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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Environmental Cooperative Science Center (ECSC) is led by Florida A&M University in collaboration with Creighton University, Delaware State University, Jackson State University, Morgan State University, Texas A&M University- Corpus Christ, the University of Miami and the University of Nebraska- Lincoln.
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The ECSC was established in 2001 as part of NOAA’s Education Partnership Program to address ecological and coastal management issues at specific National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERR) and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. When viewed collectively, ECSC activities will impact much of the southeastern and mid-Atlantic coastal regions of the United Sates including the Mississippi, Florida and Texas Gulf coasts, South Florida, and the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. These sites were selected because of the critical nature of their coastal ecosystems; their proximity to ECSC member institutions; and because they presented ideal opportunities to expand existing research, education, and outreach activities involving member institutions.
The ECSC's technical monitor is Dr. Gary Matlock. Dr. Matlock is the Director of the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science.
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The ECSC has four primary and interrelated goals:
- Increase the number of scientists, particularly from under-represented minority groups in the environmental, coastal, and oceanic sciences;
- Enhance the scientific understanding of human interactions with the coastal environment, particularly through integrated assessments in support of NOAA’s place-based management, to understand the response of coastal ecosystems, including humans, to human activities and stressors, and to develop tools to characterize, evaluate, and forecast critical attributes of ecosystem health;
- Improve the scientific bases for coastal resource management through applications on systems of interest to NOAA; and
- Facilitate community education and outreach relating to the function and significance of coastal ecosystems
The ultimate goals of coastal management must be to ensure the sustainability and health of the coastal ecosystem and to ensure that the economy of the coastal area prospers. These goals have often been seen as contradictory and thus as incompatible. ECSC will direct significant research efforts to the structure of the economic and social systems of coastal communities and their relationships with the natural systems in order to overcome the conflicts between these two important components.
View the ECSC's Management Structure and Advisory Committees
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