Science Division

Ocean Sciences

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June 5, 2025 – In a report published today in Science, Professor Ari Friedlaender discusses a global research project endorsed by the United Nations called “MegaMove” that has tracked over 100 marine megafauna species, identifying the most critical locations in our global oceans for better marine conservation efforts, drawing from UC Santa Cruz’s vast data sets on marine-mammal movements and behaviors.

May 16, 2025 – Previous Ocean Sciences Graduate Student, Rae Taylor-Burns, who is now a postdoctoral Researcher at the UC Santa Cruz Center for Coastal Climate Resilience (CCCR), is the lead author on a study published on May 9 in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, the team evaluated the effectiveness of “horizontal levees” – traditional levees retrofitted with a sloping, wetland border – as a means of strengthening shorelines against the threat of rising sea levels.

March 10, 2025 – Ari Friedlaender contributed his marine-mammal expertise to the study on how whales move nutrients thousands of miles in the journal Nature Communications. View the full story here.

February 11, 2025 – The Science paper, “Nitrogen-fixing organelle in a marine alga,” published in Science on April 12, 2024, written by UCSC Ocean Scientists; Jon Zehr (Emeriti), Kendra Turk-Kubo (Assistant Professor), and postdocs Tyler Coale and Esther Mak, has won the 2025 AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize Please see, this article,for more information.

Department Seminar Series

The Ocean Science Department hosts speakers from external institutions and from UCSC to share their research in 1-hour seminars. The seminars are held on Fridays at 10:40AM in Natural Sciences Annex 101 during Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters.

Seminar Calendar

UCSC Science News

photos of Rae Taylor Burns, Saul Villegas, Ben Ticknor, and Gillian Bogart Coastal Science & Policy, Digital Arts & New Media, Engineering

Center for Coastal Climate Resilience Fellows bridge disciplines to build resilient communities

In part two of our series highlighting CCCR fellows, we spoke with fellows who use their unique cross-disciplinary backgrounds to advance climate resilience.

aiyana-moya BE-climatesolutions BE-grad Center for Coastal Climate Resilience
UC Santa Cruz Professor Eric Palkovacs at the coastal campus Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Ocean Sciences, Science

Eric Palkovacs appointed new director of Institute of Marine Sciences

The professor of ecology and evolutionary biology is also UC Santa Cruz’s associate vice chancellor for research and director of the Fisheries Collaborative Program

By Mike Peña and Mike Peña Appointments Fisheries Collaborative Program Institute of Marine Sciences
UCSC Researchers at UNOC Coastal Science & Policy, Earth & Planetary Sciences, Ocean Sciences

Faculty, fellows among global leaders at 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference

University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience represented at recent international climate meetings

ashley-owen Center for Coastal Climate Resilience Research
Last modified: Aug 11, 2025