By Katharine Sucher, Science Writing Intern
After several hours in the sun, Emily Egginton Skeehan, Virginia Institute of Marine Science graduate student, plunges into Virginia Beach’s largest waterway. Her head bobs up for just a moment before again disappearing underwater. Beneath the surface, she grasps at a rope resting along the murky bottom of the Lynnhaven River, unable to see what she’s doing.
The Virginia Sea Grant Graduate Research Fellow is deploying tiltmeters, scientific instruments similar to underwater weather vanes that measure water flow. Data collected from these tilt meters will inform a computer model that Skeehan hopes will improve the US Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) $22.8 million Lynnhaven River Restoration Project.
The 50-year restoration plan aims to restore and maintain a combined 163 acres of oyster reef, underwater grasses, and marshes in the commercial Lynnhaven. Although water depth and temperature affect survival and growth of oysters, marsh plants, and seagrasses, the plan does not currently account for the area’s projected increase in temperature or sea level. Skeehan’s model will help to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed restoration plan under multiple climate change scenarios.
Skeehan, who believes in the plan, says that accounting for warming temperatures and sea level rise will improve its long-term sustainability.
“Restoration is important to do, but we also have to address climate change or else restoration will not have the intended effect we hope for,” she says.
Although deploying nine tiltmeters required a full day of work on the water, water flow is only a small part of Skeehan’s model. She will incorporate data on salinity, temperature, nutrient concentrations, and other data from the VA Department of Environmental Quality to calibrate the model to the Lynnhaven River. Skeehan will then run the model using a range of increasing temperature and rising sea level scenarios and present her findings to the USACE.
“Ideally, the guidance I develop could be incorporated into the USACE Climate Change Engineer Manual or influence future projects,” she says.
As a VASG research fellow, Skeehan will also work with the City of Virginia Beach and the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission to educate local communities about restoration and ways to better conserve natural resources. Restoration efforts aren’t always easy in populated areas like the Lynnhaven—where colorful houses hug the river and recreational boaters wave at passing researchers—but Skeehan is encouraged by public attitudes.
“The growing interest in the region in climate change, specifically sea level rise, is phenomenal. A lot of efforts are underway, and people are really engaged,” she says.
This momentum and the capacity for local action give Skeehan hope for the future of restoration and climate change adaptation in Virginia. While humans have contributed to the decline of the Lynnhaven, Skeehan looks at the river and says, “The fact that there’s something we can do to reverse it is exciting.”
When complete in 2015, Skeehan’s model will be posted online along with other models of the VIMS Coastal Systems Ecology and Modeling Program at http://www.vims.edu/research/departments/bio/programs/semp/models/index.php
