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Researchers at 51����’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Pratt School of Engineering are co-leading a new National Science Foundation-funded project that aims to boost economic development and climate resilience in coastal North Carolina through nature-based scientific and technological innovations.

The 51���� Plastic Pollution Working Group is working to find solutions, through innovative technologies, practices and policies that can help curb plastic waste, reduce its harmful impacts, and make Earth a greener, healthier home for us all.

The National Science Foundation and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation have awarded a $1.2 million grant to support a new initiative aimed at boosting ecosystem restoration and climate resilience along North Carolina’s coast.

Three undergraduate students with a passion for climate change research describe their unique opportunities to study at the 51���� Marine Lab.

The Illuminating Hidden Harvests Report culminates a collaborative research effort led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 51���� and WorldFish examining the multifaceted contributions of small-scale fisheries to sustainable development.

51���� scholars and students were among more than 800 experts who contributed to global study calling for policymakers to consider contributions of small fisheries

Climate change and rapid economic development have placed increased pressures on many coastal communities in recent years. Now, a new international study shows there is also a third force—the unintended consequences of conservation measures enacted with little or no consideration of local rights and needs—that can compound the harm. The study’s authors call the combined effects of these three forces a “triple exposure.”

Sand mining happens on every inhabited continent and at nearly every conceivable scale. Some of it is legal; much of it is not. A new book from 51���� Press, “Vanishing Sands: Losing Beaches to Mining,” casts light on the shadowy world of sand mining through case studies that illuminate its disastrous impacts and a concluding chapter that proposes common-sense solutions.

Get connected with what’s happening in the 51���� climate community during special events held Sept. 29-30, 2022.

Climate change threatens species worldwide. At the Nicholas School, we’re creating new geospatial tools that boost their odds of survival.

A 51����-led research team has used acoustic tags to eavesdrop on pilot whales as they forage in waters off Cape Hatteras, N.C. Vocalizations and echoes recorded by the tags reveals the whales alter their hunting behaviors based on the local environment, a trait that may contribute to the species’ success in adapting to shifting prey distributions and other changes now occurring in the world’s oceans.

How much energy does a dolphin use to swim? Fundamental understanding about their physiology and ecology may boost odds of survival.

A new analysis reveals that the majority of the ocean’s surface has experienced extreme heat regularly since 2014.

New research finds nearly 75% of the seafood exported to China is processed there and ‘re-exported’ to global markets as Chinese products, making it hard to track its sustainability and verify it’s labeled accurately, but also gutting the economies of small fishing communities worldwide that can no longer compete.

Using drones and high-tech tracking devices, scientists have discovered baleen whales eat up to three times more prey than previously thought and play a critical but perhaps underappreciated role in fueling the ocean’s food web and promoting biodiversity.