Climate Change | Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute

How is climate change affecting oceans? Check the tide pools

June 21, 2019

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.

For the SF Chronicle, read more

Dying Oceans: Abalone Restoration In California

May 29, 2019

The ocean is a sponge for all the greenhouse gas emissions we produce, and entire aquatic ecosystems are beginning to collapse. Off the coast of California, the disappearing abalone population is raising flags about ocean health and the lasting impact of rising sea temperatures, acidification and pollution. Various teams of scientists, volunteers and businesspeople are collaborating to protect underwater species threatened by the invasion of sea urchins.

Lost Sea Creatures Wash Up on California Shores as Ocean Climate Shifts

April 17, 2019

"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."

(Brown booby photo by Roger Harshaw; scarlet sea cucumber and striated sea butterfly by Eric Sanford; all others by Jackie Sones.

Unprecedented Number of Warm-Water Species Moved Northward During Marine Heatwave

March 12, 2019

Tropical Species Near San Francisco? New Range Limit Records Indicate Future Face of California Coast

California’s Underwater Forests Are Being Eaten by the ‘Cockroaches of the Ocean’

October 22, 2018

When climate change helped trigger a 60-fold explosion of purple urchins off Northern California’s coast, the urchins went on a feeding frenzy and kelp forests were devoured.

Climate Change and Biological Invasions

Increasingly, Ted Grosholz's research is addressing the interaction between climate change and biological invasions. As the result of participation in an NCEAS (National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis) working group on climate change and invasive species, he has continued his collaborative work on synthetic analyses of climate change impacts on the invasion process that began with participation in an NCEAS working group on climate change and invasive species.

NSF Supported Climate Change Facility

In addition to existing ocean acidification facilities constructed by the BOAR group, BML was successful in obtaining NSF FSML support to establish a climate change facility that will allow researchers and students to simultaneously control multiple environmental variables (including CO2) with precision at levels typical of real-world climate change scenarios.

Restoration of Native Olympia Oysters Under Climate Change

An important focus for Ted Grosholz involves the ecology and potential for restoration of native Olympia oysters Ostreola conchaphila (previously Ostrea lurida) in western estuaries. Estuaries in California have been heavily impacted by human activities that have resulted in substantial loss of habitat, invasion by non-native species, inputs of sediments and contaminants and other stressors that have resulted in substantial declines in ecosystem function.

Ecological Climate Change Studies

Changing climates inevitably raise the pervasive ecological and evolutionary question of whether populations are capable of persisting, either through dispersal, plasticity, or shifts in the genetic composition of populations. Bodega Marine Laboratory’s strategic location at the center of many ranges of intertidal invertebrates, along with its superb culturing facilities and access to rocky shores, makes it an ideal place to test hypotheses about the responses of marine organisms to changing climates.

Oceanographic Studies

Scientists at BML are engaged in researching many other aspects of climate change, which can be grouped broadly into oceanographic and ecological studies as well as in the context of habitat restoration and invasive species.