The Environment in Focus with Tom Pelton

New pollution limits for the Chesapeake Bay imposed by EPA in December 2010 promise to improve the estuary’s health.  But farm and development industry lobbying groups have sued in federal court to overturn the limits, arguing EPA exceeded its authority and is trampling on states’ rights.  A judge will now decide the landmark lawsuit.

Phragmites, an invasive species of reed believed to have been introduced to North America from England, is often seen as a monster because the grass stalks grow three times the height of a man and drive out native plants and wildlife.  But some scientists suggest the plant is more of a Jekyll and Hyde, because while it is bad for plant diversity, it may be good at protecting shorelines from erosion caused by rising sea levels and climate change.

The invention of nitrogen fertilizer was arguably the most important technological breakthrough of the 20th century.　 But not many people know the tragic story of the German chemist who pioneered chemical fertilizer, Fritz Haber.　 His wizardry　allowed the growth of enough crops to feed about three billion people who might have otherwise starved, according to calculations by Jan Willem Erisman, James Galloway and colleagues, published in Nature Geoscience.　 But the same innovation also contributed to major global environmental problems and　was　used to create powerful explosives that killed as many as　150 million people.

It is a story line that seems more fitting for science fiction than life in the Chesapeake Bay.  An invasive species of barnacle from the Gulf Coast, Loxothylacus panopaei, is hijacking the reproductive systems of Chesapeake mud crabs (above), transforming male crabs into female-looking crabs that produce fake eggs sacs full of larval parasites.