The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) is a United States 2,800-acre (11 km2) environmental research and educational facility operated by the Smithsonian Institution. It is located on the Rhode and West Rivers near Edgewater in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, near the western shore of Chesapeake Bay. The center's focus of study is the ecosystems of coastal zones, particularly in the Chesapeake Bay estuary and nearby wetlands.
The SERC conducts research on 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 and graduate students, including pre-doctoral and doctoral students. Annually, the center receives over 10,000 students, teachers, and families who come to visit. It gives advice, consultation, and testimony to local, state, federal, and international governmental agencies, natural resource managers, policy makers, and conservation organizations.
It serves as a center of research and education on human impacts in land-sea interactions of the coastal zone. The center receives $20,000,000 in extramural grants and contracts funded from governmental agencies, foundations, and industry.
The center has been an innovator of biotelemetry to track behavior, habitat use, and movement of blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus), 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 developed a model for testing estuarine water quality and watershed nutrient discharges.