{"id":2067,"date":"2021-10-25T10:27:32","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T17:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/?p=2067"},"modified":"2022-03-03T19:31:31","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T03:31:31","slug":"the-promise-and-peril-of-new-plants-on-oregons-sand-dunes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/2021\/10\/25\/the-promise-and-peril-of-new-plants-on-oregons-sand-dunes\/","title":{"rendered":"The promise and peril of new plants on Oregon’s sand dunes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a rapid fire interview Rebecca Mostow<\/a>, a PhD Candidate in the Integrative Biology Department, connects her research on beachgrass along the coastline of the Pacific Northwest and Dune, the new film adapted from a SciFi book series. The book series envisions a planet with constantly shifting sand dunes, an idea that the books\u2019 author originally had when he visited Oregon\u2019s sand dunes in the 1950\u2019s. During this time period, federal and local agencies were planting a variety of plant and tree species to keep the sand dunes stable; making the lives of coastal communities less \u2026 sandy. It worked!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people would consider it a real-life example of terraforming. This concept is exemplified by a character in the Dune series named Pardot Kynes, a plant ecologist helping locals adapt to their sandy-desert environment through their knowledge of plants as a sand dune stabilizer. In real life, there have been trade-offs between more stable sand dunes that are helpful for local communities limiting coastal erosion, but at the detriment of two currently threatened birds who depend on sand dunes that are constantly shifting in the winds. We discuss Rebecca\u2019s findings of a new hybridized grass as part of her PhD, an iNatiuralist community science project<\/a> mapping more of these beachgrasses, and its implications for how to manage ecosystems and communities moving forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca and her lab have already done lots of SciComm \u2019s work! See below for more links to their awesome work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n