Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) is a 2,800-acre environmental research and educational facility operated by the Smithsonian Institution located in Edgewater, MD on the Rhode and West Rivers. The center's focus of study is on the ecosystems of coastal zones, particularly in the Chesapeake Bay wetlands.

ummary

The SERC conducts research on a wide variety of topics that include terrestrial, atmospheric, and estuarine environmental research within the disciplines of botany, ecology, environmental education, biology, chemistry, mathematics, microbiology, physics, and zoology. The Center trains interns, graduate students, pre-doctoral and doctoral students. Annually, the Center receives over 10,000 students, teachers, and families who come to visit. It also gives advice, consultation, and testimony to local, state, federal, and international governmental agencies, natural resource managers, policy makers, and conservation groups.

Additionally, it serves as a center of research and education on human impacts in land-sea interactions of the coastal zone. Their laboratory focuses on being a model of human interaction with the environment. The Center receives $20,000,000 in current extramural grants and contracts funded from governmental agencies, foundations, and industry.

Technical innovation

The Center has been an innovator of unique biotelemetry to track behavior, habitat use, and movement of blue crabs, a marine predator and a valuable crustacean fishery in North America. They are the patent holder for the Spectral Radiometer, the national standard for monitoring solar radiation. The Center has also developed a model for testing estuarine water quality and watershed nutrient discharges.

References

* [http://www.si.edu/redirect/hpres_serc.htm Smithsonian Environmental Research Center]
* [http://www.ihets.org/progserv/education/k20/smithsonian/index.html Indiana High Education]