Richard Ambrose

Richard F. Ambrose, Ph.D., is a Research Professor and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at UCLA, where he has been a faculty member since 1992. His research interests focus on human effects on natural or urban ecosystems and how these impacts can be managed. He has conducted extensive research on compensatory mitigation in aquatic habitats in California. His research on coastal habitats has included long-term studies of rocky intertidal habitats and the restoration of degraded coastal habitats, especially wetlands. His studies in urban ecology focus on the ecological aspects of green infrastructure used to capture and treat stormwater and other urban runoff. For the past 15 years, he has been studying how rising sea levels will affect coastal wetlands and rocky intertidal communities, how coastal wetlands could mitigate climate change by sequestering carbon, and what adaptation strategies might be used to reduce the impacts of climate change on coastal ecosystems. He has written more than 240 papers and reports, including 125 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

In addition to teaching courses in applied ecology and environmental health, he has mentored more than 90 graduate students at UCLA. Although some of these students have become professors, many have held leadership positions in environmental organizations and agencies such as the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, Heal the Bay, and Southern California Coastal Water Research Project.

He has served on scientific advisory panels for many organizations, including the California Coastal Commission, California Ocean Protection Council, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, and the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project. He has provided advice about environmental restoration issues to a wide variety of government and private organizations, including advising about restoration at Malibu Lagoon, Ormond Beach, Topanga Lagoon, Tijuana Estuary, and many other coastal wetlands.