It’s a cold, blustery February day on the New Jersey coast, and Anna Jaworski is wading her way through a salt marsh that seems to go on forever. From where she stands, about 100 yards from the modest parking lot at the Jakes Landing-Dennis Creek Wildlife Management Area, one can look out and see almost nothing but marsh grass and dead trees in one direction, a thick coastal forest in the other and, in the distance, the waters of the creek itself.
In a lot of ways, the place feels like the middle of absolutely nowhere, which is hardly surprising: It basically is the middle of absolutely nowhere. But according to Jaworski, that desolate salt marsh and the forest that borders it may hold the keys to helping scientists understand just how much rising sea levels have impacted the Delaware Bay over the past few decades—and, more importantly, how much more land will be gobbled up by the rising waters in years to come.
Read more from Drexel University's award-winning research magazine, Exel.