Marshfield Community Media

The Estuarine Gradient Ep 9 -Ten Minutes In Nature

In this episode Sara Grady talks to Patty Cuozzi, who has been volunteering to count river herring in Pembroke since 2014. They encounter some wildlife and discussed how spending ten minutes doing a herring count offers a priceless opportunity to connect with nature.

The Estuarine Gradient Ep8 - Slope on a Rope - Beach Profiling with Stone Living Lab and Citizen Scientists

Sand and rocks at the beach are always moving and changing the shape of our coast, whether quickly during storms or more slowly during seasonal cycles. One simple way to track these changes is through beach profiling, where the slope of the beach is measured perpendicular to the water line. Sara spoke to Annie O'Connell from the UMass Stone Living Lab, who coordinated a volunteer beach profiling effort along the eastern Massachusetts coast, and also some of the volunteers that have been measuring the slope of Duxbury Beach on a regular basis. 

The Estuarine Gradient Ep7 - Riverwatch and the Joy of Volunteering

In this episode we talk to Kathy Harrington about her experiences volunteering for our Riverwatch Water Quality Monitoring Program, with a shout out to the NSRWA's recreational guide website, exploresouthshore.org. 

The Estuarine Gradient Ep6 - Blue Mussels, Red Knots, and Green Crabs

In this episode we explore the role of blue mussels in the ecology of the coast, particularly as a food source for shorebirds migrating south. Blue mussels have been declining for decades, possibly due to invasive crab predation. Sara speaks to Callie Bianchi, a local resident who helped the NSRWA test the effect of mussel size on green crab predation efficiency, and Gina Purtell, who works with shorebirds at MassAudubon. 

The Estuarine Gradient - Ep.5 - Salty Road and Salty Streams

In this episode of our watershed ecologist's podcast The Estuarine Gradient, Sara discusses the impact of road salt on the environment and talks to Scituate DPW Director Kevin Cafferty and Norwell DPW Director Glenn Ferguson about how road salt application has changed over the years to save money and reduce impacts to the environment while still keeping our roads safe.

The Estuarine Gradient - Ep.4 -River Herring Network

Sara interviewed Abby Archer from Cape Cod Cooperative Extension and Woods Hole Sea Grant about the River Herring Network, when and where they each saw their first herring as kids, and the competitive and cooperative world of volunteer herring counts in Massachusetts.

The Estuarine Gradient - Ep.3 - Town Brook

In this episode we discuss the restoration of town brook with David Gould, Director of Marine and Environmental Affairs with the town of Plymouth and Nick Wildman of the Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration. please excuse the wind noise, we recorded the interviews out in the field. 

The Estuarine Gradient - Ep.2 - Sea Monsters

In this October Halloween episode of The Estuarine Gradient, Sara is joined by special guest Niels-Viggo Hobbs to geek out over sea monsters, stranger than fiction marine animals, the use of marine creatures in sci-fi and horror, and H.P. Lovecraft, and to answer the question "How weird could a hypothetical sea creature get?" 

The Estuarine Gradient - Ep.1 - Water Cycles

The introductory episode of "The Estuarine Gradient" covers basic estuarine vocabulary, the water cycle, drought and streamflow, stormwater pollution, and answers the question "What is up with those algal blooms in Florida?" Come for the review of some basic knowledge, stay for the "limiting nutrient" chocolate chip cookies.