North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, North Carolina State Parks researchers and more than 80 volunteers recently spent three nights conducting the species inventory across the state’s coastal plain.
Science
Five barrier islands find five ways to keep herds wild, healthy
On barrier islands from the Delmarva Peninsula to North Carolina’s Outer Banks, five horse herds share the same Colonial Spanish ancestry, but differ in how they’re managed.
‘Delivery is imminent’: UNCW awaits new research vessel
The University of North Carolina Wilmington is eagerly anticipating delivery of its new $7.5 million, 78-foot-long, 27-foot-wide, aluminum research vessel purpose-built with an array of equipment and sensors, including those for enhanced geophysical surveys.
‘Peering into the black box of nutrition’: Study tracks diets
Dr. Rachel Noble of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Sciences and colleagues used technology developed to track COVID-19 in municipal wastewater to now track populations’ dietary habits so their nutritional health may be studied and improved.
Find a special bottle in the water and you can help scientists
Deploying trackable floating bottles, researchers are working to better understand how litter gets into waterways and travels downstream, with an effort to pinpoint litter hotspots and identify correlations between storms and the volume of trash that enters individual streams during those storms.
North Carolina’s seagrass habitat continues to decline: Study
The Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership has found that the extent of seagrass meadows in the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary decreased by at least 16,000 acres over a 14-year period, “despite suitable habitat available for expansion.”
Shark depredation isn’t new, but widely seen as modern issue
Hemingway wrote masterfully about an aging Cuban fisherman’s heartbreak after losing a giant marlin he’d caught to hungry sharks, a problem that is not an emerging issue, as is often perceived, according to a recently published study.
Chancellor visits Institute of Marine Sciences, its researchers
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee H. Roberts spent Tuesday in Carteret County meeting with researchers at the university’s Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City as part of his second summer tour.
Sunny day flooding not as paradoxical as it may sound
While seemingly counterintuitive, king tides are not a new phenomenon but do represent a chronic and increasingly difficult challenge for coastal communities, but ordinary people can help by contributing to the science.
Scientists record female sperm whales assisting in calf’s birth
A research team was working the summer of 2023 off the coast of Dominica when they made the “impossibly rare” observation of a mother sperm whale giving birth and the newborn assisted by the other whales in taking its first breath, all while recording their underwater vocalizations.
Ocean Conservancy’s tool measures impact of litter cleanups
The organization’s new online calculator lets users see how many seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals they’ve helped by removing plastics from the environment.
Researcher Annie Harshbarger reveals pilot whale behavior
The doctoral candidate at Duke University is employing new whale-tagging technology to reveal highly detailed information about pilot whale hunting habits, answering old questions about the specifics of the species’ behavior.
Thriving oyster colonies on living shorelines boost protection
While it’s not exactly “build it and they will come,” nature-based shoreline erosion-control structures such as living shorelines offer increased protection when they successfully attract and grow oysters.
NC State team develops simulation tool for offshore energy
North Carolina State University researchers have created a model that simulates wind, waves, tides and currents to help pinpoint areas best suited for various types of offshore energy generation.
NOAA storm prediction modeling in midst of major update
National precipitation forecasting has for decades been hamstrung by static and inadequate climate models, but new tools are in development to provide more accurate rainfall predictions.
NCDEQ’s staffing cut by more than 30% over 14 years: Report
As North Carolina’s population has grown and the factory farming industry expanded, the state’s environmental agency staff has been slashed by almost a third in less than 15 years.
