Four new projects funded to advance ocean health and sustainability

F our Stanford teams have been chosen by the Big Ideas for Oceans grant program to develop innovative solutions aimed at addressing climate change and sustaining ocean health. 

The principal investigators span diverse disciplines, including electrical engineering, biology, oceans, and environmental social sciences. The seed grants, which together exceed half a million dollars, were jointly awarded by the Oceans Department and the Woods Institute for the Environment at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. 

“The Big Ideas for Oceans grant program helps ensure that oceans figure prominently in cutting-edge science and critical conversations about climate change and sustainability,” said Oceans Department chair Fiorenza Micheli, the David and Lucile Packard Professor in Marine Science and co-director of the Center for Ocean Solutions. “The seed grants support early-stage projects that have the potential to lead to breakthrough ocean knowledge and solutions.”

This year’s research teams will study climate adaptation, mitigation, and modeling in the ocean. A fourth team will look at how to strengthen gender equity in the seafood sector, which is under threat from intensifying storms, shifting fish stocks, and sea level rise.

During the first half of 2025, record-breaking marine heat waves swept the oceans from Northwest Europe to Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Such temperature changes can drive rapid shifts in the migration patterns of species like endangered loggerhead sea turtles, among other consequences to marine life.

Last year’s grant awardees are working on solutions ranging from incorporating cultural knowledge and traditions into marine protections to testing how electrical current might rejuvenate ocean organisms. 

The Big Ideas for Oceans program, which provides grants of $10,000 to $150,000 for up to two years, is supported and administered by the Woods Institute for the Environment’s Environmental Venture Projects program. Learn more about the 2025 recipients below.

Investigating the role of tiny seagrass companions

Barnabas Daru (PI), Assistant Professor of Biology and Center Fellow, by courtesy, of the Woods Institute for the Environment

Seagrasses are the only flowering plants to make the evolutionary transition from land to sea. They help prevent coastal erosion, sequester carbon, and provide food and shelter for many ocean species. Seagrass leaves and stems also provide a home for microbes that are essential to overall seagrass health, yet climate change threatens this mutually beneficial relationship. Barnabas Daru, assistant professor of biology in the School of Humanities and Sciences, will investigate how climate change might disrupt seagrass-microbe associations across individual, population, and community scales. Focusing on four seagrass species native to the Pacific Coast of North America, Daru will leverage herbarium specimens spanning 192 years and combine new field surveys with DNA sequencing technology to examine seagrass-microbe interactions through time and space. Together, these approaches will reveal how seagrass ecosystems are being reshaped by climate change and identify groups of microbes that are important for seagrass conservation and restoration.

Strengthening gender equity in fisheries and aquaculture

Xavier Basurto (Lead PI), Professor of Environmental Social Sciences
David Cohen (Co-PI), WSD-HANDA Professor in Human Rights and International Justice, Faculty Co-Director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Professor of Environmental Social Sciences, and Senior Fellow, by courtesy, at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Jim Leape (Co-PI), William and Eva Price Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Co-Director of the Center for Ocean Solutions, and Professor, by courtesy, of Oceans

Around the world, many countries are striving for a blue economy, which the World Bank defines as an ocean-based economy that creates jobs and improves livelihoods while preserving the oceans. Blue foods, or foods sourced from fisheries and aquaculture, are essential to that vision and contribute hundreds of millions of jobs globally. Women are overlooked members of this coastal workforce. According to recent research, nearly 45 million women participate in small-scale fisheries yet are systematically underrepresented in data, policies, and governance structures. They also face limited access to resources and formal benefits. The governments of Madagascar and Indonesia have both recognized the need to address systemic, gendered barriers within the blue food sector. Xavier Basurto, professor of environmental social sciences in the Doerr School of Sustainability, will lead a team to analyze blue economy frameworks, policies, and documents from both countries. The researchers will also collect qualitative data, facilitate dialogues, and host participatory planning sessions with women working in the blue food sector to build a holistic understanding of women’s experiences – in their own words – and inform equitable pathways forward.

Timestamping seawater to improve climate modeling

Olav Solgaard (Lead PI), Director of the Edward L. Ginzton Laboratory, Robert L. and Audrey S. Hancock Professor, and Professor of Electrical Engineering

The ocean absorbs about one quarter of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, emitted by humans into the atmosphere. Over the past 150 years, humans have emitted carbon dioxide into the atmosphere faster than the ocean can dissolve it into seawater. Scientists are studying the variables that prevent this air-to-ocean exchange of gases from reaching equilibrium. One major challenge is obtaining accurate measurements of dissolved carbon dioxide in seawater. To address this gap, electrical engineering professor Olav Solgaard of the School of Engineering and colleagues are developing a photonic sensor that can distinguish between the light signatures of two carbon isotopes, meaning they are chemically identical but have different physical properties. These two isotopes make up the majority of carbon on Earth and are found in carbon-containing compounds like carbon dioxide. One of these carbon isotopes is found in plants, which decompose and transform over millions of years to form fossil fuels. When humans burn fossil fuels, a trend documented in the atmosphere since the 1800s, the carbon dioxide they release has a distinct signature of the carbon isotope found in plants. By quantifying differences in carbon isotope concentrations between air and seawater, the researchers can estimate the last time an area of the ocean was in equilibrium with the atmosphere. This makes it possible to trace carbon sources, pathways, and storage timeframes to improve predictions of the ocean’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide that would otherwise escape to the atmosphere and contribute to climate change.

Understanding the role of kelp forests in climate mitigation

Brooke Weigel (Lead PI), Assistant Professor of Oceans
Kristen Davis (Co-PI), Associate Professor of Oceans and, by courtesy, of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Given their rapid growth rate and large size, kelp forests are attracting interest for their potential to remove atmospheric carbon dioxide. In addition to capturing large amounts of carbon through photosynthesis, kelp also releases carbon into seawater as dissolved organic carbon, or dissolved sugars. Yet the fate of this dissolved organic carbon is largely unknown. Assistant professor of oceans Brooke Weigel and associate professor of oceans Kristen Davis in the Doerr School of Sustainability will study how giant kelp in nearshore ecosystems produce and cycle dissolved organic carbon. To inform predictive modeling, they will also investigate how different oceanographic conditions and climate change variables impact the rate at which giant kelp release dissolved carbon. Their goal is to improve estimates of how much kelp-derived carbon ends up in the deep sea. A better understanding of these dynamics is critical to quantify the contributions of kelp forests to global carbon sequestration and include them in climate mitigation strategies.

Micheli is also a professor of oceans in the Doerr School of Sustainability, a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, and a professor, by courtesy, of biology in the School of Humanities and Sciences.