
reversing that trend.
Working with partners we now have the world's largest seagrass restoration program.
One of the challenges that we've had is that we weren't able to make measurements out in
the field, we used to have to take a piece of the seafloor and bring it back to our lab.
One of the researchers that works on our program is Peter Berg, and he's developed a new technology
using new sensors to put numbers on carbon sequestration.
We need to be able to measure success.
There are two variables we are measuring, the velocity and we measure the oxygen concentration.
But we are not touching the seafloor, we do not disturb the light, for the first time
we can really measure an undisturbed, natural exchange.
The high quality data that we're now able to get will allow us to address questions
related to global warming, global climate models, and ocean acidification.
What we're learning is that these coastal ecosystems store more carbon than forests
for longer periods of time.
What drives me to do this work is curiosity.
We constantly learn something.
There's always something new to be discovered.
The work that we're doing, partnerships that we're building, students that we're training;
together will help make coastal communities more resilient and will lead to a better future.