Implementation Grants
The implementation funding program supports projects that speak to the impacts to coastal communities from climate change, deliver clear outcomes and solutions, and engage partners to address the challenges from coastal climate change.
Seven projects were selected for this program and received up to $500,000 each.
“Promoting Resilience of the Dungeness Crab Fishery to Climate-Induced Harmful Algal Blooms,”
led by Kristy Kroeker, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
Project details
Recent events have highlighted the acute vulnerability of marine species, ecosystems, and associated human communities along the California coast to climate change and the need for rapid adaptation. The 2014-2016 marine heatwave produced the largest and most prolonged domoic acid (DA)-producing harmful algal bloom (HAB) ever documented. Moreover, new “HAB hotspots” emerged during the heatwave that have persisted during non-heatwave periods. Importantly, these hotspots overlap with the commercial fishery for Dungeness crab, one of California’s most important fisheries, with ex-vessel annual revenues of $40-80 million over the past decade that represent 26% of all annual fishery revenue. The fishery is particularly important to the state’s central and northern California fishing communities, which have become highly dependent on it for livelihood and well-being. Ongoing interviews with crab fishery participants have identified several issues that limit the resilience of this social-ecological system to climate change. In particular, fishermen and seafood handlers have highlighted three key gaps: (1) not knowing where HABs are occurring or are predicted to occur, (2) a lack of clarity about where Dungeness crab accumulate DA from those HABs, and (3) inefficient use and communication of information from sampling, testing, and decision-making to close or reopen the fishery. We propose to leverage and combine existing expertise at UCSC to directly address all three gaps. Our theory of change is that more equitable access to and communication of HAB and DA data will enable more equitable opportunities for fishermen and seafood businesses to provide their catch to a diversity of markets.
“Restoring Chinook Salmon on the Klamath River to Rebuild Resilient Tribal Fisheries and Increase Food Security for Tribal Members,”
led by Eric Palkovacs, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
Project details
Chinook salmon is a key component of food sovereignty for the tribes of the Klamath River
Basin, but a combination of dams and climate change have had severe negative effects on the fishery, especially the abundance of spring Chinook, which are traditionally regarded as being a higher quality food source compared to fall Chinook. This project will examine the association between run timing genotypes and the nutritional content of salmon (calories, protein, fat, omega 3 fatty acids, vitamins A and D, and minerals). Semi-structured interviews with tribal members will be conducted to better understand the effects of declining spring Chinook for human health and wellbeing. Working with tribal fisheries, we will co-design approaches to restore Chinook salmon, in particular spring Chinook following the removal of Klamath River dams, to revitalize the fishery and increase food security for tribal members. This project
aligns with California Climate Adaptation Strategy Goal to support California Native American tribes’ development of climate change and health equity resilience planning tools and capacity.
“Sustaining Recharge Net Metering to Benefit Aquatic Systems and Water Resources in a Changing Climate,”
led by Andrew Fisher, distinguished professor of Earth and planetary sciences.
Project details
The Pajaro Valley is in a coastal groundwater basin impacted by seawater intrusion, where salt water contaminates fresh water, making groundwater unusable for decades or longer. Proposed work will help to increase water supply, improve water quality, and empower local communities to “connect” with their aquifers and engage in shared resource management. Sustaining groundwater will also improve aquatic health in linked streams and near-shore estuaries. Recharge Net Metering (ReNeM) offsets costs to landowners and tenants who infiltrate stormwater runoff to improve groundwater resources, generating an annual rebate on pumping fees based on system performance. Wells in the agency service area are metered, and pumpers pay fees based on water extracted. Although charging for groundwater pumping is not (yet) common in California, many agencies are developing plans that will require generation of revenue needed to implement groundwater sustainability practices. Thus this is an opportune time to both make ReNeM work in the Pajaro Valley, and demonstrate effectiveness for consideration by other regions. Proposed work leverages existing partnerships and trust that have been developed and nurtured over 10+ years. By scaling ReNeM as a constructive solution, we can help to solve groundwater challenges throughout coastal California, while enabling a new approach to unlock resource management innovation in other parts of California and the U.S.
“Coordinated Fire Management for Resilient Coastal Prairies,”
led by Karen Holl, professor of environmental studies.
