As director of CMSI, Richard Grosberg works with researchers to understand our coastal and marine systems. Together, they educate the public and engage policymakers to sustain and restore the coastal environment in California and beyond.
Marine biologist Eric Sanford hikes down to Horseshoe Cove to study tide pools at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory in Bodega Bay, Calif. on Wednesday, April 17, 2019. Sanford's research is examining the impacts that climate change is having within intertidal zones.
"Five years ago, the Gulf of Alaska warmed to record temperatures, likely due to a sudden acceleration in the melting of Arctic sea ice. Usually a cold southern current flows along California. That year, the warm “blob” spread down the coast and, instead of blocking tropical species from moving north, it served as a balmy welcome to a variety of animals far from home."
Rachel Bay received a Sloan Foundation fellowship to fund research on the molecular mechanisms of thermal tolerance in corals, an increasingly critical physiological process as ocean temperatures shift and warming events occur.
“We’re in a region with a Mediterranean climate and upwelling— what’s cool is that both of these are associated with high levels of biodiversity,” says Grace Ha, an ecology Ph.D. student. In upwelling zones, nutrient-rich waters from the deep ocean are transported to coastal regions, which makes them hotspots for biodiversity.
Even after being severely damaged by blast fishing and coral mining, coral reefs can be rehabilitated over large scales using a relatively inexpensive technique, according to a study led by the University of California, Davis, in partnership with Mars Symbioscience.