H₂O Zone

Rounding up 2025 and heading into 2026, we're spending a lot of our time under the waves in this edition of the H2O Zone. A number of stories deal with efforts to maintain, improve or simply better understand the ocean that surrounds us here in Florida. Two of the stories revolve around reefs, one entirely artificial, and the other an attempt to plant 'trees' encouraging coral to grow.

A varied selection of stories highlighted in the H₂0 Zone for this edition, ranging from just about the worst possible prognosis on the future of the coral reefs that play a vital role in the ocean around us, to a positive and bright pink confirmation of just how successful the restoration of the Everglades has been. 

This month’s edition finds balance between environmental challenges and innovative solutions across Florida's waters. And we cover the great success story of baby crocodiles thriving in an unexpected habitat.

This month’s H2O Zone is very much a watery tale, featuring a selection of stories dealing with our use and misuse of one of earth's most important natural assets. From more accessible data to help everyone understand how we are managing water, to research into wastewater treatment that will reduce the pressure on the Florida aquifer.

In this edition of the H2O Zone there is a strong emphasis on the work scientists are doing in order to tackle the effects of our changing climate and weather patterns. There are stories about seeds being blasted into space, soil being made stronger on a microscopic level and plastics created from sustainable sources. 

This month's H2O Zone brings a diverse set of stories, focusing on both land and sea. We dive below Florida's ocean waves, consider the challenges faced by the state's fruit farmers - and give due praise to a groundbreaking achievement at a Florida botanic garden.

We start this edition of the H₂O Zone with an admission that we're again looking at the nature of the flood risk faced by large swathes of the state. This time, it's in the form of ‘compound flooding’, which is as worrying as it sounds. To balance this, however, we have some very positive tales of activities aimed to improve prospects for the environment and our future, as well as a superb collection of photos showing Florida at its very best.

Get ready for some good news! The H₂O Zone for May is here, and this month's curation is bursting with universally positive stories. Yes, they spring from challenges like ailing coral reefs and algae-ridden lagoons, but these narratives truly shine a light on the incredible, ingenious ways people are fighting back against nature's decline.

April has been a month where both the damaging effects of a changing climate and the good things we're doing to help mitigate that damage have been particularly apparent.  As always, despite some of the bad news, we take great delight in flagging up good news stories highlighting the many ways in which Floridians are doing their best to bring about change.

From birds and manatees to Navy SEALs, this month's H2O Zone is pretty optimistic. Our March 2025 edition looks at the development of an aquatic robot, the Mechanatee, being developed to ‘spy’ on manatees and, above all else, learn to speak their language. Communication is everything!

We’re hitting the beach in this month’s H2O Zone, with four of the stories taking place along various parts of the glorious Florida coastline. Two of our stories discuss the appearance of items washed up on the beaches when they shouldn’t be. If we tell you these things happen to be mystery tar balls and more than a thousand cold-stunned sea turtles, we hope you’ll be intrigued enough to want to find out more. 

This month’s H2O Zone is the first of 2025, and while it brings a selection of brand new stories it also emphasizes that some things never change, and one of them is our concern with water. That concern is reflected in our commitment to state of the art irrigation systems, and in a desire to flag up stories which revolve around conserving water or maintaining it in the best possible condition.