WELLFLEET – The Cape Cod National Seashore is sharing $800,000 dollars in funding from President Biden’s “Investing in America Agenda,” part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, to study seagrass meadow decline and identify strategies for regrowth in national parks along the East Coast.
Researchers will be looking for seagrass meadows which possess traits that make them tolerant to climate stressors, then those populations will become donor sources for future restoration efforts.
According to the National Park Service, seagrass meadows are a critical marine species for commercial fishing, reducing coastal erosion and improving water clarity.
Officials say eelgrass, the main seagrass species in eastern national seashores, is declining at an alarming rate, most-recently because of increasingly-high summer water temperatures.
In the Cape Cod National Seashore, the areas of focus will include East Harbor in Provincetown, Wellfleet, and Pleasant Bay in Orleans and Chatham.
The work is being completed by Dr. Alyssa Novak, a coastal ecologist with Boston University. Elsewhere, researchers will also hit up Fire Island on Long Island, New York and the Assateague Island National Seashores in Maryland and Virginia.
Check out this similar story recently posted by Cape Cod.com: Local Seagrass Expert Named Director Of Global Protection Program
By Jim McCabe, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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