Demonstration Today in the Toxic Sites tent at Photovilleâ with Dr. Sarah Durand, Biologist
Saturday, September 12 from 2-4pm
Cordgrass of the tidal salt marsh once stretched for thousands of acres across Brooklyn and Queens, a wetland that was fed by both saltwater tides and the freshwater tributaries of Newtown Creek, a Superfund site since 2010. Between the grass stems were ribbed mussels at a density of several thousand per square meter. If we could bring back to the shores of Newtown Creek and the greater New York estuary the cordgrass and the ribbed mussels, two key species of a now vanished ecosystem, then our water would be cleaner, biodiversity would increase and a recovered natural beauty would do much for the human spirit. Dr. Durand and her students will demonstrate the bioremediation techniques at the center of their research with species examples for people to see and touch.
Bio: Dr. Durand is Associate Professor of Biology at City University, LaGauradia Community College where she initiated the establishment of the Environmental Science program. She has moved from an undergraduate major in marine biology to studying shore bird behavior to studying and publishing work on birdbrain neural connections that support vocal communication and then back to marine fieldwork. Over the last six years, Dr. Durand and her students have been working along Newtown Creek towards restoration of intertidal communities and service learning, an effort funded by two New York State Environmental Fund awards via the New York State Attorney General’s Office and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
