Explore the causes and effects of water contamination, including microplastics, chemicals, and stormwater runoff. Learn how to protect lakes, rivers, and freshwater resources.
Seagrass meadows are widespread in shallow coastal waters and are involved in trapping and binding sediment particles that form the seabed. These seagrass meadows also provide important ecosystem services and benefits, such as water quality improvement; CO2 absorption; climate change mitigation; sediment production for seafloor and beach stabilization; coastal protection; nursery and refuge areas for
More than 25 years ago, biologists in Arkansas began to report dozens of bald eagles paralyzed, convulsing, or dead. Their brains were pocked with lesions never seen before in eagles. Birds were dying at lakes and reservoirs throughout the southeast, and at every lake Susan Wilde, an aquatic ecologist at the University of Georgia, Athens
Our carbon dioxide emissions are making the oceans more acidic. As we pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, a portion dissolves into the world’s oceans. Once there, the carbon dioxide goes through a series of chemical changes that have an acidifying effect on seawater. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and through photosynthesis. Underwater
Hartbeespoort Dam in South Africa has a new invasive aquatic weed to battle, Salvinia minima. The proliferation of common salvinia, just as water hyacinth came under biological control through the combined efforts is no coincidence. In areas that experience high levels of nutrient inflow (pollution), the control of one aquatic weed opens resources to other
Around 83% of green turtles and 86% of loggerhead turtles found off the coast of Queensland were found to have plastics within them, a study from Deakin, James Cook and Murdoch universities found. Researchers examined the contents of the stomach, intestines, cloaca and bladder of stranded or captured turtles collected from the Indian Ocean off
Two new Trash Hunters launched by DC Water this week will help scoop up floating trash and debris from the Anacostia River, making the waterways cleaner and more enjoyable. These boats a big investment by DC Water to reclaim our rivers. They will literally be pulling tons of trash out of the Anacostia and Potomac
This adoption program requires just three days of personal, hands-on time annually and a commitment of no more than two years. Businesses and community groups are being asked to volunteer for a first-ever “adopt-a-river” program in Wisconsin and remove trash along the Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic rivers and their tributaries, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District Executive
More and more environmental groups are making noise about the devastating impact winter salting has on the environment which is raising awareness and forcing lawmakers to look at alternative solutions. In Canada alone, the country applies five million tonnes (over 110 billion pounds) of salt during an average winter. This salt contaminates ground and freshwater,
Ocean Conservancy released the results of the 2019 International Coastal Clean-up, revealing that for the first time in ICC history, cigarette butts were displaced as the number-one-reported debris item along beaches and waterways worldwide. Instead, food wrappers topped the list, with 943,195 volunteers removing a record 4,771,602 food wrappers in a single day. Food wrappers
In 1985, Muskegon Lake in Michigan was declared a Great Lakes Area of Concern by the EPA. The West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission will utilize $3.1 million to clean up the lake and undo years of environment abuse. The abuse began in the 1800’s during the lumber era when sawmill debris was tossed into