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Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics

NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences and Office of Polar Programs announce opportunities for global ocean ecosystems research through the U.S. Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics Research Program (U.S. GLOBEC). NSF and NOAA are cooperatively managing and supporting the U.S. GLOBEC research effort.

Description

The U.S. GLOBEC research initiative has been called for by the oceanographic, marine ecology and fisheries communities to address the question: what will be the impact of changes in our global environment on populations and communities of marine animals comprising marine ecosystems? The U.S. GLOBEC approach is to develop basic information about the mechanisms that determine the variability of marine animal populations. Through such understanding scientists can produce reliable predictions of population changes in the face of a shifting global environment. A goal of U.S. GLOBEC is to couple studies of the physical environment to those of biological processes in the ocean that act during life stages of most marine animals. Investigations are proceeding at individual, population, and community levels because the effects of global change may be felt at all three.

Once projects directed toward understanding the impact of physical phenomena in marine ecosystems are well advanced, U.S. GLOBEC investigators must address the question of predicting the future responses to the climatic scenarios that researchers deem probable in the sea.

The concept of the GLOBEC program stems from observations that populations can exhibit huge oscillations on time scales from seasonal to decadal. The dramatic example of the anchoveta off Peru helped form the basis for our understanding of how climate processes of the atmosphere and ocean, i.e., ENSO, work to control ocean circulation, temperature, rainfall and the important marine resources of the region. Ecosystem accommodation of global change as well as the role of species shifts vs. evolutionary change varies according to the type and intensity of the environmental factors, such as changes in meso- to basin-scale circulation, elevated temperatures, relative importance of ocean physical structures (fronts, eddies, vertical stratification). Understanding these features and their influence on populations, prey, predators, and competitors, both singly and in composite, will provide the framework for predicting future responses to global change.

Related Links

gold buttonUS GLOBEC National Office:: http://cbl.umces.edu/fogarty/usglobec  
gold buttonThe Georges Bank Study: http://globec.whoi.edu
gold buttonThe North Pacific site:  http://globec.oce.orst.edu/groups/nep/index.html 
gold buttonThe Southern Ocean site:  http://www.ccpo.odu.edu:80/Research/globec_menu.html 

 

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Contacts:
Dr. Phillip R. Taylor
Biological Oceanography Program
Phone: (703) 292-8582
FAX: (703) 292-9085
E-mail: prtaylor@nsf.gov

Dr. Polly A. Penhale
Polar Biology and Medicine
Phone: (703) 292-8033
FAX: (703) 292-9079
E-mail: ppenhale@nsf.gov

Proposal Submission Information:
NOAA and NSF have issued a program announcement for GLOBEC Phase 4.


Last Update: 2-5-02
E-mail: geowebmaster@nsf.gov