Our Location
The Ecosystems and Climate Program is located at Heritage Harbor in Monterey, California, and works with a number of California universities and stakeholder groups concerned with ocean science and management.
What We Do
Climate & Ecosystem Research
The Climate & Ecosystem Group is composed of NOAA Fisheries and UC Santa Cruz oceanographers and ecologists that are examining how physical and biological processes affect the California Current Ecosystem and the eastern Pacific Ocean. Our major research areas include the following projects:
- California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (CC-IEA)
- Ecological and social indicators of ecosystem health
- Management Strategy Evaluations
- Research on climate and oceanographic processes, including upwelling indices and marine heatwaves
- Ecosystem-based and Dynamic Ocean Management, e.g. EcoCast and WhaleWatch
- End-to-end (climate to humans) models of climate-driven ecosystem change, e.g. Future Seas
- Climate vulnerability assessments of west coast commercial fish species and marine mammals
Our Leadership
George Watters, Ph.D.
Ecosystem Science Division Director
George Watters is the Director of the Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division (AERD) and the U.S. Representative to the Scientific Committee for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. As U.S. Representative, he has primary responsibility for providing scientific advice on the conservation and management of living marine resources in the Southern Ocean. George has held his current positions since 2009, but has been active in Antarctic research since 1991, when he joined the division as a first-year Ph.D. student at U.C. San Diego.