For the past six years a regional research consortium involving U Maine faculty and students has led interdisciplinary efforts framed to strengthen connections between science and decision-making and to advance the practice of sustainability science. The collaborative projects leverage complementary research capacity from partnering institutions and stakeholders to examine and interpret relations between watersheds, rivers, lakes, estuaries, humans, and wildlife. One particularly successful project initiated by the partnership is focused on coastal watershed and estuarine processes linked to bacteria pollution affecting water quality and shellfish in the Gulf of Maine. A fundamental research target for that project is development of better approaches for prediction of coastal bacteria pollution events that cause losses in tourism and shell-fishery revenue. Understanding geographic variations in vulnerability to bacterial pollution through biophysical research is an important step towards sustainability solutions related to public health, environmental monitoring, and economic viability of coastal fisheries and communities. The prediction and communication of pollution dynamics requires simultaneous examination of watershed pollution sources, drainage system delivery, and estuarine residence time responses to watershed runoff conditions. Knowledge coproduction with stakeholders and development of science communication strategies are also essential project components. This presentation will summarize related observations and outcomes from our scientific investigations of land-sea connections along the coast of Maine with partners from state agencies, local communities, students, and faculty from varied backgrounds, disciplines, and interests. Ongoing efforts to use collaborative research outcomes to create coastal pollution management decision support tools will also be described.