Ecosystems

In Elkhorn Slough, an inlet on the California coast, seagrass grows healthy and strong in the shallow water, providing homes for fish, preventing erosion, and trapping carbon from the environment.

This healthy seagrass baffled marine biologist Brent Hughes. Water in the slough is chock-full of nutrients from fertilizer runoff on nearby farms. Normally, nutrient-polluted water supports huge population of algae that block sunlight from reaching the seagrass, and the seagrass dies. Why has the slough's seagrass thriving?

Because it is home to anacondas weighing over three hundred pounds, Goliath birdeater tarantulas with a leg span the size of your face, and electric eels who have enough voltage to stun a horse, you might think the Amazon is a place that can cause more harm than good. But you'd be wrong...

Considered the "lungs of the world," the Amazon provides a full fifth of the world's oxygen, and every year unsustainable human practices destroy 2.7 million acres of it. What can be done to help? That's where Project Piaba comes in.