PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Researchers from the University of Rhode Island are going high-tech in their efforts to collect data about the health of local watersheds.
URI says its scientists are working with colleagues in Vermont and Delaware to deploy underwater sensors in selected rivers and other bodies of water in the three states.
In Rhode Island, the sensors will be placed on Aquidneck Island in the Hunt River watershed near East Greenwich. They will measure factors like oxygen levels and water chemistry.
Jennifer Specker, the oceanography professor leading the project, says the sensors will rapidly gather information that can be used to better understand storms, droughts, climate change and the effect land use has on water quality.
The work is being funded through a $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation.