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Coastal Communities and Climate Change
Flooding and land erosion have impacted residents throughout Maryland’s history, causing damage to buildings and loss of life. As climate changes and sea level rises, flooding is expected to worsen along the state’s coastlines. Maryland Sea Grant Extension is dedicated to helping coastal communities become more resilient to climate change and climate-related hazards.
Our efforts:
- We are assisting the Maryland Coastal Bays Program with a climate change vulnerability assessment and action plan. The Coastal Bays program is charged with protecting and conserving the water and surrounding land of Maryland’s five coastal bays near Ocean City and Assateague Island. The vulnerability assessment identifies and prioritizes climate-related risks to the Coastal Bays, which will be used in the development of a climate action plan.
- We support local government staff and community groups to advance climate adaptation efforts at a regional scale. Those efforts include helping governments on the Eastern Shore obtain grants for stormwater projects that will prevent flooding under future climate conditions. Our watershed restoration specialists are incorporating climate change and resiliency into their many projects across the state.
- We collaborate with the Deal Island Peninsula Project (DIPP) and the Engaging Faith Communities for Coastal Resilience (EFCCR) project to address coastal challenges in rural Eastern Shore communities. These projects use a collaborative learning approach to bring together diverse stakeholders, including community members, government staff, and academic researchers, to discuss environmental issues and climate adaptation. You can learn more about the collaborative learning approach in this video.
- We facilitate communication between academic researchers and stakeholders on coastal climate issues through forums and roundtable events. We also serve on several state-level workgroups addressing resilience and climate adaptation in Maryland.
Contact Maryland Sea Grant Extension
Coastal Climate Specialist
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Featured Fellow
Leone Yisrael is a cephalopod-loving scuba diver, cook, and loves to try new activities. She conducts genetic analysis and fieldwork at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center through the Coastal Disease Ecology Lab.
Featured Research Project
Exploring the Use of Benthic Microbial Fuel Cells to Remove Sulfide While Harvesting Energy from Oyster Aquaculture Biodeposits
Oyster aquaculture is a rapidly growing industry in Maryland’s Chesapeake waters which stimulates economic activity and may provide a host of ecosystem benefits. A potential concern associated with the intensification of the oyster aquaculture is the local production and accumulation of oyster biodeposits, which can lead to a porewater sulfide accumulation and declining bioturbation, symptoms of declining ecosystem function. Sulfide is naturally removed from the seafloor by the interactions between bioturbating infauna and sulfide oxidizing bacteria.
Chesapeake Quarterly Magazine
A Growing Industry: Advancing Oyster Aquaculture in Maryland
