Coastal regions around the country and the world serve as vibrant population centers, economic engines, tourism, and recreation sites, and host valuable fisheries and aquaculture. On this podcast, Professor Scott Doney, Department of Environment Sciences at the University of Virginia, will discuss how the heavy density of people along coastlines creates environmental challenges threatening the health of estuaries, wetlands, and coastal ocean waters. He will explore how excess nutrients from sewage discharge, fertilizers, and air pollution damage seagrass beds and coastal habitats. Innovative solutions require addressing pollution sources both locally and upstream, highlighting the connections people everywhere have with the coastline. Scott Doney is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia. His research focuses on how the global carbon cycle and ocean ecology respond to natural and human-driven climate change. One of his current areas of study is ocean acidification due to the invasion of carbon dioxide and other chemicals from fossil fuel burning.