A diverse staff of 17 senior scientists and a growing interdisciplinary team of more than
180 researchers, technicians, and students conduct long-term descriptive and experimental research that cuts across traditional disciplinary boundaries. Studies range from the effects of nutrients and chemicals passing through our landscapes to maintenance of productive fisheries, changes to our environment from biological invaders, or protection of fragile wetlands and woodlands.

SERC's main campus encompasses 2,800 acres of land along the Rhode River, a subestuary of the Chesapeake Bay, and includes forest, cropland, pasture, freshwater wetlands, tidal marshes, and estuaries. Much of our research focuses on this subestuary and its 14-square-mile watershed as a representative model system for the enormous (64,000-square-mile) Chesapeake drainage basin. The Research Center serves as a natural laboratory and a focal point for long-term monitoring programs and research projects.

Expanding outward from the main campus, SERC researchers conduct comparative studies at field sites around the world-from Australia to Belize and Antarctica to Alaska.

To learn more about research at SERC, select one of the themes above, or go to our Search Research page for more options.