- Hi there, I'm Frank Graff.

How science helps protect a North Carolina landmark and tourist attraction from the effects of a changing climate.

Farming without soil and a greener way to grab a cold one.

Dealing with our changing world, next on Sci NC.

- Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you, who invite you to join them in supporting PBSNC.

- Sci NC is supported by a generous bequest gift from Dan Carrigan and the Gaia Earth Balance Endowment through the Gaston Community Foundation.

(upbeat music) ♪ - Hi again and welcome to Sci NC.

The battleship North Carolina participated in every major offensive in the Pacific theater in World War II.

The authentically restored ship is now a national historic site and a memorial to North Carolinians killed in the war.

But it's dock in Wilmington is threatened by one of the signs of our changing climate, rising sea levels.

From our state of change project, producer Michelle Lotker explains.

(upbeat music) - By the year 2020, we had flooding events 147 days of the year.

So almost half of the days of the year, we had flooding events that impacted the battleship.

If people can't get to our ship and can't park once they get here, or are afraid to drive through the water, rightly so, afraid to walk through the water, again, rightly so, then our business model is threatened and we needed to find a way to solve access issues.

(upbeat music) We are in Wilmington, North Carolina, and behind me is the USS North Carolina.

Battleship North Carolina is berthed on Eagles Island, immediately adjacent from downtown Wilmington.

Commissioned in 1941, it was the first of America's fast battleships, designed and built for the coming World War II.

Battleship North Carolina was the first major ship to enter Pearl Harbor after the bombing.

It did see action in every major event in the Pacific theater, from six months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the signing of the treaty with Japan.

The Navy in the late '50s started to begin to decommission and sort of move ships off its rolls.

And that's when the Navy contacted representatives in North Carolina and said, "This is your opportunity."

There were a group of North Carolinians who were very, very interested in bringing the USS North Carolina home to its named state.

And they launched a statewide campaign.

One of the groups that they reached out to were school groups.

And part of the campaign was, if school children donated their pennies and nickels and dimes, and every child in your school donated, then all the children in the school received a free ticket to the Battleship North Carolina.

And that created kind of the first wave of visitors to the Battleship North Carolina.

It also created a passion for the ship and a love of the ship.

(upbeat music) - We're at an interesting place where a lot is happening in terms of hydrology.

Something that's really unique about this area is where we currently are standing.

We get both discharge from the lower Cape Fear River and we're low enough in the estuary that we get semi-diurnal tidal influence.

So we have two high and two low tides a day that influence this location.

So we have this confluence of river flow and tidal flow happening right here.

In coastal areas like this, we have honestly a multitude of potential impacts from climate change.

One of the most obvious being increased flooding from things like sea level rise or changing frequency of storm impacts.

- We're on the river, so we see the river every day.

And the conditions of your environment then becomes something that you almost unconsciously track.

And around 2015, leadership noticed that there was a change in the river and what was occurring, what was changing was an increased frequency and tidal flooding.

I have an academic background and so I decided to do a trend analysis to find out how much the flooding may be changing over time.

- Under the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, they've been monitoring water level and therefore tides for over a hundred years.

It's one of the longest running tide gauges in the state of North Carolina and in fact, in the Southeast.

- NOAA realized that the conditions here at the site exactly mimic the tidal conditions at the tidal station at the foot of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.

So the tidal record at the bridge was a database that I could use to determine if the tide's impact was getting worse and if so, by how much.

I did a historic trend analysis.

The results showed an over 7,000% increase in tidal flooding since the battleship arrived in Wilmington in 1961.

We went from double digit tidal flooding in the 40s, 50s and 60s to then triple digit.

In terms of operations, our road was being flooded, sometimes very severely, and sheet flooding across the water was moving across the road.

It wasn't stable.

It wasn't standing still.

Our parking lot then would often be flooded.

Because we're required by law to operate under revenues generated through ticket sales and gift shop sales, if visitors can't get to our site or are not comfortable parking once they get here, and they turn around and leave, then our business model is threatened and ultimately we will not be able to be sustainable financially.

So there was a real economic impact to our operations and the survival of the ship.

The leadership really decided to go an innovative way with living with water.

Rather than doing kind of standard bulkhead and wall building to try to keep the water out, we decided to do nature-based infrastructure.

- Living with water really has four components.

One is the installation of a living shoreline in areas where the shoreline had been hardened.

The second is the installation or recreation of a wetland area that has not been there for many, many decades.

The third piece of it is the elevation of the remaining parking lot area.

