This story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
For the past two decades, seafaring scientists from Oregon State University have set out from the Newport, Oregon, harbor to collect data. Tracing ocean trenches and undersea mountains, their heavy equipment dips into the water taking measurements of the current, the ocean temperature, and zooplankton levels.
The data helps researchers understand how climate change affects the marine food chain and can predict what the fishing season will look like.
The Oregon State study, and others like it, carry on — despite the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to roll back environmental protections, remove the United States from international climate treaties, and cast doubts on climate science. Decades-long research programs like Oregon State University’s Cooperative Institute for Marine Resource Studies continue thanks to independent university partnerships with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which funds projects, keeping them surprisingly insulated from politics.
Throughout the country, there are 16 similar coope... Read more
