A Whitepaper for the Campaign Steering Committee s1

The Bodega Marine Laboratory at UC Davis A Whitepaper for the Campaign Steering Committee

THE VISION The future of California depends upon a more sustainable relationship—both economically and environmentally—to our coastline and ocean.

California has the largest coastal economy in the United States, generating nearly $2 trillion in economic activity and surpassing agriculture as the state’s principal economic driver. With tourism constituting the largest sector of the coastal economy, California’s coastline is arguably our most valuable natural asset. At the same time, climate change and continued demands placed on the coast are challenging us to fundamentally rethink our relationship to the ocean.

The UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML) is within the universitywide Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute (CMSI), which coordinates and catalyzes a diverse and dynamic research community on the main campus and at Bodega Bay, with over 70 faculty members, more than 40 graduate students, and a growing number of undergraduates in the new interdisciplinary Marine and Coastal Sciences major. Faculty and students come from all of the natural and social sciences, representing four colleges, three professional schools and more than 20 academic departments.

Since its launch in 1966, BML has been a leader in multidisciplinary research aimed at solving complex environmental problems in coastal ecosystems. Through BML’s integration with CMSI, that research is amplified and shared with managers and decision makers for effective stewardship of ocean and coastal environments for the benefit of California and beyond. Recognizing the unique and critical role that our coast plays in our state’s prosperity, environmental health and quality of life, BML has been propelling scientific discovery along the land-sea interface for more than 50 years. Now, at this pivotal moment in our relationship to the ocean, we want to do more.

UC Davis has a vision to launch its renowned Bodega Marine Laboratory on a bold new trajectory by creating a new state-of-the-art educational outreach center, experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and cutting-edge laboratories. BML will lead an initiative to provide science for policymaking, train the next generation of leaders, and accelerate new knowledge about human impacts on the ocean, from recreation to food and from health to transportation. We envision an international center of excellence on coastal climate change, a new model for engaged scholarship and citizen science, and a synergistic hub where stakeholders, students and faculty drive solution-focused science.

Complex environmental change issues along the shores of the ocean require interdisciplinary approaches that span the physical and biological sciences, social sciences and health sciences— all areas where UC Davis is a global leader. Located in one of the most productive coastal marine ecosystems on earth and between pristine coastal waters and an estuary supporting one of the world’s major metropolitan areas, BML’s geographic advantage is amplified by notable collaborations with the College of Biological Sciences, the College of Letters and Science, the

1 internationally renowned College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and the world’s top-ranked veterinary school.

With one of the world’s top marine laboratories and a universitywide institute for coastal and marine science, no institution is better equipped than UC Davis to move the needle on coastal science, discover science-based solutions and secure a sustainable future for precious coastal resources worldwide.

THE RIGHT TIME AND THE RIGHT PLACE With rapid progress in understanding global climate change over the last few decades, attention is shifting quickly to the impact of this change and the options for adapting to it along the coast. It is along shorelines and in coastal waters where humans derive the most benefit and, at the same time, exert the most stress upon the natural functions of the ocean. Herein lies a critical challenge for the next few decades. The imperative of coastal climate change includes not only global-scale changes but also the cumulative effect of development of coastal landscapes and seascapes.

Tomorrow’s leaders need to understand coastal environments, and the public needs to feel invested in these environments. Sustainable coastal stewardship will require collaborative problem solving, sound policy and, above all, a widespread commitment that crosses disciplines and partisan lines in recognition of the ocean’s multifaceted and global significance. To ensure the sustained benefits of coastal areas in California and elsewhere we need to quickly develop a new integrative, solution-oriented science. Now is the time to do so and BML is well positioned with the intellectual resources and collaborative network to quickly effect significant change.

As a bellwether of responses to environmental change, California offers new thinking and novel policy approaches with repercussions well beyond our state. UC Davis and BML have a track record of past successes in delivering on the need for innovation in science, which is simultaneously informed by a policy context.

UC Davis has been at the leading edge of preparing students to make an impact for more than a century—and every step of the way, our research has supported every sector of California’s economy. We are an international model for engaged research done right, and now we want to do for coastal science what we have done for the whole of California since our founding: apply science, technology and research to the needs of a growing industry and support the public good through engaging citizens in pressing issues.

BML is poised to provide hands-on training and outreach to UC Davis students across majors, the best and brightest graduate students, regional K-12 students and the general public. Considered among the top marine laboratories in the nation, we have access to an extensive protected marine environment situated in one of only four upwelling regions in the world—a type of ecosystem that provides an exceptional amount of diversity and abundance in sea life. Located in close proximity to different sectors of the coastal economy and the San Francisco Bay estuary, with long-standing collaborations with myriad stakeholders, we are able to provide

2 unique and highly relevant opportunities for students and citizens alike to make a difference while fostering new synergies.

THE OPPORTUNITY How do we support a thriving tourism industry while protecting natural resources? What are the best ways to address population depletion in overfished stocks? How can the seafood industries continue to be successful while meeting consumer demand for safe and sustainably harvested products? We know that anthropogenic changes like increased seawater acidity and pathogen pollution are impairing the physiological development of certain species—how can we mitigate the ecological and economic consequences? As climatic variability and coastal populations continue to rise, what are the best ways to adapt to the ramifications?

Most importantly, how do we translate the answers to these questions into actionable insights for citizens, decision makers and policymakers? At Bodega Marine Laboratory, we are poised to break new ground in the most critical challenges—and disseminate workable solutions—at the nexus of sea, land and people. Doing so will require a three-pronged approach:

The Bodega Learning Center We will create a new, state-of-the-art facility to triple the annual number of visitors, facilitate stakeholder meetings, integrate university-based working groups, and host “K- grey” programs that range from field trips to citizen science workshops. This increased outreach will provide graduate students with experience in science communication skills, innovative pedagogy, and supporting K-12 educators with fulfilling common core standards.

Training the Next Generation By expanding the capacity of this renowned marine laboratory, the facility will be able to host the new interdisciplinary undergraduate major in Marine and Coastal Science while also allowing growth in other dimensions of learning, studying, advising and working at BML. Expanding and upgrading housing facilities, providing endowed support to undergraduate students for spring and summer courses, providing endowed support to graduate students for their research and for travel to the main campus, and endowed institutional postdoctoral scholars in interdisciplinary marine science will ensure we can recruit and retain stellar students.

The Coastal Climate Change Center of Excellence BML is home to one of the greatest concentrations of expertise in the study of complex environmental changes happening along our coast. Renovating available space in our facility presents a cost-effective and space-efficient opportunity to support our dream team in investigating climate change, pollution, sustainability, and food from the sea. In collaboration with thought leaders across the disciplines, we will establish the new global gold standard for comprehensive understanding of coastal change science, management and policy.

MOVING FORWARD

3 Taking Bodega Marine Laboratory to the next level will require capital funding, start-up funding and long-term funding.

Capital funding would support a new facility for the Bodega Learning Center, a new conference center, upgrading and expansion of housing facilities, and the renovation of the South Wing courtyards and old endangered salmon building into laboratory space and a sustainable aquaculture research facility. Start-up funding would support the outfitting of these new laboratories with cutting-edge equipment and tools.

Long-term funding would support endowments for undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and expanding the scope of the Bodega ocean observing network.

The total cost is estimated to be $50 million.