{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Time and Tide","title":"Root for Eelgrass: Restoring Coastal Nurseries","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2561,"description":"Show notes:  Beneath the thin blue line of the ocean’s surface lies an underwater meadow of grass. In Great Bay and coastal New Hampshire, these flowing fields of green are nurseries for young fish, an anchor for sediments, and a sign that our ecosystems are healthy. However, these life-supporting aquatic pastures face new threats. Here, in the constantly moving waters where rivers meet the sea, scientists, students, and communities are working together to bring back one of New Hampshire’s most vital—but also fragile—coastal habitats: eelgrass. These underwater meadows once stretched far and wide across the bay, but recently, storms, changing water temperatures, and pollution are having an impact on our local eelgrass species, Zostera marina.  A new restoration project—backed by local towns, oyster farmers, and researchers at the University of New Hampshire—is testing innovative ways to help these plants return and thrive. From transplanting shoots to exploring seed-based restoration, the work happening here could shape the future of eelgrass recovery across the country. Act 1: What’s slender like an eel, and requires clear, cold water to thrive? Explore eelgrass 101 with Trevor Mattera, Habitat Program Manager with the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP), as he takes us through the past, present, and future of Zostera marina in New Hampshire waters.  Act 2: Strap on your snorkel and float through an eelgrass meadow with Matthew Allen, New Hampshire Sea Grant’s Undergraduate Doyle Fellow, who spent this past summer spending as much time as humanly possible in a wetsuit, assisting Trevor and the team at PREP with their Great Bay Estuary Oyster & Eelgrass Restoration project. Experience a day in the life working to restore eelgrass and hear a harrowing story about mating horseshoe crabs. Act 3: You can’t have thriving eelgrass without clean water. Gretchen Young, the Deputy Director of Technical Services at the City of Rochester, New Hampshire, explains...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/sTuThYtLjSr9oX27oC5PH17BvFOoERo1qnLmVs34z1c/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS83ZmI5/NzlhOWViZTUzYzBh/OWNjMWE5NmJmODk4/N2E4OC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}