Oregon Sea Grant

Sea Grant-funded projects, 2012-2014

Community Resilience to Coastal Hazards and Climate Change:

Current projects:

• An Integrated Engineering-Economic Vulnerability Assessment Tool to Increase Tsunami Preparedness in Rural Coastal Counties (R/CNH-22). Young Chen, Oregon State University Agricultural & Resource Economics
• Understanding, Forecasting and Communicating the Linkages Between Hypoxia and Ocean Acidification in Oregon's Coastal Ocean (R/ECO-26). Francis Chan, OSU Zoology
• Developing Realistic Metrics of Acidification Stress for Commercially Important Bivalves in Variable Habitats (R/SAQ-19). George Waldbusser, OSU College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences (CEOAS)

2010-2012 projects:

• Coastal Effects of Tsunamis (R/CNH-20), Harry Yeh, OSU School of Civil and Construction Engineering
• Nearshore Wave Predictions along the Oregon Coast (R/CNH-19), H. Tuba Ozkan-Haller, OSU CEOAS.

Coastal Learning and Decision Making

Current projects:

• Sea Grant Professorship in Free-Choice Learning (E/UEd-03). John Falk & Lynn Dierking, OSU Science and Math Education

Fisheries and Seafood

Current projects:

• Predicting Habitat Quality of Juvenile English Sole and Dungeness Crab in Coastal And Estuarine Nursery Grounds (R/ECO-5). Lorenzo Ciannelli, OSU CEOAS. 
• Taking Stock of Oregon’s Nearshore Fisheries: Development of Simple Assessment Tools for Better Management (R/RCF-30). Selina Heppell, OSU Fisheries & Wildlife.
• Geomagnetic Imprinting and Homing in Salmon and Steelhead (R/RCF-31). David Noakes, OSU Fisheries & Wildlife.

2010-2012 projects:

• Drivers Of Ecosystem Resilience: Toward A Predictive Understanding Of Hypoxia's Impacts On Nearshore Fisheries And Ecological Communities (R/ECO-24). Francis Chan, Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO)/OSU Department of Zoology
• A Cooperative Effort to Track the Humboldt Squid Invasion in Oregon (R/RCF-29). Selina Heppell, OSU Department of Fisheries & Wildlife
• Effect of Vibrio tubiashii on West Coast Shellfish (R/SAQ-16). Chris Langdon, OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center/Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station
• Effects of Hypoxia on Ichthyoplankton and Micronekton Communities off the Oregon Coast (R/ECO-23). Lorenzo Ciannelli, OSU CEOAS (continuing project from 2008-2010 funding cycle).

Multiple Uses and Marine Spatial Planning

Current projects:

• Realized and Potential Larval Connectivity Along the Oregon Coast (R/HBT-15). Harold Batchelder, OSU CEOAS.

2010-2012 projects:

• A Community-Based Bramework for Identifying, Estimating and Evaluating Ecosystem Services Associated with Oregon's Proposed Marine Reserves (R/CC-12). Randall S. Rosenberger, OSU College of Forestry.

Oceans and Human Health

2010-2012 projects:

• Bioactive Natural Products from Deep Sea Hydrothermal Vent Organisms (R/BT-48). Mark Zabriskie, OSU University College of Pharmacy.

Watersheds and Water Resources

Current projects:

• Modeling Myxozoan Disease in Pacific Salmon: Establishing Watershed Models for Predicting Effects of Climate Change (R/BT-49). Jerri Bartholomew, OSU Microbiology.
• Tides, Freshwater and Winds: Modeling the Impacts of Currents on the Oregon Inner Continental Shelf and Within Yaquina Bay Estuary (R/HBT-16)  James Lerczak, OSU CEOAS.

