The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES), SW CASC’s UCLA host, is a campus-wide center that offers faculty with multidisciplinary expertise in life, physical, social, and geospatial sciences, and a culture of pursuing policy-relevant and actionable research. Specific UCLA research and educational strengths that have contributed to the SW CASC include coastal zone ecology, sedimentology, carbon dynamics, climate model downscaling, remote sensing, water resources, urban sustainability, and climate change policy. CASC-relevant facilities include the UCLA-managed UC Natural Reserve System sites (Santa Monica Mountains), the La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science, and the White Mountains Research Center.
UCLA co-PIs are focusing research efforts on coastal ecosystem physical and biological responses to climate and extreme climatic events. Over the 5-year period, the team will organize three regional and multidisciplinary stakeholder meetings, bringing together SW CASC scientists and coastal research managers. The meetings will focus on issues of climate change and its impacts on California coastal environments, and especially on marshes and estuaries. The first meeting, described in this report, was held in Los Angeles, California in 2019, and set priorities and research aims. Based on the research priorities identified in the first meeting, UCLA investigators held a second meeting in April 2021 with a smaller select group of engaged stakeholders, focusing discussions on climate change impacts on rocky intertidal zones. The final larger meeting will focus on communication of results and framing of management and planning actions required for current and future needs and priorities.
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