This semester made the connection between cell biology and my environmental studies work feel much more intertwined. Alongside Cell Biology, I took a mitigation and adaptation course that examines how environmental hazards interact with vulnerable systems, built around a semester-long case study on a wicked problem in the Chesapeake Bay under climate change, sea level rise, and human pressure. My project focused on the legacy landfill at Lambert’s Point in Norfolk and how rising water, flooding, and contamination affect the surrounding community and ecosystem. Concepts about cellular stress were essential for understanding the biological side of those hazards. Oxidative stress, DNA damage, disrupted ion transport, and osmotic imbalance clarified why pollutants and saltwater intrusion create long-term risks, since these injuries begin inside cells long before they appear as ecosystem decline or health concerns. Temperature-dependent enzyme activity and metabolic limits helped explain why heat and repeated flooding reduce resilience in stressed habitats, and these cellular mechanisms ultimately shaped many of the hazards and feedbacks in my system model. Seeing how these processes play out inside cells made the broader environmental problems in my case study much clearer and far more grounded in the reality of the challenges we face even at the cellular level.