California Sea Grant awards $2.6 million to 10 research projects

California Sea Grant has selected 10 projects to receive 2016-2018 Standard Core Awards. The projects will collectively receive $2.64 million in federal funding, designated by Congress through the National Sea Grant College Program.

Successful projects must align with California Sea Grant’s strategic focus areas and rank highly in a two-step review process. An external review panel evaluates scientific merit of the projects, and California’s Resources Agency Sea Grant Advisory Panel (RASGAP) ranks projects relevance to current state management issues.

This year’s award winners include Peter Raimondi of UC Santa Cruz, who will be aggregating data to map California’s near shore “white zone” – too shallow for traditional seafloor mapping techniques. First-time Sea Grant awardee Sara Maxwell of Old Dominion University will be investigating the probability of dolphin and whale bycatch in drift gillnets, and integrating the results into a bycatch app called EcoCast for use by fishermen. Additional projects will explore the impacts of climate change, pesticides, sound and other ecosystem dynamics on California’s fisheries and aquaculture industry.

The projects below are expected to run between spring 2016 and Jan. 31, 2018.

Effects of climate change induced ocean acidification and hypoxia on reproduction of rockfishes
R/HCME-20 Feb 2016 – Jan 2018
Principal Investigators: Giacomo Bernardi
Co-principal Investigators: Scott Hamilton, Susan Sogard, Cheryl Logan

Octopus predatory behavior, spatial ecology, and their impact on abalone populations
R/HCME-21 Feb 2016 – Jan 2018
Principal Investigators: Ed Parnell
Co-principal Investigators: Paul Dayton, Jennifer Hofmeister

Filling the “white zone”: New methods for interpolating seafloor attributes in California’s critical unmapped nearshore habitats
R/HCME-22 Feb 2016 – Jan 2018
Principal Investigators: Peter Raimondi
Co-principal Investigators: Mark Carr

Understanding the role of oyster mariculture on ecosystem health in coastal California: water quality in Drakes Estero before and after oyster mariculture
R/HCME-23 Feb 2016 – Jan 2018
Principal Investigators: Frances Wilkerson
Co-principal Investigators: Richard Dugdale, Karina Nielsen, Alexander Parker

Impact of Neonicotinoid Pesticides on Estuaries and Coastal Streams
R/HCME-24 Feb 2016 – Jan 2018
Principal Investigators: Hunter Lenihan
Co-principal Investigators: Jay Means, Erik Muller, Michelle Hladik, Jill Murray

Species Distribution Models for Management of Fisheries and MPAs: innovative approaches to cost-effective data collection in California
R/HCME-25 Feb 2016 – Jan 2018
Principal Investigators: Jennifer Caselle
Co-principal Investigators: Rick Starr

Nearshore Nonlinear Internal Waves: Propagation, Transport, Mixing and Controls on Larvae, Phytoplankton, and Nutrients
R/HCME-26 Feb 2016 – Jan 2018
Principal Investigators: Falk Feddersen
Co-principal Investigators: None

Behavioral-physical regulation of nearshore retention and cross-shelf transport of fish larvae in a network of marine reserves
R/HCME-27 Feb 2016 – Jan 2018
Principal Investigators: Steven G. Morgan
Co-principal Investigators: John Largier

Deciphering the Soundscapes of the Coastal Shelf: Using Passive Acoustics for Assessing Fish Dynamics in Southern California Kelp Forests
R/HCME-28 Feb 2016 – Jan 2018
Principal Investigators: Ana Širović
Co-principal Investigators: Jules Jaffe, Ed Parnell

Integrating Survey-Based Habitat Models into the California Swordfish Fishery Dynamic Management Tool
R/SSFS-04 Feb 2016 – Jan 2018
Principal Investigators: Sara Maxwell
Co-principal Investigators: Elliott Hazen, Elizabeth Becker, Kylie Scales