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Matthew Costa

@mangrovematt.bsky.social
56 followers 46 following 94 posts

Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina, oceanographer, wetland ecologist, biogeochemist, educator, and nature-lover

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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...
washingtonpost.com
Ospreys are disappearing along the East Coast. Scientists think they know why.
At the center of a widening crisis for one of the nation's great wildlife comebacks is a fish most Americans would hardly recognize.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
One species, but a range of nutrient acquisition traits: read the new paper lead by Kristen Rabbitt, "Nitrogen uptake varies regionally in the salt marsh plant Spartina alterniflora" in @estuariescoasts.bsky.social, @randallhughes.bsky.social @bowenlab.bsky.social: link.springer.com/article/10.1....
link.springer.com
Nitrogen Uptake Varies Regionally in the Salt Marsh Plant Spartina alterniflora - Estuaries and Coasts
Excess anthropogenic nitrogen is a key stressor in coastal and marine ecosystems, where it can alter primary production, create eutrophic and anoxic conditions, and affect biodiversity, structure, and...
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
North Inlet-Winyah Bay's salt marsh at high tide with an onshore wind
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
A student in my field course pointed out that this Leptuca pugilator (Atlantic sand fiddler crab) has a mark on its carapace that looks like an M. Our first thought was that the mark had been put there by a researcher, but apparently it's typical. It reminds me of Superman's "S"--is this Mudman?
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
This weekend I led my first field trip as a professor @sc.edu at the Baruch Marine Field Lab. We studied a range of intertidal environments, from high to low #saltmarsh and the tidal creek mud.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Curious about the potential of and challenges to coastal #bluecarbon restoration and preservation as a #climate solution? Then read our new paper led by Dr. Melissa Ward in Annual Review of Environment and Resources: www.annualreviews.org/content/jour..., release: www.geog.ox.ac.uk/research/blu....
annualreviews.org
Blue Carbon in an Era of Carbon Accounting
Blue carbon ecosystems—mangroves, tidal marshes, seagrass meadows, and, increasingly, seaweeds—are being rapidly integrated into climate mitigation frameworks. Yet, despite their prominence in global ...
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
When exploring the #rockyintertidal with the @oceangenomelegacy.bsky.social bioblitz last week, I noticed these two lighter-colored rocks, seemingly newly turned over by storms earlier this year--just barnacles and a fresh crop of small brown macroalgae seemingly just having colonized them.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
I returned to our #nitrogen #saltmarsh fertilization plots @pie-lter.bsky.social this summer, and was happy to see that the plants are thriving (July 8).
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Happy #WorldOceansDay from Nahant, Massachusetts! It's a great day to study, to protect, and to celebrate a wellspring of biodiversity, the origin of our every other breath, and a never-ending source of solace and inspiration.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
This article is an ode to a cool creature, under threat. gothamist.com/news/one-of-...
gothamist.com
One of New York City’s most common birds could disappear in 10 years
A New York City Bird Alliance study predicts that black-crowned night herons may disappear from New York City Harbor by 2037.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Read our new publication lead by @ellewoodsofmyco.bsky.social on the effect of different #nitrogen inputs on the fungus community living inside #saltmarsh plants! Stay tuned for more results on the response of sediment microbial communities, plant growth and carbon uptake, and sediment geochemistry.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Happy #EarthDay! Remember that we are all sharing a home on this pale blue dot, as Sagan put it "a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam." Let's work together to take care of our unique and precious home. (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech.)
An image of the Earth taken by NASA's Voyager I mission, from such a great distance that the planet appears as nothing but a "pale blue dot."
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Boston-area nature lovers, click here to join this weekend! www.inaturalist.org/projects/cit...
inaturalist.org
City Nature Challenge 2026: Boston Area
Massachusetts has a great diversity of life, from the Berkshires to Boston, from downtown to the Cape and Bay. Join the Boston Area City Nature Challenge – a fun worldwide collaborative bioblitz with ...
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Reposted by Matthew Costa
iNaturalist @inaturalist.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Nature is everywhere, even in the busiest cities. From April 24–27, over 100k people around the world will step outside & photograph the wild nature around them for the #CityNatureChallenge — the largest annual community science event. 🧵⤵️
A collage of nature, including a green snake, a songbird, a yellow flower, an iridescent beetle, a clownfish, and a frog on a lilypad.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
I'm happy to say that I will start as an assistant professor in the @sc.edu's School of the Earth, Ocean, and Environment this summer! My lab at the Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences will investigate coastal #wetland #ecology, #biogeochemistry, and #climate change adaptation.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
I had the chance to explore my first Eastern Atlantic #saltmarsh in February, thanks to @bluecarbonalex.bsky.social and Bill Austin, who are studying, among others, this marsh on Loch Linnhe in NW Scotland. Of course, a Scottish sediment core was taken with a modified golf hole cutter--nice core!
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
A field course in college was how I got my own start studying #mangroves, so it was gratifying to bring @northeasternu.bsky.social Three Seas students into the mangroves in Bocas del Toro, Panama in February, introducing them to collecting data and being naturalists in these wonderful wetlands.
Students moving through the tangled roots of a mangrove forests, collecting data and making observations
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
In the #mangroves in Bocas del Toro, Panama, in February, I was struck again by the epiphyte cover and #biodiversity in an environment with only three tree species.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Now Is the Perfect Time to Buy an Electric Vehicle
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Check out the process for getting our sediment core data and samples (with Rilee Sanders and Melissa Ward).
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
I had the chance to conduct #bluecarbon sediment coring in #Zostera pacifica seagrass beds off the Channel Islands October 2025, working with the Bay Foundation and @scrippsocean.bsky.social. Though the islands are sparse and forbidding, below the surface is a wonderland of green.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
