The National Science Foundation has awarded the University of Rhode Island a $19 million grant to establish a statewide research consortium to study the effects of climate variability on coastal ecosystems.

“This landmark grant will enable researchers from throughout the state to address some of the most pressing issues of our time, while also providing economic development benefits to our innovation economy,” said URI President David M. Dooley. “It will further position the Ocean State as a leader in the study of climate change and coastal ecosystems.”

The grant will establish the Rhode Island Consortium for Coastal Ecology, Assessment, Innovation and Modeling, which will assess the impacts of climate variability on coastal ecosystems, create innovative technologies for detecting those changes, and build computer models to predict and plan for changes in coastal ecology.

URI is the project lead on the grant and will work in collaboration with researchers at Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode Island College, Bryant University, Providence College, Roger Williams University and Salve Regina University. The consortium will create a state-of-the-art Bay Observatory, including high-tech instrumentation and wireless data transmission, to collect real-time information about the changing environmental conditions in Narragansett Bay.

That data and imagery will be accessible to scientists and the public. “We need to improve our ability to measure changes in climate variability and nutrient pollution, in terms of both time and space,” said Geoff Bothun, URI professor of chemical engineering and the grant’s principal investigator, “to help predict and plan for what is to come.” •