COASTAL 



TIDINGS 



Salt Marsh Meadows 



Cord grasses are the most 

 common grasses along the fringe 

 of North Carolina's salt marshes. 

 They are true members of the 

 grass family that have adapted to 

 the harsh realities of a salty 

 environment. 



Cord grasses inhabit the area of 

 marsh above the mud flats that is 

 submerged with salt water only at high 

 tide. Unlike seagrasses, cord grasses 

 do not tolerate total submergence in 

 seawater. Their leaves must always 

 remain exposed to the air. 



Salt glands in the cord grass 

 leaves excrete excess salt taken 

 up by the plant. And extensive 

 horizontal rhizomes stretch 

 through the marsh mud, securing 

 sediments and adding to the 

 marsh landscape. □ 



Wetlands May Help Clean Up Landfills 



Most people don't think 

 about their trash once it has left 

 the curbside, but garbage can 

 affect the environment long after 

 it's buried in a landfill. The prob- 

 lem is leachate, a product of 

 decomposing refuse and precipita- 

 tion that soaks through. 



Sea Grant and North Carolina 

 State University researchers are 

 exploring new ways to treat this 

 polluted wastewater with man- 

 made wetlands that mimic natural 

 filtering systems. In 1995, two 

 types of wetlands were planted at 

 the New Hanover County landfill to 

 test their ability to remove nitrogen 

 from the leachate, says Barbara 

 Doll, Sea Grant's water quality 

 specialist. The two-year monitoring 

 effort began in January 1996. 



This work is important as North 

 Carolina struggles with the problem 

 of excess nutrients (especially 

 nitrogen) and oxygen-demanding 

 pollution running into its coast- 

 bound rivers from nonpoint source 

 runoff, agriculture, wastewater 

 treatment plants and natural 

 sources such as swamps. 



Earlier research has shown that 

 constructed wetlands can effectively 

 remove a series of pollutants known 

 as biological oxygen demand 

 (BOD) and suspended solids from 

 wastewaters. But their ability to 

 remove nitrogen is less certain. 



The New Hanover County 

 project is designed to answer some 

 of the unknowns by isolating the 

 different ways that a wetland 

 removes nitrogen — such as plant 



microbial uptake, evaporation and 

 microbial processes that break 

 down the nitrogen. 



Leachate from the landfill 

 passes through a package treat- 

 ment plant, which removes pollut- 

 ants. But during winter months, 

 cooler temperatures inhibit the 

 process that removes ammonia 

 (a form of nitrogen). And because 

 ammonia is toxic to aquatic 

 organisms, it is sometimes difficult 

 for the county to meet state water 

 quality permit limits. 



New Hanover County environ- 

 mental officials hope that con- 

 structed wetlands can remedy this 

 problem, Doll says. The study will 

 also help researchers understand 

 how wetlands actually remove 

 pollutants from wastewater. □ 



North Carolina Sea Grant 

 Revamps Web Page 



The redesigned North Carolina Sea Grant web page is up for public view. 

 The new address is http://www2.ncsu.edu/sea_grant/seagrant.html. 

 Parts of the site are still under construction, but the program's staff, 

 news and publications pages are operational. □ 



COASTWATCH 3 



