Through the Academy's vast biological collections and individual research efforts, scientists from the Academy's Biodiversity Group explore the diversity of life forms, and their evolution, adaptations, survival and extinction. The Patrick Center examines the health of freshwater ecosystems and the effects of human activities upon water quality and aquatic organisms. The Estuarine Research Center, located on the Patuxent River in Maryland, focuses on the natural processes occurring in estuaries and coastal oceans and how land use affects the living resources of crucial systems like the Chesapeake Bay. All three centers work together and utilize one another's expertise to better understand the environment and our impacts upon it.
Understanding is only the beginning.
With important collections of specimens gathered for nearly 200 years and a half-century history of pioneering environmental research in its background, the Academy has long been committed to sharing knowledge with government agencies, corporate leaders, organizations, and individuals who seek to preserve and restore the natural world. Learn more about watershed research conducted by the Academy of Natural Sciences.