Project details
Land management groups are increasingly using prescribed burns in coastal prairies to slow woody encroachment, reduce fire risk, and promote grassland diversity, though the outcomes of such efforts have been minimally monitored. Recent fires have catalyzed awareness of the need for better fire management coordination amongst the many landholders along the California coast to protect human infrastructure and strengthen the climate resilience of this ecosystem. California coastal prairies, grasslands influenced by maritime fog, have evolved to depend on fire and other natural disturbances (e.g. burrowing mammals, Pleistocene grazers) after millions of years of infrequent lightning‐strike fires and then many millennia of cultural management by Native Americans. California coastal prairies were considered a special plant community by California Tribes who burned to maintain open landscapes for hunting wildlife and to promote growth of plants used for basketry, food, and medicine. This systematic burning sustained a mosaic of habitat types and prevented a buildup of fuels that could create catastrophic, unmanageable fires in adjacent forest. Since Western contact in the 16th century, coastal prairies have been reduced in size and diversity due to altered disturbance regimes including fire suppression and widespread cattle grazing, the introduction of invasive species, and conversion for agriculture and development. While fire often benefits plant diversity, the effects of fire on carbon storage are less clear and little information is available for CA coastal prairie. Monitoring carbon stocks following coastal prairie fires will narrow this knowledge gap and allow land managers to make decisions based on the best available science.
“Evaluation of Cost-Effectiveness and Equitable Distribution of Adaptation Benefits through CoSMoS ADAPT,”
led by Borja Reguero, associate research professor at the Institute of Marine Sciences.
Project details
Two-thirds of California’s residents live in coastal counties where more than 675,000 people and $250 billion in property are at risk of flooding from sea level rise and a 100-yr storm by 2101. Recent storms demonstrate that California is already experiencing growing costs from coastal climate impacts. State agencies and local communities have been scaling up adaptation efforts, but they have expressed a lack of tools to evaluate local adaptation options and the distribution of benefits at local and regional scales. The main goal of this project is to develop solutions, including nature-based approaches, to reduce climate risks. The project will advance the USGS’s Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS), which was developed with significant state funding, to create the first toolkit for quantitative evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of coastal adaptation options in the state, including nature-based solutions (NBS), in support of management and policy decision making.
“Carbon Dynamics in Coastal Wetlands – Understanding Controlling Processes to Assess Wetlands Nature-Based Climate Mitigation Potential,”
led by Adina Paytan, research scientist at the Institute of Marine Sciences.
Project details
Carbon sequestration in natural and working lands is one of several diverse nature-based climate action solutions that can provide additional benefits to people and ecosystems. Coastal wetlands are particularly effective in capturing carbon-dioxide from the atmosphere and burying this carbon for millennia in the waterlogged wetland soils, but wetlands are diverse; their physical (elevation, soil type), biological (vegetation, species), chemical (salinity, oxygen), management (flooding), landownership (private, state, federal) and use (agriculture, recreation, hunting) vary, and these differences affect their effectiveness as net carbon sinks. Moreover, some of these wetlands emit potent greenhouse gases such as methane which can offset carbon storage. It is therefore crucial to design and manage coastal wetlands to effectively remove carbon while also contributing to other benefits. This project aims to inform and facilitate effective implementation of wetland restoration and conservation projects aimed at increasing carbon sequestration and reducing greenhouse gas emissions for the co-benefit of human and natural systems. Ultimately, a set of practical restoration design and management recommendations, that increase net C sequestration and co-benefits, will be developed. Our data will also provide insights into how fluxes may change in the future because of climate change and their value in carbon markets, informing restoration planning and contributing to California’s GHG emissions reduction goals.
“Democratizing Access to Climate-Change Scenarios to Support Climate-Resilient Coastal Conservation,“
led by Erika Zavaleta, Howard Hughes Medical Institute professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
Project details
Climate uncertainties and nonlinearities require “horizoning work” – processes to “bring an unknown or runaway future into the present as an object of knowledge and intervention” (Petryna 2018). We propose to expand and implement an existing spatial tool built by collaborating UCSC ecological, climate and computer scientists to enable widespread horizoning work for land decisions that enhance biodiversity conservation for nature and people in California. Our goal is to implement an interactive, map-based climate-change scenario tool co-designed to enable widespread exploration of how decisions made today will affect long-term climate resilience for coastal California’s biodiversity. California’s 30×30 and State Wildlife Action Plan offer a huge opportunity to democratize landscape conservation and
restoration decisions. Our tool will allow the California public, and in particular our tribal partners, to explore the consequences of climate change and conservation decisions and to have a participatory role in safeguarding the state’s culturally and ecologically important species. In the next two years, we will pursue three components of tool development and implementation in parallel: (A) model-building and validation; (B) interface co-design; and (C) best practices for tribal access and co-stewardship in the land-protection decisions this tool supports.
