Hidden under the waves, the humble seagrass remains relatively unknown by many of us, but this unassuming-looking plant plays an important role in restoring the health of our coastal ecosystems and fighting the climate crisis. Discover more about this once-common marine plant and the vast seagrass meadows being replanted around the UK coast.

Ecological restoration aims to recreate, initiate, or accelerate the recovery of an ecosystem that has been disturbed. Disturbances are environmental changes that alter ecosystem structure and function. Common disturbances include logging, damming rivers, intense grazing, hurricanes, floods, and fires. Restoration activities may be designed to replicate a pre-disturbance ecosystem or to create a new ecosystem where it had not previously occurred. Restoration ecology is the scientific study of repairing disturbed ecosystems through human intervention.

Spatial and temporal environmental variation control species distributions and abundances by defining habitat conditions that structure vegetation communities (Weiher & Keddy 1995, Wiens 2000). Describing this variation across multiple scales and identifying factors that control change remains a critical challenge for predicting vegetation communities and resulting habitat changes (Horne & Schneider 1995).

The Sankofa Wetland Park and Nature Trail is a long-term recovery project that aims to improve protection from hurricanes and flooding in the Lower Ninth Ward. The Sankofa Wetland Park was developed during 2017 in partnership with Sewerage and Water Board and the City of New Orleans. Sankofa worked with a team of wetland ecologists and landscape architects to transform this area into a space for environmental education, relaxation, and recreation for all to enjoy.

If civilizations are remembered for what they leave behind, our time might be labeled the Plastic Age. Plastic can endure for centuries. It's everywhere, even in our clothes, from polyester leisure suits to fleece jackets. A Silicon Valley startup is trying to get the plastic out of clothing and put something else in: biopolymers.

Researchers have uncovered the highest-ever concentration of microplastics on the seafloor. According to a new study in the journal Science, scientists recently found 1.9 million pieces in an area of about 11 square feet in the Mediterranean Sea. Over 10 million tons of plastic waste enter oceans each year - but the visible floating plastic that has led to anti-straw and anti-plastic bag movements accounts for less than 1% of the ocean's total plastic.

Our ocean and the array of species that call it home are succumbing to the poison of plastic. Examples abound, from the gray whale that died after stranding near Seattle in 2010 with more than 20 plastic bags, a golf ball, and other rubbish in its stomach to the harbor seal pup found dead on the Scottish island of Skye, its intestines fouled by a small piece of plastic wrapper. According to the United Nations, at least 800 species worldwide are affected by marine debris, and as much as 80 percent of that litter is plastic.

A 2015 report by the Inter American Commission on Human Rights also found pervasive problems associated with mining projects in territories where Indigenous Peoples and people of African descent live in the Americas, including contamination of soil and water and other negative health effects. And yet, pollution and other environmental problems aren't always viewed as examples of racial inequity.

The struggle to find clean drinking water has become a way of life for the residents of East Orosi. But they're not alone. Like a growing number of California's poor people, they're paying for water that's not fit to drink. One in 10 Californians in two major agricultural regions pays high rates for well water that's laced with nitrates, pesticides and other pollutants. Most are low-income Latinos; many speak only Spanish.

St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, has experienced tremendous urbanization, resulting in the loss of timberland. This study's objectives were to develop a model using parish-level data that estimates the probability of urban development in a pine or mixed forest parcel, and to identify the parcels most likely to be developed. The geographic data sets used include satellite imagery from 1981 and 1993, U.S. Census data, population growth estimates from the St. Tammany Parish Government, and road coverages.