Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) is a 2,800-acre environmental research and educational facility operated by the Smithsonian Institution located in Edgewater, MD on the Rhode and West Rivers. The center's focus of study is on the ecosystems of coastal zones, particularly in the Chesapeake Bay wetlands.
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[edit] Summary
The SERC conducts research on a wide variety of topics that include terrestrial, atmospheric, and estuarine environmental research within the disciplines of botany, ecology, environmental education, biology, chemistry, mathematics, microbiology, physics, and zoology. The Center trains interns, graduate students, pre-doctoral and doctoral students. Annually, the Center receives over 10,000 students, teachers, and families who come to visit. It also gives advice, consultation, and testimony to local, state, federal, and international governmental agencies, natural resource managers, policy makers, and conservation groups.
Additionally, it serves as a center of research and education on human impacts in land-sea interactions of the coastal zone. Their laboratory focuses on being a model of human interaction with the environment. The Center receives $20,000,000 in current extramural grants and contracts funded from governmental agencies, foundations, and industry.
[edit] Research
SERC has conducted research in areas such as Prince William Sound, Alaska, the Antarctic Ocean, the farmlands of Chesapeake Bay, and the mangroves of Central America. Current and past research includes:
- A long running field experiment on atmospheric increase in CO2 and its effect on plant communities.
- An extensive data record on the increase in ultraviolet solar radiation impacting the Earth
- Establishing the National Ballast Water Information Clearinghouse at SERC.
- Watershed research on the flow of nutrients through coastal landscapes, especially Chesapeake Bay, the nation's largest estuary.
- One of the most active research teams that analyzes mangrove forests, the vital tropical ecosystems at the land margin.
- A center for the study of estuarine plankton, coastal algal blooms, and water quality indicators, as well as the for analysis of wetlands and riparian ecosystems in land use management.
- Maintains the longest record of acid rain and its chemical impacts in the mid-Atlantic region.
- Twenty-six year database on species composition and population dynamics of plants and animals in the Nation's largest estuary and watershed
[edit] Technical innovation
The Center has been an innovator of unique biotelemetry to track behavior, habitat use, and movement of blue crabs, a marine predator and a valuable crustacean fishery in North America. They are the patent holder for the Spectral Radiometer, the national standard for monitoring solar radiation. The Center has also developed a model for testing estuarine water quality and watershed nutrient discharges.