“CSP Fellows and Professional Development Certificate Pilot to Strengthen workforce development in coastal climate resilience and policy,”
led by the Coastal Science and Policy Program.
Project details
The Coastal Climate Resilience Fellowships will help build the cadre of rising leaders who reflect the diversity of California and beyond and are eager to address complex coastal resilience issues relevant to the foci of the Center on Coastal Climate Resilience (the Center). Our goal is to help seed and ensure a greater number of rising leaders in the coastal resilience workforce who reflect the full diversity of our communities and emphasize designing effective, socially just and equitable solutions.
With the CCCR support, the Coastal Science and Policy Program will launch a Coastal Resilience and Policy Certificate Pilot, with a goal of enhancing access to transformational coastal resilience training. Drawing on the needs expressed by partners in the field of insurance and nature-based solutions, the first pilot specialization module will focus on coastal resilience and insurance or advancing municipalities’ adaptability and resilience. In the second year, we will offer multiple specialization modules informed by a market and needs assessment commissioned in the first year.
“Coastal Resilience Exhibit Development,”
led by the Seymour Marine Discovery Center.
Project details
The Seymour Marine Discover Center plans to transform into an impact accelerator for — and public expression of — UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience by becoming the coastal climate connector of people, expertise, and action. With funding from the CCCR, the Seymour Center will:
- Install three new experiences to share the work done by the CCCR with the public
- Introduce a new space for climate professionals to connect with each other, share ideas, and collaborate on meaningful actions
- Fund three staff positions to [1] facilitate campus/community collaborations and [2] elevate the profile of UCSC’s impact and leadership by finding and sharing stories relevant to coastal climate resilience science and solutions.
This model will be spread by offering playbooks, workshops, and other resources to help California coastal communities establish their own climate action hubs.
“Communications Fellow in Coastal Climate Resilience,”
led by the Science Communication Program.
Project details
The UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Program is an international leader in inclusive science communication training and practice. The program currently offers a Master’s of Science in Science Communication (M.S.), but there is increasing demand for additional training in science-based public engagement at the University of California and beyond. The UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Laboratory, housed within the Science Communication Program, will leverage the program’s expertise to drive greater public and community engagement with research in coastal climate resilience and related fields across many formats (print, digital, multimedia, social media, and events). Among other activities, the program will focus on training diverse students to use evidence-based communication strategies in public discourse on climate and science issues, and work with students and other communicators to focus on identifying and discussing adaptation solutions, not just climate risk and problems with solutions – and where appropriate on Nature-based Solutions.
“Coastal Climate Risk & Value of Nature to Vulnerable Nations” and “Visualization of Climate Risk & Reef Benefits,”
led by the Coastal Resilience Lab.
Project details
Coastal zones provide key services to local communities but also carry significant risks from the land and ocean including impacts from waves, storm surges, and sea level rise, which are growing with climate change. Protecting and restoring coastal ecosystems such as coral reefs and mangroves can help mitigate these threats while also supporting local economies. As part of the “Large-scale CoPe: Reducing Climate Risks with Equitable Nature-based Solutions: Engaging Communities on Reef-Lined Coasts” or eNBS Hub, the Coastal Resilience Lab explores risks and benefits to communities in tropical coastal areas where replenishing coral reef and mangrove ecosystems have been piloted and can be scaled up to national and/or regional management levels as “Nature-based Solutions” (NBS) to better protect communities. The work focuses on key sites across three regions with diverse coastal, coral reef-dependent communities in Florida, the US Virgin Islands, and in Belize.
Pilot Grants
The pilot funding initiative intends to foster previously unfunded research projects, collaborations, and creative works that address coastal climate-related impacts and solutions.