Nutrient pollution occurs when too much nitrogen or phosphorus enters a waterway, and is often caused by human activities. This can harm the waterway and aquatic life, and produce unsightly and sometimes harmful algal blooms. Do your part to protect our waterways from nutrient pollution.

Despite the valuable role that mangroves and seagrass play in the Florida Keys ecosystem, these plants are facing one particularly large threat: Us. In the Florida Keys, human development is the greatest threat to mangrove communities. Since the 1950s, more than 60 percent of mangroves in Monroe County have been destroyed for development. Activities such as dredging, using herbicides, and increasing waste water runoff have destroyed thousands of acres of mangrove habitat.

A proposal to build a hotel and conference center in Fontainebleau State Park near Mandeville has yet to receive a public vetting - that comes Wednesday night - but is already generating controversy among some north shore residents and environmentalists. Opponents have cited several concerns, ranging from the prospect of more development at the 2,800-acre park on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain and the lack of local input in planning to the specter that the proposed resort will eventually include a gambling casino.

It is often easy to use empty metaphors or scientific jargon to explain the impacts and future related to coastal land loss. But when scientists take the time to elevate the voices of people that are losing their homes and livelihood, science and stories blend to have deeper impacts on those looking from the outside. In this talk, Madelyn Smith shares her photography, and the stories of people photographed, to illuminate the urgency and broader impacts of Louisiana's coastal land loss.

Where rivers meet the ocean, coastlines tend to bend either inward or outward, creating estuaries and deltas. But how do they get those shapes?

Like microbeads, polystyrene plastics are environmental hazards. They are extremely toxic to make and difficult to recycle. Polystyrene and "Styrofoam" are even banned from many recycling programs because of contamination problems - less than 2% of polystyrene was recycled in 2013.

Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) includes aquatic grasses (seagrasses) and attached macro-algae. SAV is highly valuable habitat since it provides numerous important ecological functions that are difficult to replace; yet it is especially vulnerable to coastal development and water quality degradation.

First Nations reserves across Canada struggle to access clean drinking water from their taps. We explain why this problem has persisted and what the Trudeau government is doing about it

Wetlands are areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year or for varying periods of time during the year, including during the growing season. Water saturation (hydrology) largely determines how the soil develops and the types of plant and animal communities living in and on the soil. Wetlands may support both aquatic and terrestrial species. The prolonged presence of water creates conditions that favor the growth of specially adapted plants (hydrophytes) and promote the development of characteristic wetland (hydric) soils.

Our natural areas are in urgent need of support. Learn how we can make an impact through ecological restoration in our communities.