A federal agency has partnered with the University of Michigan Water Center for a $20 million project that will examine how pollution and climate change affect places where rivers flow into the Great Lakes and other large bodies of water.

Called estuaries, these areas form vital natural ecosystems that support a range of plant and animal species, the Associated Press reported. The five-year program will survey how estuaries are changed by land use, pollution, climate change and damaged habitats.

"In some cases they'll be mapping wetlands and wetland loss," said project leader Donald Scavia, who directs the University of Michigan's Graham Sustainability Institute, as quoted by WEMU News.

"In other areas they'll be developing models to assess the amount of phosphorus or nitrogen pollution going into the estuaries, and what can be done about reducing those," Scavia explained. "They'll be looking at projections of sea level rise and what that means for land management on the land side of the estuaries."

The program will help to study 28 coastal reserves around the country. The National Estuarine Research Reserve System protects more than 1.3 million acres and allows researchers and graduate students to analyze coastal ecosystems.

"We intend to enhance the already strong estuary research program so that it yields science that helps decision makers restore, protect and improve some of this country's most vital and beloved coastal ecosystems," said Scavia, as quoted by the AP.

Estuaries hold spawning and nursery areas for creatures ranging from shellfish to migrating birds to shore animals while maintaining shorelines by protecting against soil erosion. They are also a pollution filtration system and act as a shield against storms.

"Gaining a better understanding of how estuaries function and change over time will allow us to predict how these systems will respond to changes in climate and human-induced disturbances," Jennifer Read, director of the U-M Water Center and co-investigator on the project, said in a statement. "That knowledge will enable coastal managers to make more informed decisions."

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