ALT While innovative methods already exist for restoring and rehabilitating coral reefs there’s always room for something new and intriguing. In this case it’s an environmentally friendly 3D printable bioink, which researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute Of Technology Lausanne in Switzerland have developed and are calling BactoInk, that contains the bacterium Sporosarcina pasteurii. When this bacterium is exposed to urea in a solution it starts a process of mineralisation that results in calcium carbonate (CaCO3) forming. There are a number of potential practical applications for this biocomposite, including restoration or repair of artworks, bone, and coral reefs. The results of the team’s findings were published in the journal Materials Today in February 2023.

ALT A farmer in North Cove, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest of the USA, took matters into his own hands to try and save the fast eroding coastline that has been caused by human encroachment – specifically dams and jetties that were built and changed how water and sediment flows. In 2016 he dumped $400 worth of rocks at the end of his road to try and replicate the cobbled beaches elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest, in a fascinating display of citizen-scientist activism. The gamble helped, by reducing the force of eroding waves and enabling a stony sand bank to develop, which compelled the community to expand the project. Years on and the beach has been rebuilding itself. Scientists are now researching what happened to try and adapt the techniques for other areas being destroyed by erosion.

ALT Salt marshes are crucial ecosystems that protect coasts from erosion, as well support wildlife and local fishing communities, but half of their coverage area has been lost in Georgia and South Carolina on the east coast of the USA in the last 100 years. An ongoing collaboration between volunteers from the local communities and scientists from institutions that include the Georgia Institute Of Technology and the South Carolina Department Of Natural Resources (SCDNR), has been working to restore the marshes. A new round of efforts targetting seven acres in West Ashley, in South Carolina, is now underway due to funding SCDNR received in 2022, in which volunteers will plant marsh grasses, construct oyster reefs, and excavate tidal creeks and scientists will monitor the restoration activities to figure out why the marshes degraded and what can be done to stop it from happening in future.

ALT How do you plant thousands of seeds quickly to stop erosion or possible ecosystem collapse? A team of scientists looked to nature for the answer and found it in the specialised seed carrier of the Erodium species of flowing plants. After a lot of prototyping they devised a biodegradable wood veneer seed carrier, which they’ve named the “E-seed”, with three tails, which cause the carrier to twist as heat and moisture in the environment changes, and a haired tip that helps it to drill down into the soil. The project is collaboration between researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Accenture Labs, the University Of Pennsylvania, and Syracuse University in the USA and Zhejiang University in China. Their research was published in the February 2023 issue of Nature.

ALT The fashion industry is a huge polluter, as well as a massive generator of carbon dioxide, but fashion-focussed researchers and entrepreneurs are looking at alternatives – and algae is high up on their lists. A researcher at Arizona State University in the USA developed a translucent raincoat, made from food-grade marine macroalgae, that was displayed in a museum, then worked with fashion designer Phillip Lim on a marine-macrocalge dress that was covered in green sequins. The Israeli startup Algaeing has been developing algae based clothing dyes. British startup Vollebak makes fully biodegradable T-shirts made from hemp fibres and algae dyes. Right now these sustainable options are still expensive but once they reach scale they may very well be the future of fashion.

ALT Even with millions of kilometres of coastlines across the world that produce massive waves the research into the potential of wave energy hasn’t been properly explored yet. The USA, for example, is still busy building its first “utility-scale, grid-connected wave energy test site”, called PacWave South. The test facility, which is being built and will be operated by the University Of Oregon, is situated about 11 kilometres off the coast of Newport in Oregon on the sandy floor of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises test wave devices on the water’s surface, anchoring infrastructure, underwater research equipment, and underwater cables that connect the power to the electricity grid in an operations facility and research site on the shore. Construction started in mid 2021 and the site is expected to start operating this year, with full grid-connected testing commencing in 2024.