Human-driven climate change inherently affects people and the environment at regional and local scales. For a variety of reasons, the coastal boundary between the land and the sea will be especially vulnerable to ongoing and future climate change and ocean acidification. Research contributes to identifying and quantifying impacts, targeting and assessing the efficacy of adaptation strategies, and providing a framework for discussing trade-offs among possible solutions with stakeholders. This talk will focus specifically on examples for the coastal waters of Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, and adjacent ocean continental shelf off southern New England. A case study will be presented examining the interplay of climate warming and nitrogen loading on near-shore water quality. Scott Doney is senior scientist and chair of the Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Free and open to the public.