Science

  • Group Seeks to Gauge Air Quality Statewide

    The group Clean Air Carolina has six web-linked monitors in New Hanover County, providing real-time readings of particulate matter levels in the air, and is working to place them in all 100 N.C. counties.

  • Venus Flytraps Don’t Eat Their Pollinators

    These carnivorous plants native to the Wilmington area rely on insects as pollinators and prey, but researchers have discovered that Venus flytraps don’t feast on the bugs that pollinate them.

  • Duke’s Drones to Take Off on Defense Project

    Researchers at Duke University’s Marine Robotics and Remote Sensing Lab will use $954,000 Defense Department grant to study how drones can help military land managers monitor shoreline changes.

  • Study: Corals Prefer the Taste of Plastic

    Plastic debris in the ocean is often mistaken for food by marine animals, but researchers at the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort recently discovered that coral found off the N.C. coast prefer it to food.

  • App Offers Guidance On Living Shorelines

    The Nature Conservancy’s Coastal Resilience program has partnered with scientists at the NOAA Beaufort Lab to create an online tool for assessing the suitability of living shorelines along the central North Carolina coast.

  • Camp Lejeune Focus of 10-Year Study

    Researchers studied the complex ecosystems of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune as part of a 10-year study that wrapped up in October to better understand coastal and estuarine ecosystems in a military training environment.

  • Coastal Barrier Resources Act Focus of Study

    A team of researchers from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill will study the effect the Coastal Barrier Resources Act has had on development along the coasts of North Carolina, Texas, Florida, Alabama and Delaware.

  • Rising Seas: NC Coast Faces Chronic Flooding

    A new report on sea level rise indicates that at least 20 North Carolina communities could be regularly inundated with sea water within 15 years but local experts feel some areas are already suffering the effects.

  • Reefs As Carbon Sinks? Location Matters

    Researchers at the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences have found that oyster reefs may help in mitigating climate change, but near-shore reefs sequester carbon better than others.

  • Study: Predicting How Seawalls Affect Ecology

    A new study provides insight into how different types of shoreline hardening affect the ecology across a variety of coastal settings, giving scientists a model for better predicting the effects.