2025 West Sayville Lab
Rob's lab in West Sayville Boat Basin, donated space from the Nature Conservancy, provides storage for collected seeds, and is now hosting a seed germination study under the direction of Connecticut College Marine Biologist Maria Rosa. Naturally filtered sea water via a cistern system supports the seagrass, as well as bay water. Natural light and oxygenation systems have been added. Tanks are monitored for temperature, clarity and Ph as well as success in supporting marine life.
SAVE Environmental uses the narural burrowing behaviour of clams to position eelgrass seeds in the ideal location for germination. This is called using a Nature Based Solution to solve the challenge of seed dispersal.
Seed collection, seed processing, seed attachment, and distribution using the SAVE methods and the patented ZM1.
GIS software can be used to measure the number of pixels in an geolocated container, such as is seen above. We identified cells representing eelgrass meadow, and used a series of raster analysis tools to give us a number, in this case 3,061,625, that measures the density of the meadow in this location. The drone mission can be repeated precisely at later times, and then this GIS technique can be used to determine whether the meadow is growing or shrinking. Drone imagery is dependant on a number of environment conditions to accurately capture the eelgrass meadow, such as wave action, low tide, clear skies, and mid day sun.