San Diego State University is leading the way in the study of environmental and ecological problems caused by urbanization along San Diego's coast line.

Financed by the SDSU Research Foundation, the Coastal and Marine Institute Laboratory opened in Point Loma in 2005. It now serves as a research center for innovative marine projects and environmental concerns, and is a national hub for urban coastal research.

"It's one of the few laboratories ever built in an existing urban environment," said Todd Anderson, director of the lab. "It actually opens up avenues of research in the proximity to San Diego city that give us a real heads up and leg up on doing the kind of applied research that's of interest today."

Institute in action

Built on the former Naval Training Center property, the lab's prime location allows more than 200 gallons of water from San Diego Bay to flow into the facility every minute, where it is filtered and pumped back cleaner than it was before.

"The thing that is most important is to have the ability to have a flow through seawater system," said Brian Hentschel, an ecology professor at SDSU. "It opens a lot of doors for the types of experiments that we can do."

Boon for researchers

Currently, researchers are working to understand the health of kelp forests which may help protect marine life in the San Diego Bay.

"I'm looking at how nutritional history of an urchin can affect its susceptibility to disease," said Nina Dodge, an ecology graduate student at SDSU. "Urchins are a good indicator of how healthy a kelp forest is."

The study enables researchers to take a closer look at matters that affect the marine life along the San Diego shoreline and beyond.

"There are hot spots of biodiversity, so understanding the factors that regulate kelp forests in space and time really helps us to understand what's driving biodiversity along our coast," said SDSU ecology professor, Matt Edwards.

With a 50,000 square-foot Coastal Waters Lab, 10,000 square-feet devoted to outdoor aquaria and a greenhouse, and a hall for classes, lectures or workshops, the team is provided with the necessary tools to perform sophisticated research. The convenience of the lab allows the student researchers to strengthen experiments.

"We're able to take more time to perfect our methods, so if something goes wrong, it's not like we're in a pinch and we only have a month to finish it," said Dodge. "We can do it year round."

Opportunities for students

SDSU students are given the opportunity to conduct hands-on research with replicated seawater environments, allowing the close study of marine plants and animals in their natural environment.

"It's pretty rare to be able to actually do this sort of thing in the morning and then go to campus in the afternoon and take classes," said Dodge. "A lot of institutions, you have to go to Catalina Island, or to another marine institution on the coast, and then spend other time on university campus doing work. So, it's nice that we can do research at the same time as we are getting our classes done."

The CMI Lab is looking to increase the educational opportunities it can provide, including internships for graduate, undergraduate and K-12 students, as well as the public.

"It not only provides training for students," said Anderson, "but it's given them a real-life experience in collecting data."