SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1990—THE CAROLINA ' '
Life Arouna Us!!
PISA, ITALY — Tourists line
ip to visit the Leaning Tower of
*isa. The famed landmark is
losing so important structural
epairs can be made. (UPI Photo
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Research Done At
Topsail Island
Study Shows
Sulldozing May
Protect Property
TVithout
Damaging
Beaches
CHAPEL HILL — Using
‘ulldozcrs to rebuild dunes on
mslal beaches hit by storms such
s Hurricane Hugo can help protect
■roperty without damaging
^eaches, a study conducted at the
Jniversity of North Carolina
nstitutc of Marine Sciences
lUggests.
The conu’oversial technique may
iffer a short-term solution to
ontrc^ling erosion while still
illowing the onshore migration of
and that rebuilds beaches naturally
ifter storms, UNC scientists say.
It also may offer a compromise
)etween environmentalists who say
lature should be allowed to take its
:ourse and developers and
lomeowncrs who want to "harden"
)eaches with jetties and seawalls to
)rotect investments.
Jesse McNinch, a graduate
;tudcnt at UNC now employed as a
?eologist at an environmental
:onsulting firm in Los Angeles,
•ecently the research at
Fopsail .-cr the direction
Df Dr. Jo.m ,Veils, associate
Drofessor of marine sciences.
They believe the study is the
Dnly work of its kind ever done in
^orth Carolina and one of the few
conducted in the United Stales.
"One has to be cauuu’js in
jrawing conclusions from a study
in one area and applying them
Droadly since beaches are very
:omplex systems," Wells said.
'What works on one beach may not
work at another.
"Still, this study suggests
bulldozing sand may be the only
acceptable means of protecting
property, one that takes pressure
from property owners off state and
local governments."
Beginning in September 1988,
McNinch set up a series of markers
at Topsail Beach, where heavy
machinery was not used to pull
?and up from the lower beach and
identical markers where bulldozer
jcraping was carried out.
Using surveying equipment, he
hen monitored levels of sand
surrounding each marker every two
weeks for a year.
That allowed me to compare
he shape of the beach over time
and to calculate the volume of sand
in the dunes and on the beach,"
McNinch said. "During 17 months,
we had erosion from a northeaster
last year and also from Hurricane
Hugo this year."
(Continued On Page 16)
NCSU Scientists Collect Carbon
During Sea Cruise Off Antarctica
By Maggie Adams
NCSU News Service
A geochemist and three graduate students at North Carolina State
University will sail the icy waters off Antarctica collecting sediment
from the nuUient-rich Ross Sea.
The goal of the research is to learn more about the nutrient cycles of
carbon and silicon and their ultimate role in global climate and the
"greenhouse effect," and to obtain a sedimentary record of glacial activity
and climatic changes in the past
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is providing a $360,000 grant
for the three-year research project. The project is part of the NSF’s
United States Antarctic Program, which this year includes 90 research
teams along with supporting operations.
Dr. David J. DeMaster, principal investigator for the nutrient cycle
project and associate professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences
at NCSU, will be maldng his fourth trip to the icy continent.
"It’s a surrealistic experience," DeMaster said. "It’s very different from
anything else you might be used to. There’s the Ross Ice Shelf, a
mountain of ice that rises 300 to 400 feet out of the ocean, and lots of
penguins, whales and seals, and the science is equally as exciting,
interesting and very different."
DeMaster and NCSU graduate students Robert H. Pope, Stephen L.
Harden and Susan Boehme flew to Christchurch, New Zealand, in late
December. A few days later, they boarded a U.S. Navy transport plane
for the nine-hour flight to McMurdo Station, the U.S. Navy base in
Antarctica.
All of the group will be wearing full survival gear in the event the
plane goes down. Without the special clothing, survival in the frigid
waters would be limited to 10 minutes.
The research party — which also includes 22 scientists and graduate
students from Rice University, the University of Tennessee, Oregon State
University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook — will
rendezvous with the Polar Duke, an icebreaking research ship which is
sailing to the Ross Sea from Punta Arenas, Chile. A helicopter or tracked
vehicle may be needed to take the researchers and their equipment to the
ice edge at the Ross Sea.
The researchers also will wear survival gear while 'vorking on the deck
of the Polar Duke. "If anyone would fall overboard in street clothes,
they’d never survive," DeMaster said. But, since precautions are taken to
reduce the risk, the trip is safe, he said.
Working 16 to 20 hours a day, the scientists will collect various types
of sediment cores from sediments in the northwest and southwest Ross
Sea and measure the dissolved nutrients, including silica, carbon, nitrate,
nitrite, ammonia, sulfate and phosphate. They h, to determine how
rapidly silica and organic carbon accumulate ir the ,cabed. Silica forms
the hard parts of most marine plants in the A tarctica. After the plants
die, the skeletal remains accumulate in the seabed along with organic
carbon.
The high latitudes (those near the earth’s poles) are very important in
terms of the nutrient cycle, said DeMaster, who has been studying carbon
and nutrient uptake and their relationship to the "greenhouse effect” in
various parts of the world.
About one-third to one-half of all photosynthesis (converting carbon
dioxide into organic carbon and oxygen) is conducted by marine
plankton, DeMaster said. These tiny marine animals and plants help
remove carbon dioxide from the air, a factor in limiting the "greenhouse
effect," he said.
During the summer (winter in the Northern Hemisphere) in high
latitudes where the plentiful nuhients at the ice edge are bathed in
sunhght 24 hours a day, the well-fed plankton and algae "go crazy and
grow very fast," DeMaster said. As a result, so-called algae blooms in the
(Continued On Page 15)
“The challenge that we face today is to make.
the world one in terms of brotherhood.”
From the sermon at The W'ashirif^ton Cathedral. March M. /96iS’.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
January i$, 1990
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