Organisms floating in currents beneath a river’s surface are exposed to far less sunlight than scientists previously believed, and the light that does reach them is mostly sporadic and short-lived, a new Duke University-led study shows.

Coal ash solids found in sediments collected from Sutton Lake in 2015 and 2018 suggest the eastern North Carolina lake has been contaminated by multiple coal ash spills, most of them apparently unmonitored and unreported until now.