And the fourth piece is education.

This project is honestly one of a kind in the state.

The fact that this is several hectares, several acres of property that they are proactively creating this resilience and flood mitigation project on is almost unheard of.

I am one of three different research labs at the university.

We are monitoring a series of stations for multiple things across the whole site.

Mostly to examine what the baseline conditions were, so what everything started at.

We've been able to continue the monitoring through the construction process.

That is actually a piece of the science that is a big unknown.

And then several years after, to look at the potential long-term impacts.

It provides this incredible local opportunity for students to be able to come out here, be involved in a applied community project, and also collect data and learn skills that they can apply to a future professional career.

- We're not unique in these impacts.

And in our circumstances, there are many communities along the coast who are similarly being impacted by rising seas and tidal flooding.

And we realized that we had an opportunity to install some unique aspects to manage our tidal flooding and to document how well they are working.

We take that role seriously in terms of being able to provide a model to other communities.

- This is one of the first and largest projects to incorporate all of these different components in one site.

And that kind of holistic approach is what we need going forward.

That's the only way to tackle these kind of big picture problems is from a holistic view.

- Farmers face a massive challenge, feeding a growing population with less land to grow crops in a changing climate.

Possible answer, don't use soil.

- And really fell in love with the idea of a good process creates a good product.

- Eric Woodall is proud of the crops he grows on his farm and of how he grows them.

Oh, he gets his hands dirty, but he doesn't grow fruits and vegetables using soil.

- I thought, okay, well, here's an opportunity with some new systems that haven't been explored quite as much, but it's a chance to innovate.

It'll be something that's different and exciting and really just trying to solve problems that I saw coming down the road with food security and climate change.

And someone's got to step up and try and fill that void that isn't being filled.

- Woodall is a hydroponics farmer.

- This is a raft.

It's called a beaver raft, lettuce raft.

It's special built to take one inch growing plugs.

And then it just grows right down in the water while the roots stretch out and absorb nutrients as it passes on by and air.

- His farm, In-season Aquaponics, sits inside a giant greenhouse in Angier.

12 different varieties of lettuce, along with spinach, kale, and many other vegetables and herbs are produced year round and sold to area restaurants and at farmer's markets.

- We actually sell these lettuce with the roots on.

- And it's just gonna keep going.

The water's moving constantly.

- Constantly moving.

We've got it aerofied.

And of course, lots of nutrients in there.

And by keeping it moving, we can keep fresh nutrients going from one plant to another.

- That concept of growing plants exclusively in nutrient-rich water with no soil is what confuses people.

- And if you look at how the roots go into there, they're not actually part of the dirt.

The dirt isn't being absorbed by the plant.

It's growing around those little dirt molecules and searching for water that has had those nutrients dissolved into it.

- So hydroponics farmers engineer the water to basically power-grow crops.

Creating the perfect environment allows farmers to extend the growing season for crops.

Those crops also generally grow faster.

Lettuce grows from seed to harvest in roughly nine to 12 weeks.

- You know, I think the most excited I get about the lettuce is when we take it to market and people literally pick it up and they say, "It looks like a bouquet of flowers," because it really is a pretty piece of lettuce and you don't see stuff like this at the grocery store every day.

- We can monitor and adjust all of the nutrients so that it's a perfect mix, ideal for growing very quickly, and as well as pH.

We can adjust the pH up or down to make sure that those nutrients are actually available to the plant.

Well, as you can see, the lettuce we have here is harvest-ready.

As we harvest that lettuce, we will actually clean and sanitize the rafts and repopulate them with new transplants and put it right back in the culture.

- Well, we put these little plugs into the holes there.

And then we press them down so that we get them through far enough.

And if you can see this.

Does it go extend beyond the end?

- Yeah, that's the plant right there.

- Uh-huh.

So you get it in there so that that's got enough space to hit the water.

And so that's the way they keep moist all the time.

- Plants are also matched with the optimal growing system.

While lettuce grows well floating atop free-flowing water, kale and spinach grow better with roots in a thin film of flowing water.

- Let me show you here.

We've got basically just an open channel.

They actually call it NFT or nutrient film technique.

By separating this from our lettuce, we're able to increase the concentration of nutrients here too, which these plants prefer a higher concentration than the lettuce.

In any of these systems, you're really limited by the plant that will tolerate the least amount of nutrient concentrations.

- But larger plants, which take longer to grow, would overwhelm hydroponics systems using flowing water.

- Okay, this is a Beto bucket system.

