Falmouth-based Woods Hole Group has been awarded a contract by The Nature Conservancy to study eelgrass conservation and restoration in coastal areas of New York and New England. Specifically, Woods Hole Group will help determine coastal areas in those areas where efforts to restore and conserve eelgrass would have the highest likelihood of success.

According to John Brawley, Senior Marine Systems Ecologist with Woods Hole Group: “The likelihood of success will be assessed through the review of predicted future nutrient loads, water temperatures, sediment quality, water quality, and sea level.  The success of future eelgrass restoration will also be dependent, in part, on the relative resilience and genetic diversity of subregional populations, reported in  previous studies.”

Eelgrass (Zostera marina) populations have been in decline throughout the northeast United States for at least five decades, generally attributed to poor light and sediment conditions from nutrient over-richment.

Previous studies of eelgrass in the New York and southern New England region have shown that eelgrass resilience to environmental stressors varies by subregion. Woods Hole Group is reviewing data from as many as one hundred individual estuaries in the region and developing statistical models to achieve The Nature Conservancy’s goals.

Woods Hole Group is an international, environmental, scientific, and engineering consulting organization headquartered in Falmouth, Massachusetts.  With its breadth of vision and emphasis on a sustainable future global environment, Woods Hole Group provides premier integrated solutions to meet the challenge of environmental problems worldwide.  As a leader in environmental sciences and engineering, Woods Hole Group’s expertise includes environmental impact and risk assessment, measurement systems for real-time operational guidance, oceanography, and coastal sciences, engineering and planning. Woods Hole Group celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2011. For more information, visit www.woodsholegroup.com.

With headquarters in Arlington, Virginia and offices worldwide, the Nature Conservancy is the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. Founded in 1951, it works in all 50 states and more than 30 countries — protecting habitats from grasslands to coral reefs, from Australia to Alaska to Zambia. The Nature Conservancy address threats to conservation involving climate change, fresh water, oceans, and conservation lands. Visit www.nature.org for more information.