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Off the NC Coast

Healthy Ecosystems

Neighborhoods and communities face numerous threats from emerging contaminants, stormwater run-off, plastics and marine debris, other pollutants, and more.

image: bioteretention area.

Oct 2, 2025

Green Solutions at Biltmore Hills Park

While the origins of “Rochester Heights Creek” are modest, its impacts are outsized, carrying the stormwater runoff from nearby roads, parking lots, and buildings. During heavy rain events, this creek — which has no official name in the state’s records — swells and rages, carving dirt out of the streambanks as it turns corners, rising up over the banks behind homes in Rochester Heights, flooding backyards and street intersections, lapping at foundations. 
image: Colorful Oil Sheen Reflecting in Water Near a Storm Drain on a Rainy Day in an Urban Environment.

Oct 1, 2025

The Guide to Coastal Living

Stormwater from rain or melting snow runs across rooftops, roads, and other impervious surfaces into gutters or pipes that directly lead to streams. This water collects pollutants as it flows.
image: view from inside a well.

Jul 10, 2025

PFAS, Arsenic, and Trade-Offs

A bedrock well is the most cost-effective option.
image: irrigation for farmland.

Jul 9, 2025

Waste Not, Want Not

A new study explores wastewater renewal.
Austin Gray with a student conducting fieldwork at a creek.

Jun 9, 2025

A New World for Microbes

Former Sea Grant fellow Austin Gray is exploring what happens when microbes meet microplastics.
image: The view from the ruins of the old lighthouse (built in 1875) at Cape Three Points, Ghana. Credit: Friedmut Abel/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0.

Jun 3, 2025

Across the Atlantic

Funding cuts and policy delays threaten to derail Ghana’s first marine protected area, putting livelihoods and biodiversity at risk.
image: Falls Lake under the stars.

Mar 31, 2025

Safeguarding Water

A new approach to watershed health protects the Falls Lake drinking water supply for 500,000 North Carolina residents.
image: shucking an oyster.

Mar 31, 2025

Climate Change in the Napa Valley of Oysters

Rising seas and warming temperatures pose challenges for a critical, eco-friendly industry.
image: discarded plastic.

Mar 26, 2025

PET Predators

Chemical and biomolecular engineer Nathan Crook and Student Tianyu Li at NC State University are developing a microorganism that can break down and absorb plastic waste.
image: submerged U-boat diving site.

Mar 26, 2025

Off the NC Coast

Take a ride in an imaginary submersible, and explore unique creatures and geological features along the ocean floor.