We have these buckets that are special designed to support plants as opposed to the system with the water.

We feed these plants, again, nutrient-rich solution of water about every two hours during the daylight.

And it just grows in this inner media.

This is called perlite.

It is a rock.

What we like about it is it has a neutral pH and has a lot of air space so that it has places for nutrients, water, and air to grow.

- While hydroponics farmers grow plants in nutrient-rich water, some farmers are taking an additional step and turning to aquaponics, which adds fish to the farming mix.

That's right, fish.

There's a tank of striped bass overlooking the greenhouse.

Woodall wants to move from straight aquaponics, growing plants in nutrient-rich water, to hydroponics, raising fish and plants together in a closed system.

- The goal would be to move from a synthetic fertilizer into an organic fertilizer so that we can really achieve the whole purpose of this farm, growing fish and vegetables in a symbiotic environment so that we can be really stingy with water and really stingy about using nutrients to grow lots of food in a small area.

- The challenge is converting the toxins produced by the fish, ammonia, and solid waste into something less toxic that can be used as a fertilizer.

- So one of the challenges is that you're, instead of trying to culture just the plant and being able to give it what it needs, you're now trying to culture the fish, give it what it needs, and the plant, and give it what it needs at the same time.

And so if that water needs to go through the fish, through the plants, and back, and oftentimes, again, with a microbial, maybe a biofiltration section, then that water has to satisfy all of those creatures.

pH, for example, plants tend to prefer a slightly lower pH, fish a slightly higher pH.

So then you're looking at this sweet spot, and that's hard.

- And that's why there are many variations of aquaponic and hydroponic farms, but the industry is growing.

- It's always an experiment, and you have to be willing to try some different things and see what happens, push the envelope, and be a little different.

I think that at the end of the day, this could be something that works out really well for us.

Just need to overcome some challenges to learn.

- Still with farming, you need grains and hops to brew beer, plus water and yeast.

But it turns out, brewing beer is not environmentally friendly.

That is changing, though, as Ava Mayo from the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media explains.

- With more than 430 breweries across North Carolina, the beer industry contributes almost $13 billion to the state's economy.

As the industry grows, brewers work to reduce their environmental impact.

That starts at places like Perry Farms in Rolesville in Northern Wake County.

- My name is Tim Kuhls.

I am head barley grower here at Perry Farms, and it's a self-proclaimed title.

But basically what I do here is help out with the malting grains that we grow for brewing and distilling.

- Beer begins with grain, and lots of it.

Every acre planted requires two tons of seed.

- The reason why barley is so popular with brewing is because it's really the only grain that comes prepackaged with all the enzymes that are required in the brewing and fermentation process.

- In early fall, Kuhls planted 52 acres of winter barley in seasonal rotation with tobacco and soybeans.

In May, he'll harvest the barley and sell it to a local malt house.

There, the barley will germinate before the malt house cleans the grain and ships it to regional breweries.

- And so the tie for us to the brewery is that malt house concept.

And recently there's three North Carolina craft malt houses that have opened, and that's really bridged the gap between farm to brewery.

Partnering with the malt house like Epiphany Craft Malt, they've given us access to not only the brewing industry, but also education about what's important for malting grains.

Here we can look and we can touch and feel and participate in the process in a great way, which is really exciting for us in this emerging North Carolina craft beer economy that we're growing together.

- Some of Kuhls' barley ends up at Bull City Burger and Brewery in Durham.

At six in the morning, brewers pull 50 pound sacks of malted barley to begin the process.

- My name's Luke Studer.

I am the head brewer at Bull City Burger and Brewery, and I'm in charge of beer production.

We start the brew day with milling the grain.

We're cracking open that barley kernel to expose starches.

It runs through our auger system and drops into the mash tun.

The mash tun is where we mix the cracked grain and hot water.

- Enzymes break down starches in the grain to convert sugars into alcohol.

Later, barley husks settle on the floor of the stainless steel tank.

That's what brewers call spent grain, meaning the grains have no further use to the brewery, but the spent grain does have a market.

- Farmers are always looking for spent grain.

Breweries are always looking for an easy way to get rid of spent grain.

Find a local farmer and make a partnership with them.

It works out great for both parties involved.

- That's where Wat Parker, farmer and president of the Durham Cattlemen's Association, comes in.

He's driven 26 miles from his farm in northern Orange County to get spent grain for his cows.

Parker's been picking up the grain for the last four years.

Parker feeds his cows mornings and afternoons.

