Biosentients - Science Biology… etc

Recent research at MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering suggests how aquatic plants in rivers and streams may play a major role in the health of large areas of ocean coastal waters. This work, which appeared in the Dec. 25 issue of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics (JFM), describes the physics of water flow around aquatic plants and demonstrates the importance of basic research to environmental engineering. This new understanding can be used to guide restoration work in rivers, wetlands and coastal zones by helping ecologists determine the vegetation patch length and planting density necessary to damp storm surge, lower nutrient levels, or promote sediment accumulation and make the new patch stable against erosion........