Tuesday November 26, 2024
The Mercury News —
Smelly and saturated with seawater, the marsh muck sucks at the waders of UC Santa Cruz graduate student Aliya Khan as she walks along a channel in Elkhorn Slough. She places a tube into the water, which will collect samples that will help uncover the salt marsh’s ability to serve as a carbon dioxide vacuum and vault.
Khan’s research is taking place at an important time.
“The year 2024 is on track to be the warmest year on record,” says the World Meteorological Organization in a press release published earlier this week. It will also be the first year with global temperatures more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a milestone that will intensify fires, floods, and other climate-fueled disasters.
Salt marshes, which have historically been drained and turned into farms or land ripe for real estate development, are emerging as a powerful tool in the fight against global warming.