SERC has been safeguarding our coastal systems for 60 years

Sixty years after its founding, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center safeguards the vibrant ecosystems—and economic power—of our coastal zones

During my childhood in New Jersey, my friends and I would explore the undeveloped spots around high-tension power lines that had been left to nature, fascinated by the sporadic pockets of biodiversity teeming with life. I often brought home what I found, until the day my mom discovered snakes in my closet. That put a stop to my adventures in biodiversity science.

SERC technician Jessika De Jesus works on a living seawall experiment in San Francisco Bay. (Photo courtesy Corryn Knapp)

There has been no such end to exploration at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), where for 60 years ecologists have studied interactions between humans and coastal zone ecosystems, not only at its main campus in Edgewater, Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay, but also at coastal sites around the globe. From Antarctica to San Francisco to Belize, SERC scientists do groundbreaking and vital research in coastal zones, home to more than 40 percent of the world’s population and estimated to generate $2.3 trillion annually in goods and services.

One focus of SERC’s research is invasive aquatic species, which can decimate native fish populations, clog waterways, damage infrastructure and degrade water quality. Since 1996, SERC and the U.S. Coast Guard have worked to stop these invaders, including ones that hitch rides on ships. The jointly run National Ballast Information Clearinghouse requires commercial ships entering U.S. ports to explain how they ensure that the ballast water below their decks does not harbor potential invaders. SERC’s Marine Invasions Research Lab has also discovered new invasive species in Alaska and the Galápagos Islands.

Diving officer Emily Anderson surveys fish in Carrie Bow Cay, Belize, as part of her work with SERC’s Marine Global Earth Observatory. Photo courtesy of Leah Harper)

When SERC was established in 1965, it was conceived as a long-term monitoring station. A prime example is the BiodiversiTREE forest experiment, a study of nearly 20,000 trees SERC planted along the Chesapeake Bay’s shorelines in 2013 to help determine whether forests composed of several different tree species absorb more planet-warming carbon than single-species forests. Since most forest restoration projects plant only one kind of tree, understanding the benefits of multiple species could transform how we combat climate change and deforestation.