Scripps Oceanography lands grant to study climate change's impact on marine life brains

UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography will receive a $10 million grant over four years to study how climate change is impacting the way marine animals' brains change in warming oceans, school officials said.

The funding, from the Paul G. Allen Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, will establish the Allen Discovery Center for Neurobiology in Changing Environments.

"At UC San Diego, our visionary scientists are working across disciplines to tackle the pressing issue of climate change and its impact on marine life," Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said. "The new Allen Discovery Center for Neurobiology in Changing Environments will enable our researchers to better understand these effects and inform ocean conservation efforts."

With warming oceans comes more acid leaching into the water and lowering its oxygen content. These factors can change how the brain develops in early life and impact how quickly neurons fire and senses work later in life for marine animals, Scripps Institution says.

To investigate this further, researchers will have to study the nervous systems of these animals -- focusing on staghorn coral, the slipper snail, the painted sea urchin and the three-spined stickleback fish -- and how they function in a "natural" environment.

"The question is how the nervous systems of marine animals deal with natural environmental variability and whether they can adapt to the swiftly changing conditions brought about by anthropogenic climate change," said Martin Tresguerres, a marine physiologist at Scripps who will lead the Allen Discovery Center. "Some species or populations may be more resilient or more vulnerable than others, and we want to identify them and try to understand the mechanisms behind this resiliency or vulnerability."

The team chose the four species because they represent a "diversity of evolutionary lineages that each play important ecological roles," according to a statement from Scripps.

Scientists from several academic institutions and multiple disciplines will study the effects of warming, acidic oceans through genetic research and physiological and behavioral experiments.

According to Scripps, the ultimate goals include developing a map of the nervous system for the four species and determining what, exactly, allows these species to be resilient or vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the oceans.

"Nervous systems have evolved to be adaptable to changing environmental conditions, but not without limits," said Matthew Lovett-Barron from UCSD's School of Biological Sciences. "Marine organisms are at the front lines of a changing climate, and it is essential to understand how these diverse nervous systems adapt or fail to adapt to a changing ocean."

Editorial Note: A previous version of this story said the funding came from the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group. The funding comes from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation with the Frontiers Group making the recommendation for the funding.