ECU biologist contributes to worldwide climate-resilient conservation efforts
East Carolina University’s Dr. Rachel Gittman, an associate professor in the Department of Biology, along with several student researchers in her lab, have been working with other experts and federal agencies for several years to better understand how to improve restoration outcomes for coastal ecosystems, including those along North Carolina’s shorelines.
Bekah Flick, left, a graduate student at UNC who is collaborating with Rachel Gittman, center, and Jennifer Fickler, right, spent part of summer 2024 conducting a pre-restoration survey of the salt marsh in Pine Knoll Shores. (Photo by Dr. Hannah Sirianni)
One of Gittman’s original collaborations began when she was a post-doctoral scholar with a Science for Nature and People Partnership Working Group. This group’s project, highlighted online, compiled a database of restoration projects conducted by major agencies. The goal was to identify opportunities to expand upon past efforts and help determine what would be most beneficial to coastal ecosystems and communities.
Building off this work, Gittman co-authored a new paper published at the end of 2024 by the journal Conservation Biology, which assesses how restoration efforts can facilitate a goal for climate-resilient coastal ecosystems by the year 2030.
The researchers write that international agreements have set targets for conserving 30% of global ecosystems and restoring 30% of degraded lands and waters by 2030, also known as the 30×30 plan. In 2021, the U.S. set a target to jointly conserve and restore 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030, with a specific goal to restore coastal ecosystems, namely wetlands, seagrasses, coral and oyster reefs, and mangrove and kelp forests, to increase resilience to climate change.
“This paper was a product of a collaboration with conservation and restoration practitioners at The Nature Conservancy, as well as academic collaborators, to provide guidance for how coastal restoration efforts can help the United States achieve its goal to conserve and restore at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030,” Gittman said.
She said the paper is intended to serve as a guide for what, where and how to restore coastal ecosystems to “maximize long-term ecological function as climate changes, given the limited funding and resources available for habitat restoration.”
“The paper isn’t a plan, but it certainly provides some suggestions for how to achieve the 30×30 goal for specific coastal ecosystems,” Gittman said. “I am not optimistic that we can conserve or restore 30% of the historic extent of some of our coastal ecosystems in the U.S. by 2030, (e.g., oyster reefs and coral reefs), but I am cautiously optimistic that we can achieve the 30×30 for other ecosystems, such as salt marshes or mangroves.”
During the summer of 2024, Gittman, along with co-investigator and assistant professor in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment Dr. Hannah Sirianni, research technician Jennifer Fickler, and Bekah Flick, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, conducted pre-restoration salt marsh surveys for a project funded by the state of North Carolina.
The project is a partnership between ECU, the North Carolina Coastal Federation, North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores and the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences. The goal, which mirrors goals of the 30×30 plan, is to restore salt marsh and oyster reefs and stabilize the eroding shoreline along the Theodore Roosevelt Natural Area in Pine Knoll Shores.
“Conservation and restoration efforts in coastal ecosystems are particularly important in North Carolina because the marshes, oyster reefs, seagrass meadows and shallow bottom found along the coast supports valuable commercial and recreational fisheries and tourism, as well as providing water quality benefits and protection from coastal storms and flooding,” Gittman said.
“Many of these ecosystems are threatened by development and pollution as the state’s population grows,” she said. “Prioritizing conservation and restoration of these ecosystems will provide long-term ecological, economic and social benefits to the state.”
An executive order enacted under the Biden Administration outlined the 30×30 goals for the U.S. It was revoked in January by the Trump administration via the executive order, “Unleashing American Energy.”
Although the order was revoked, the “Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful” initiative described by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which led to the creation of order 14008 to implement the 30×30 initiative, was still active as of the writing of this article.
“My hope is that the recommendations in our publication can apply to conservation and restoration efforts in coastal ecosystems, regardless of current or future United States policy,” Gittman said.