Biodiversity in Our Ocean-Cabrillo Marine Aquarium

Biodiversity in Our Ocean — A Natural History Museum Vision
By Dean Pentcheff and Dr. Regina Wetzer, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Natural history museums: stuffed animals, dinosaurs, and dust, right? That’s not the whole story (though, truth be told, we’ve got all those, too). Natural history museums are, it turns out, drivers of exciting new developments in biodiversity science. As the world changes and populations increase, we need new ways to see how our presence on the coast affects (and can benefit from) the ocean’s biodiversity. New genetic approaches, using “environmental DNA”, promise to let us inventory our biological surroundings, including our coastal communities, with unprecedented detail and speed. Tools like these will be essential for managing development of our coast. Researchers at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County are using the coastline of Long Beach, San Pedro, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula as a testbed for these important new technologies — building new ways to view our ocean while learning more about our marine neighborhood.