Some scientists believe global warming is hastening the pace.
Dr. Mark M. Brinson and Dr. Robert R. Christian, ECU biology professors, are trying to answer a part of that question through participation in the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research Program. With 24 scientists from Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Utah, they have set up research headquarters at the Virginia Coast Reserve, a mainland and barrier island complex owned by the Nature Conservancy. These researchers are among a network of 900 scientists studying a variety of long-term environmental issues at 18 sites around the country. For their part, Brinson and Christian are focusing on the process by which saltwater marshes, pushed by rising sea level, gradually consume the freshwater uplands. The other part of the question becomes how society adapts.