Cape Cod Faces a Rising "Yellow Tide" | Scientific American/WBUR

Javier Lloret of the MBL Ecosystems Center is featured in this succinct, exemplary video by Scientific American / WBUR. The video gets its arms around a complex problem on Cape Cod:  nitrogen from human urine leaching from homeowner septic systems that still heavily dominate on the Cape, which pollutes our coastal waters, killing marine life and its habitat. Complementing the video are two spots on NPR's "All Things Considered" with fuller stories published on WBUR's website. All of them explore what some Cape towns -- and even some forward-thinking homeowners - are doing to address this rising concern.

Scientists in our Ecosystems Center have been studying nitrogen impacts on coastal environments since the 1970s, and have taken the lead in working with municipal planners to define the scope of the challenge.