Marine Science Research

• Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station (COMES) conducts interdisciplinary applied research in fisheries, seafood, and marine resources. COMES works with agency partners, private industry, and the public to develop scientific, technological, and policy innovations and knowledge that support economic development and resource sustainability.
• College of Oceanic & Atmospheric Sciences. The diverse research activities of over 100 scientists on the college faculty include significant current developments in oceanography, atmospheric science, and geophysics.
• Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies (CIMRS) brings together scientists from NOAA's NW Fisheries Science Center, the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and Oregon State University. Researchers are currently involved in scientific efforts in the areas of geological/chemical oceanography and fisheries oceanography.
• Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. Researchers in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife have extensive and diverse projects spanning the globe. They cooperate with other agencies and programs to produce cutting-edge research in a variety of disciplines, including aquatic invasive species, avian ecology, forest ecosystems, U.S.E.P.A environmental and biological assessment programs, and wildlife habitat management.
• Department of Geosciences. Researchers in the VIPER group investigate the origin and evolution of the earth’s mantle-derived magmas, volcanism and geochemical processes at subduction zones, and the microanalysis of melt inclusions in ocean floor rocks. Research in marine GIS includes application and analytical issues in GIS for ocean and coastal data, including data modeling, spatial analysis, visualization, data conversion, ocean metadata, and various portals for marine geological and geophysical data. Researchers in paleoclimatology combine studies in geochemistry and geomorphology with new developments in atmospheric sciences.
• Department of Zoology. Researchers in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology research program are concerned with the structure of marine communities and evolutionary problems from the molecular level up through communities.
• Hatfield Marine Science Center conducts varied research programs, such as fisheries pathology, human pathogenic vibrios in seafood, aquaculture, molluscan broodstock, shellfish aquaculture, and pond dynamics, fisheries and wildlife, and participates in a range of federal research programs.
• Marine Mammal Program. Established in 1975, the Marine Mammal Program at Oregon State University has gained international recognition and respect. This respect comes largely as a result of the program's pioneering role in developing a method of tracking whales (and other marine mammals) via satellite, and the number of significant discoveries concerning their biology and behavior that resulted from this new technique.
• O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory and the Coastal and Ocean Engineering program conduct research on coastal and nearshore processes: Wave-structure interaction, nearshore hydrodynamics, sediment suspension and transport, tsunami and coastal hazards, and environmental fluid mechanics.
• Oregon Sea Grant is the conduit for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research and outreach grants, awarded competitively by the National Sea Grant College Program. Additional funding comes from the Oregon legislature and occasional collaborative efforts with public and private sources.
• Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO) seeks to understand the California current coastal ecosystem through five teams: offshore (nearshore oceanography), onshore (intertidal community ecology), biodiversity (intertidal community structure), subtidal (kelp forest community structure), physiology (physiological ecology), and biogeochemisty.