He mixes one bucket of pelleted commercial feed with two buckets of spent grain.

- From week to week, we'll run out, and when we feed 'em just the dry pellets, they kinda turn their nose up at it.

They're like, "Mm, I miss my spent grain," you know?

So they really like it, and the wet factor of it is a lot better than just the dusty pellets.

So they really like the spent grain.

They really do.

- 20 miles away in western Orange County, Steelstring Brewery is making beer for its taproom in Carrboro and retailers in the Triangle.

The brewery at Pluck Farm treats all water it uses with a state-of-the-art septic system.

Head of brewing, Will Isley was one of the founders of Steelstring in 2013.

- So we do have a lot of effluent, or water discharge, that comes out of our systems, and that all goes into our on-site treatment facility because we are a bona fide farm.

We have a five-step process with our water treatment where it goes through a grease trap.

It's basically a holding tank for the pH and the temperature to come down.

- Gray water flows into an underground system that irrigates the brewery's garden, orchard, and picnic area.

- It is about creating a sustainable agricultural model where we know that our money stays in this state, and we know that we're supporting people who are doing things that are good for the states, both the economy and agricultural side of things.

We wanna make sure that what we're putting into the ground and what we are contributing to the waterway is as clean as possible.

- Now to Currituck Sound, one of the most unique ecosystems on the Outer Banks.

Researchers at UNC Chapel Hill are combining old-fashioned field work with high-resolution drone video to track the health of the marsh.

(upbeat music) - A lot of people think of the Outer Banks as like the TV show from Netflix, or you think of surfing, and that's not what Currituck Sound is.

The water is very murky and thick.

There's a lot of bugs buzzing around, dragonflies perching on tall grasses.

I'm Peggy Mullen, and I'm a graduate student studying ecology at UNC Chapel Hill.

- Marshes are important for a variety of reasons.

They help protect our infrastructure that we have for many coastal communities.

They break up wave energy as it's coming in.

I'm Troy Walton.

I'm a senior research associate at UNC Chapel Hill and the Carolina Drone Lab.

So the Currituck Sound is changing quite drastically, and especially as part of this project, we've looked back at historical imagery.

So for example, we saw an aerial image that was taken in the mid '60s, and one of the sites that is currently being assessed for restoration used to be one large complex.

Now it's totally fragmented into many different smaller sections, and it's just trending more and more in that direction.

So if nothing happens, that marsh is gonna end up drowning in the very near future.

The Carolina Drone Lab is a collaborative research base.

Audubon owns the property that we're collecting on, and they're leading the restoration efforts, and they asked us to come in and join and participate in the project with them.

Drones are a great tool for this project.

We're flying with super high resolution with different types of cameras that will tell us the actual marsh health based upon reflectance that we're receiving back from a multispectral camera.

- The larger project in Currituck Sound for the Carolina Drone Lab is more focused on the marsh side of things.

It's focused on sediment, and sediment can be used to help marshes survive, which I'm interested in, but I'm also interested in the submerged aquatic vegetation or SAV.

Submerged aquatic vegetation is just any plant that grows underwater.

So there's kind of a conversation right now about whether SAV has sediment trapping abilities or whether it's a sediment provider to the marsh, and generally, marshes are always kind of in this war for sediment.

They need sediments to survive, and especially with sea level rise, the marshes are continuing to need even more and more sediment.

So I'm curious generally about the trends that occur between SAV and marshes and whether or not those two affect one another.

The sediments in Currituck are really squishy.

They're slimy.

Getting stuck in the marshes is just part of the job, but that's also why we work in teams.

And while we're out in the marsh, we're looking at the types of vegetation that are there.

So that meant kind of ducking down, diving down, characterizing what sediments we were seeing, characterizing what plants we were seeing, and getting a feel for turbidity and water clarity and depth.

I think this project could be really impactful for just normal everyday people, kind of monitoring what they're putting into the water and how those water quality issues affect people in the Sound and around the Sound.

But also in general, we want to know how these methods could be used long-term.

- The marsh problem is not just localized to Carrituck Sound.

It is across North Carolina and the world.

So if we can better understand what's happening here, then we're able to take these strategies and then expand them to the State and then hopefully further beyond that as well.

- And there it goes.

And that's it for "Sci NC."

I'm Frank Graff.

Thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) ♪ - "Sci NC" is supported by a generous bequest gift from Dan Carrigan and the Gaia Earth Balance Endowment through the Gaston Community Foundation.

- Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you who invite you to join them in supporting PBSNC.