. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. level of sulfur in a sediment layer, she knows that the estuary suffered from a lack of oxygen at that time. I know it's a complicated lesson in geochemistry, but I hope the point is clear: Once again, nature remembers. In this case, sulfur levels help to map the level of oxygen available to estuarine life across the Daniel Jones pushes out a sediment core on the lab bench at the Duke Wetland Center. The core, collected from the Neuse River estuary, will be divided into 2-centimeter sections and ana
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. level of sulfur in a sediment layer, she knows that the estuary suffered from a lack of oxygen at that time. I know it's a complicated lesson in geochemistry, but I hope the point is clear: Once again, nature remembers. In this case, sulfur levels help to map the level of oxygen available to estuarine life across the Daniel Jones pushes out a sediment core on the lab bench at the Duke Wetland Center. The core, collected from the Neuse River estuary, will be divided into 2-centimeter sections and analyzed. Cooper's study of fossilized diatoms is another intriguing way to explore the history of water quality. Diatoms are a distinctive kind of microscopic algae and one of the most common types of phytoplankton in our estuaries. Diatoms and other phytoplankton form the critical first rung in the estuarine food chain. They are the basis of all our commercial and recreational fisheries. Lose the phytoplankton, and you lose the fried shrimp and stuffed flounder. Diatoms are useful in paleoecological research because they have a silica shell, known as a frustule. The frustule has two overlapping parts, like a pillbox and its lid. Because it is almost pure silica, the frustule is preserved in the estuary sediments after the diatom dies. And because each species of diatom has a unique frustule, they can be identified under a microscope. Diatom species are numerous — Cooper counted more than 240 in her North Carolina sediment cores. And she expects to find more based on her research in the Chesapeake Bay, where she's counted more than 400. Some thrive better in salt water, others in brackish water, others fresh water. In fact, the species of diatoms in an estuary sample differ depending on a whole range of environmental conditions: not just salinity, but also light, pH, nutrient levels, substrate, temperature and pollution. Thus Cooper can identify the diatoms in a sediment sample
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