Furry engineers: Sea otters in California’s estuaries surprise scientists
When Brent Hughes started studying the seagrass beds of California’s Elkhorn Slough, he was surprised by what he found. In this highly polluted estuary, excessive nutrients from agricultural runoff spur the growth of algae on seagrass leaves, which kills the plants. Yet in 2010, Hughes noticed the seagrass beds were thriving. It did not make sense.