Many projects have application to environmental assessment or management.
Below are short descriptions of several active research program areas. The current focus is on how climatic gradients and variability affects benthos in river-dominated estuaries. Water management decisions, such as water diversions also affect benthic communities. This is a series of studies to detect sublethal response to a variety of contaminant sites. Molecular techniques are used to determine if there is an accumulation of genetic change in the population that results from environmental perturbation.