The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration granted $2.4 million to the Regents of the University of California to support the Center for Integrated Marine Technologies. NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The grant will finance a project to study the effects of changes in physical oceanographic processes such as El Niño events, upwelling and long-term climate change on California’s coastal ecosystem. The project will study the relationships between changes in ocean conditions and nutrient levels in the water and how key marine resources such as fisheries, seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals respond to such changes. The center hopes to develop new technologies to measure key components in the system, integrate diverse data sets across disciplines and programs and collect data at compatible temporal and spatial resolution.

“This NOAA grant will increase our understanding of the influence the oceans have on our living marine resources and thereby gain new tools for the effective management and stewardship of them,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “This grant allows the Center for Integrated Marine Technologies to manage its coastal resources while actively supporting efforts that reinforce NOAA’s and the Bush Administration’s commitment to the environment.”

The Center for Integrated Marine Technologies draws together an interdisciplinary group of researchers from five partner institutions around Monterey Bay. Researchers include physical, biological and geochemical oceanographers, ecologists, resources managers, remote sensing experts, and instrumentation and networking engineers. The Center also is a partner to both the Alliance for Coastal Technology and NOAA’s Coastal Observation Technology System.

Each year, NOAA awards approximately $900 million in grants to members of the academic, scientific and business communities to assist the agency in fulfilling its mission to study the Earth’s natural systems in order to predict environmental change, manage ocean resources, protect life and property, and provide decision makers with reliable scientific information. NOAA’s goals and programs reflect a commitment to these basic responsibilities of science and service to the nation for the past 34 years.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of our nation’s coastal and marine resources. To learn more about NOAA, please visit: http://www.noaa.gov.