Scientific American 201905

(Rick Simeone) #1

DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE


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INSIDE


  • Heavy metals may be creeping into
    beer and wine

  • Solving western Nepal’s mysterious
    earthquake gap

  • AI could predict Alzheimer’s diagnosis
    from a brain scan

  • Cuttlefish sleep—but do they dream?


ROBERT NICKELSBERG

Getty Images

ADAPTATION

Breaking


Wav e s


New York State aims to
build “living” barriers off Staten
Island for storm defense and
ecological restoration

Hurricane Sandy caused widespread hav-
oc when it made landfall in the Caribbean
and on North America’s East Coast (as a
post-tropical cyclone) in 2012. The storm
killed more than 40 people in New York
City alone. “Never in its recorded history
had the city experienced a storm of this
size,” local officials wrote in a report. “Nev-
er had a storm caused so much damage.
Never had a storm affected so many lives.”
As climate change and rising seas
promise even more destructive storms,
New York and other coastal communities
are thinking about how to better protect
themselves. Part of New York’s plan is to
create “living,” oyster-encrusted barriers
off southern Staten Island, to shield the
highly vulnerable neighborhood of Totten-
ville from storm waves. The project—
called Living Breakwaters—involves build-
ing structures to weaken storm waves,
re duce coastal erosion and revitalize the
local ecosystem, as well as educating
the community.
Large, dense clusters of oysters once
helped to protect Tottenville from storm
waves and filter surrounding waters. But
a combination of dredging, overharvesting
and pollution virtually destroyed them. “It
used to be that oyster reefs would provide
a lot of structural habitat, but now there’s
just a sandy bottom,” explains Brad Howe,

© 2019 Scientific American
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