What an amazing team of students who made this possible, Henry and Defne, and especially @myadarsan.bsky.social ! Thank you. That was a wrap on fieldwork for the Not All Nitrogen project (Sept. 2025)! Stay tuned for results and publications.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
After taking our #Spartina belowground biomass cores at North Inlet-Winyah Bay, we sorted that biomass into three categories. Do different #nitrogen inputs to #saltmarshes affect allocation to long-lived rhizomes, root tissues devoted to resource acquisition, or turnover into the dead biomass pool?
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
In Sept. 2025 at North Inlet-Winyah Bay, we took the final samples for the #saltmarsh #nitrogen experiment that has been my focus for the past 3 years. Here I am placing the plot quadrat, pushing and hammering in the corer, and cutting the very last core sample. Now to write the papers....
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Happy #WorldWetlandDay! I'm pleased to be back at North Inlet today, remembering a warmer time in Sept. 2025 when we sampled our #nitrogen #saltmarsh experimental plots (you can see the boosted plant height from the fertilizer) for the last time, including pulling these belowground biomass cores.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
In August 2025 I had the chance to visit the new field station at Kendall-Frost Marsh, a UC Natural Reserve @ucsandiego.bsky.social. The new classroom and visiting scientist facilities enhanced the experience of studying this wonderful #wetland and sharing it with @scrippsocean.bsky.social students.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
and pull out our core sample (that one was pretty sparse--mostly #Spartina bio/necro-mass).
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
close the core chamber and pull out the corer,...
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
we push and hammer our Russian peat corer down through the peaty sediment,...
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
How do we get #saltmarsh cores? In our #nitrogen fertilization experimental plots @pie-lter.bsky.social,...
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
How changeable is a New England summer! Doing fieldwork @pie-lter.bsky.social in July 2025, one day it's 90° and sunny, the next the stalwart team is shivering in the rain, some opting to wear PFDs for extra insulation. Needless to say, we cut our #saltmarsh biomass measurements short that day.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
In July 2025, we had a couple of former undergrad interns, already on their way to grad school, come out of retirement to help wrap up our #saltmarsh experiment @pie-lter.bsky.social. I'm glad we haven't scared them away from fieldwork! Thank you to all the students who have helped over the years.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Returning July 28, 2025 to sample our #saltmarsh fertilization experiment @pie-lter.bsky.social for the last time, it certainly seemed that the #nitrogen added over time increased the size of the plants in the plots. See also our a great team of students (shown heading back after a hard day's work).
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
How Wall Street Turned Its Back on Climate Change www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/c...
nytimes.com
How Wall Street Turned Its Back on Climate Change
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Observing the #saltmarsh creek bank @pie-lter.bsky.social (April 2025), you can see how the marsh platform has built up peat from the rhizomes of old Spartina alterniflora plants, atop older sediment layers, and in places crumbling away into the creek, as wind, tides, and ice erode the edges.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
By April 25, the Spartina shoots on the creek bank had gotten a little taller. And check out the rockweed which in places is also pretty abundant on the creek bank @pie-lter.bsky.social.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
To study #saltmarsh response to nitrogen inputs @pie-lter.bsky.social, we've tracked marsh accretion, which may be affected by changes in root growth. Here I am placing a quadrat on a 1 m2 plot and holding this staff, which is read by a laser elevation system, on the marsh surface (April 2025).
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
When you visit the #saltmarsh @pie-lter.bsky.social in spring, you can see large slabs of #sediment on the marsh platform, which have been deposited there over the winter by ice rafting: ice freezing to the mudflat, and the frozen mud being carried around by winds and tides onto the marsh (April 4).
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
It's always interesting to see the salt marsh plants that sprout first in the spring, April 4, @pie-lter.bsky.social.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Visiting the #mangroves in Santa Catalina on the Pacific Coast of Panama in March 2025, I was struck by high levels of localized leaf #herbivory. Does anyone know what organism(s) are responsible?
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | I’m a Psychoanalyst. This Is What Technology Is Doing to Us.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
How do you get all the dried biomass from 36 #saltmarsh plant mesocosms home from a field site hundreds of miles away (along with with frozen water samples and sediment)? A lot of drying, sorting into paper bags, packing into duffels and coolers, and schlepping through airports..., but they made it!
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Check out the amazing density of snails on the Spartina alterniflora #saltmarsh plants at North Inlet-Winyah Bay NERR. (I think that they are Littoraria irrorata, but chime in if you have a better id!)
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
In November 2024, after two growing seasons of treatments, you can really see the effect of #nitrogen fertilization in our field plots at North Inlet-Winyah Bay, SC! We are testing the effect of ammonium vs. nitrate inputs on #saltmarsh plant and microbe responses.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...
wgbh.org
EPA employee fired after signing letter of dissent opposing deregulation
EPA engineer Lane To shares their story with Craig LeMoult after being fired for signing a letter critical of agency deregulation under the Trump administration.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
#Saltmarshes bury a lot of #carbon in place, but also excess, dead Spartina plant matter is carried away by wind and tides and can accumulate elsewhere, episodically loading sites like this marsh-upland edge with marsh wrack (North Inlet-Winyah Bay NERR, September 2024).
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Once that biomass was rinsed off, the real work was just beginning! Thanks to an army of volunteers and a core team of committed lab members, that biomass was sorted into living rhizomes, living roots, and dead biomass, which we then dried, weighed, and ground up to analyze its C and N content.
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Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Then we took those sediment samples, held in PVC half-pipes and plastic wrap, and saw them down the middle. One half of the sample we dried and ground up to analyze the sediment itself, but the other half we rinsed the sediment away on a sieve, leaving just the belowground biomass.
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