A public agency applying next-generation science to aquatic ecosystems management - Since 1969 - Southern California Coastal Water Research Project

Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia

Researchers are documenting how corrosive coastal ocean conditions and low dissolved oxygen levels threaten the health of marine food webs.

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Bioanalytical Cell Screening Assays

Researchers are investigating how to adapt cell bioassays as a cost-effective screening tool to improve monitoring of bioactive chemical contaminants in aquatic systems.

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Harmful Algal Blooms

SCCWRP and its research partners are examining how to mitigate the proliferation of ecologically disruptive blooms in aquatic systems that threaten the health of wildlife and humans.

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The Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) is an aquatic sciences research institute that works to improve management of aquatic systems in Southern California and beyond. Since its founding as an intergovernmental public agency in 1969, SCCWRP has been developing strategies, tools and technologies that the region’s water-quality management community relies on to more effectively protect and enhance the ecological health of Southern California’s coastal ocean and the watersheds that drain to it. As an R&D agency, SCCWRP’s reputation is built on conducting research and translating this science into actionable guidance and recommendations that inform management decision-making and policy development.
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Microplastics Methods Workshop -
SCCWRP Commission Meeting -
Seminar: "Aquaculture in the era of climate change: Utilizing biological modeling and physiological studies to benefit industry, climate and the urban ocean" -
Seminar: "Building interdisciplinary partnerships to advance climate change science and test adaption solutions" -
Seminar: "The interagency ecology program: A long term approach to collaborative applied science in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta" -

McCune, K., R.D. Mazor. 2019. Review of Flow Duration Methods and Indicators of Flow Duration in the Scientific Literature: Arid Southwest. Technical Report 1063. Southern California Coastal Water Research Project. Costa Mesa, CA.

Lao, W., K.A. Maruya, D. Tsukada. 2019. An exponential model based new approach for correcting aqueous concentrations of hydrophobic organic chemicals measured by polyethylene passive samplers. Science of the Total Environment 646:11-18.

Schiff, K.C., K. McLaughlin, S.L. Moore, Y. Cao. 2019. Southern California Bight. World Seas: An Environmental Evaluation pp. 465-482. Academic Press. London, UK.

Doughty, C.L., K.C. Cavanaugh, R.F. Ambrose, E.D. Stein. 2019. Evaluating regional resiliency of coastal wetlands to sea level rise through hypsometry‐based modeling. Global Change Biology 10.1111/gcb.14429.