NOAA's Centers for Coastal Ocean Science conduct research on seagrass habitat-assessing its health, defining its ecosystem function, and determining methods of restoration.

The National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) conduct and support research, monitoring, assessment, and technical assistance for managing coastal ecosystems and society's use of them. These activities fit within a framework of five environmental stressors:

• climate change
• extreme natural events
• pollution
• invasive species
• land and resource use

NCCOS activities are focused in:

• coral reefs
• national marine sanctuaries
• estuaries, including national estuarine research reserves, and the coastal oceans

There are five NCCOS centers and two research labs. The centers' many research activities include projects to understand the causes and consequences of harmful algal blooms, to predict how climate change may affect our lives, and to determine the complex factors that affect fish habitats.

NCCOS conducts research ranging from the study of biomolecular changes due to coral bleaching, to the causes of shellfish disease, to modeling the effects of climate change on fisheries stock assessment. The research is broad, multi-disciplinary, geographically diverse, and involves many partners. NCCOS's goal is to improve the scientific basis upon which coastal managers make decisions.

 

Laboratory environments that simulate those in nature are created to analyze the impacts of natural and human factors on marine ecosystems.

Roles of the Centers

The Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research (CSCOR), located in Silver Spring, Maryland, funds research to help decisionmakers meet the challenges of managing our nation's coastal resources by examining issues in the nation's estuaries, coastal waters, and Great Lakes. CSCOR translates its findings into information for coastal managers, planners, lawmakers, and the public. Its aim is to improve environmental decisions affecting the coastal ocean and its resources.

The Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA), also located in Silver Spring, assesses and forecasts coastal and marine ecosystem conditions through research and monitoring. Center staff members work across disciplines with partners within and outside NOAA, using a variety of field methods in remote sensing, biogeography, and chemical environmental assessment. CCMA's scientists are currently engaged in the following activities: regional and national eutrophication assessments, creating better remote sensing data sets with chlorophyll climatology, coral reef ecosystem monitoring and assessments, harmful algal bloom detection and forecasting, coastal water and sediment quality monitoring and assessment, and marine protected area assessments.

The Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research (CCFHR), located in Beaufort, North Carolina, provides managers with information needed to enhance recreational and commercial fishing and essential fish habitat. CCFHR conducts laboratory and field research on estuarine processes, nearshore and ocean ecosystems' biological productivity, harmful algal blooms, the dynamics of coastal and reef fishery resources, and the effects of human influences on resource productivity.

The Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research (CCEHBR), located in Charleston, South Carolina, conducts interdisciplinary research to resolve issues related to coastal ecosystem health, environmental quality, and related public health impacts. Chemical, biomolecular, microbiological, and histological research is done to describe, evaluate, and predict the significant factors and outcomes of natural and human influences on marine and estuarine habitats.

Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML), is also located in Charleston, and is one of five NCCOS centers. It is a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary center, and includes scientists from the National Ocean Service, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the University of Charleston, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Medical University of South Carolina. HML provides science and biotechnology applications to help sustain, protect, and restore coastal ecosystems, emphasizing links between environmental and human health.

 

Roles of the Research Laboratories

Hollings Marine Laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina, is a state-of-the-art biotechnology facility.

Cooperative Oxford Laboratory (COL), is located in Oxford, Maryland. Here scientists investigate the role of disease in the distribution, abundance, marketability, and edibility of marine animal resources. COL also works to determine the influence of natural and human-made environmental factors on the occurence and persistance of diseases, and explore the use of developing and applying histopathological, clinical, biochemical, and microbiological approaches to study diseases of shellfish, marine mammals, sea turtles, and corals.

Finally, Kachemak Bay Laboratory is located on Kachemak Bay, near Cook Inlet, in Alaska. This newly renovated facility will provide research facilities for scientists from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, NOAA, Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve System, and others. The almost-pristine environmental conditions in that area enable research to determine the impacts of human activities, especially changes in land and resource use, on sub-arctic ecosystems.