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Filtering Out Pollution

Excess nitrogen in coastal waters can cause rapid growth of algae—microscopic marine plants that can turn waters murky and, in some cases, toxic. Oysters can help remedy the situation. They filter algae out of the water, and they take up some nitrogen and excrete it so it settles to the bottom. WHOI microbial ecologist Virginia Edgcomb is collaborating with Stonehill College chemist Daniel Rogers to look at whether oysters can further improve water quality by stimulating bacteria to remove waste nitrogen from bottom sediments. Here, Rogers’ students Dan Stone and Janelle Shea build traps to collect sediments from an oyster farm in Little Pond, Falmouth. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)