Photo by Scott Taylor 



identify the erosion feature, its current 



position and the speed it is moving up the 

 coast. ■ Their results may not help 

 Denis Bailey now, but they can give other 

 property owners and coastal managers a 

 better indication of future shoreline 

 changes near inlets. ■ Coastal 

 managers will have something else to 

 thank Fisher for soon. He and Margery 

 Overton, an NCSU civil engineer, are 

 developing a technique to predict dune 

 erosion during storms. ■ For four 

 years, the team has tested the relationship 

 between wave force and dunes by using a 

 small wave tank at NCSU and test dunes 

 in the field. ■ Now they'll use tanks 

 300 feet long and 15 feet wide at Oregon 

 State University to refine and validate their 

 theories. ■ Their findings can be used 

 to design dunes for shoreline protection 

 and to evaluate potential flooding due to 



dune erosion during storms. Sea Grant researchers will learn more about the forces that caused this erosion at Topsail Beach 



estuaries 



Photo by Jim Strickland 



The Albemarle-Pamlico Sound system 

 is the second largest estuary in the 

 nation, stretching from Currituck to 

 Carteret counties. It accommodates 

 numerous finfish and shellfish nursery 

 areas and supports diverse commer- 

 cial and sportfishing industries. M 

 That adds up to at least $130 million for 

 the state each year. ■ But this valuable 

 estuary is threatened. H Burgeoning 

 populations in nearby counties add new 

 pressures to water use. More sediments 

 and nutrients like nitrogen and phospho- 

 rus find their way down the rivers into the 

 sounds. ■ The results range from 

 declines in some fisheries to nuisance algal 

 blooms that surface in the summer. ■ 

 Water quality managers are worried. They 

 need more data on the current status of 

 the sound system to find ways to protect it 

 for future use. ■ Sea Grant researchers 

 are hoping to fill the void. ■ Biologist 

 Hans Paerl and physicist Richard Leuttich 

 with the University of North Carolina Insti- 

 tute of Marine Sciences plan to develop a 

 new way to estimate the productivity of the 

 estuary. They'll look at how much food is 

 produced by algae, the first link in the 

 estuary's food chain. Knowing this will tell 

 them how much food is available to other 



Sea Grant will focus much of its research on the e 



plants and animals. ■ Paerl and 

 Leuttich will also examine the feeding activi- 

 ties of zooplankton, the next link in the 

 chain. ■ To get the most accurate 

 results, the team will sample the water at 

 various points in Pamlico Sound. Then 

 they'll simulate the water's turbid conditions 

 by spinning the samples in a horizontal 

 wheel and exposing them to different 

 amounts of light. ■ Using this 

 approach, the team can tell how the food 

 chain varies seasonally and under different 

 environmental conditions. ■ Research- 

 ers know that nutrients behave as fertilizers 



stuary— the ocean's nursery 



on algae just as they do on lawns and 

 crops. They spur growth. ■ An extra 

 dose of nitrogen or phosphorus can be 

 good for corn, but in the estuary it causes 

 problems— massive mats of nasty blue- 

 green algae. And the flow of nutrients from 

 sewage treatment plants, farms, forests and 

 industries seems endless. ■ But so far, 

 scientists don't know how many nutrients 

 are too many nutrients. So biologists Don 

 Stanley and Joseph Boyer of East Carolina 

 University will experiment on a smaller 

 scale. ■ They'll inject differing amounts 

 of nitrogen and phosphorus into huge 