2010-2012 projects:

• Response of Marsh Insects and Benthic Invertebrates to Dike Removal in the Salmon River Estuary: Follow-up, Synthesis and Education (R/HBT-12). Karen Haberman, Western Oregon University Department of Biology.
• Modeling Myxozoan Disease in Pacific Salmon: How Will Climate Change Affect Parasite Distribution and Salmon Survival? (R/BT-47). Jerri Bartholomew, OSU Department of Microbiology.
• A Predictive Approach to Risk Analysis and the Economics of Early Detection and Rapid Response for Aquatic Invasive Species (R/NIS-19). Munisamy Gopinath, OSU Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

West Coast Regional Projects

Four West Coast Sea Grant Programs (Oregon, Washington, California and the University of Southern California) are jointly funding a number of coordinated research projects for 2012-2014 that bring together researchers from across the region to address social science issues of regional priority. The four programs have made a total of $700,000 available over two years for this initiative.

The following two projects, funded by this regional initiative, involve Oregon collaborators:

• Toward Resilience and Sustainable Seafood Supply: Assessing Direct Marketing Approaches for the West Coast Fishing Communities (R/SF-36). Barbara Walker, University of California-Santa Barbara. Oregon Sea Grant co-PIs are  Jamie Doyle and Jeff Feldner.
• Successful Adaptation: Identifying Effective Process and Outcome Characteristics and Practice-Relevant Metrics (R/CNH-23). Pamela Matson, Stanford University. Oregon co-PI: Hannah Gosnell, OSU/CEOAS.

Program Development Grants

When funds are available, Sea Grant makes modest grants outside the regular biennial funding cycle to promising research proposals that need "start-up" money, to small-scale projects of high significance or societal relevance, and to projects which help fill gaps in our research portfolio. Read more: Examples of current and recent PD grants.

Outside funding

Oregon Sea Grant faculty receive funding from a variety of sources to support their own research. Some of our current and recent projects:

•  Developing a Pilot Marine Debris Monitoring Program in Oregon. PI Jamie Doyle. (Funding: NOAA)
• NOAA Sea Grant Tsunami Debris Workshop  and Elevating Public Awareness, engagement and solutions to West Coast Marine Debris Through Video Outreach  PI Stephen Brandt. (Funding: NOAA)
• Food Processing and Safety Training for Warm Springs and Yakima Tribes. PI Mark Whitham. (Funding: Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission).
• Developing the Foundation for a Framework for Public and Stakeholder Engagement in a Regional Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning Process. PIs: Stephen Brandt, Oregon Sea Grant, and John Stein, NOAA. A regional program of West Coast Sea Grant and NOAA programs.
• Free-choice Learning: Development of a Cyberlaboratory -- Exploring Customization and Continuity. Shawn Rowe, Marine Education Learning Specialist. (Funding: National Science Foundation).
• Spatially-explicit, High-resolution Mapping and Modeling to Quantify Hypoxia and Oil Effects on the Living Resources of the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Stephen Brandt, Director, Oregon Sea Grant and collaborators from the University of Maryland and Eastern Carolina University (Funding: National Science Foundation).
• Hazard Resilient Coastal Communities: National Climate Survey. Joe Cone, Assistant Sea Grant Director and Communications program leader (Funding: NOAA).
• Climate Variability and Community Resilience: Testing a National Model of State-Based Outreach. Joe Cone, Oregon Sea Grant, and Susan White, Maine Sea Grant (Funding: NOAA Sectoral Applications Research Program).
• Regional Aquatic Invasive Species Research and Outreach. Sam Chan, Sea Grant aquatic ecosystem health specialist. (Funding: NOAA Sea Grant).
• Improving Community Profiles for Oregon Fisheries and Coastal Communities. Flaxen Conway, Sea Grant Extension/OSU Department of Sociology (Funding: OSU Sustainable Rural Communities Initiative, NOAA Fisheries, Oregon Sea Grant and the Port Liaison Project).
• Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center: Outreach and engagement. Kaety Hildenbrand, Oregon Sea Grant Extension, Lincoln County. (Funding: US Department of Energy; additional funding from the  the Oregon Wave Energy Trust).