The University of California San Diego (UCSD) has announced a four-year, $10 million grant from the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to establish a center focused on the impacts of climate change on marine species’ nervous systems.

The gift will establish the Allen Discovery Center for Neurobiology in Changing Environments at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, bringing together researchers from across the UCSD campus, as well as the University of Southern California, Carnegie Science, the University of Virginia, and MacEwan University. Research at the center will work to uncover fundamental mechanisms of marine animals’ nervous systems and how they have evolved to function in naturally changing environment, and will include developing neural maps for staghorn coral, the slipper snail, the painted sea urchin and the three-spined stickleback fish to examine how warming oceans, decreased oxygen levels, and ongoing ocean acidification impact nervous systems and behaviors. In addition, the center will support trainee positions of undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars as well as organize hybrid onsite-online workshops and conferences.

The Allen Institute may renew its investment for an additional four years and $10 million on the condition that the center raises the same.

“The lens of climate change is entirely new for the Frontiers Group, and the timely work of the Allen Discovery Center is critical to understanding the consequences of the climate crisis on the nervous system and to identify potential mechanisms of resilience and adaptation,” said Frontiers Group executive vice president and director Kathryn Richmond. “The team’s commitment to disseminating their discoveries both within the scientific community and the public is a tremendous benefit and will enhance and expand the lasting impact of this important work.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/koto feja)