The International Decade of Ocean Exploration 

 (IDOE) supports large-scale, multidisciplinary, in- 

 ternational projects focused on the role of the 

 oceans in climate, food production, pollution, 

 energy, and natural resources, with considerable 

 participation by nations around the world. These 

 efforts are incorporated into four programs; 

 Environmental forecasting, environmental quality, 

 seabed assessment, and living resources. 



Oceanographic Facilities and Support (OFS) 

 contributes directly to these oceanographic re- 

 search efforts by providing about 65 percent of the 

 total support for 30 research ships and a number of 

 specialized facilities which are scheduled on a 

 shared-use basis. Based on its program of review 

 and evaluation of academic fleet performance and 

 material condition, OFS supports a continuing 

 effort to upgrade the facilities necessary to sustain 

 a healthy oceanographic research effort at the Na- 

 tion's universities. 



Five most significant projects over the past 10 

 years. Below are five projects concerned with the 

 study of oceans: 



• Physical chemistry of seawater, Frank Millero 

 of the University of Miami. Dr. Millero, 

 through his careful, well-conceived analytical 

 and theoretical work, has provided the stand- 

 ard and foundation for present understanding 

 of the physical chemistry of seawater. 



Millero, F., 1974. The equation of state of seawater. Journal of 

 Marine Research. y2.}. pp. 443-456. 



• Climate Long-range Investigation Mapping and 

 Prediction (CLIMAP). CLIMAP researchers 

 have developed and applied quantitative tech- 

 niques to the analyses of the paleoclimatic 

 record contained in marine sediments. These 

 analyses have allowed the reconstruction of 

 the major elements of the earth's climate 

 (sea-surface temperatures, ice extent and ele- 

 vation, and continental albedo) 18,000 years 

 ago, the maximum of the last ice age (publica- 

 tion 1). In addition, selective time series ana- 

 lyses of specific sediment cores have resulted 

 in two other extremely significant findings. 

 The first was that oxygen isotope variations in 

 marine microfossils are largely a measure of 

 global ice volume. Because of this, oxygen 

 isotope measurements provide a very power- 

 ful and global time-stratigraphic tool for cor- 

 relating the ages of marine sediments around 

 the world, and provide an extremely impor- 

 tant means of determining phase relations 

 between various components of the earth's 

 climate (publication 2). The second significant 

 finding was that the major climatic changes on 

 earth over the past 500,000 years appear to 

 have been caused by changes in obliquity. 



precession, and eccentricity of the earth's 

 orbit and axis of rotation (publication 3). 



1. CLIMAP Project Members, 1976, The surface of the ice-age 

 earth. Science. V 191, pp. 1131-1137. 



2. Shackleton, N. J. and Opdyke, N. D., 1973, Oxygen isotope 

 and paleomagnetic stratigraphy of equatorial Pacific core V 28- 

 238: Oxygen isotope temperatures and ice volumes on a 10-'' and 

 10'' year scale. Quaternary Research. V3, pp. .39-55. 



3. Hays, J. D., Imbrie, J., and Shackleton, N. J., 1976, Varia- 

 tions in the earth's orbit: pacemaker of the ice ages. Science, 

 VI94, pp. 1121-1131. 



• Faunal and trophic studies of intertidal com- 

 munities. Robert T. Paine of the University of 

 Washington. Dr. Paine pioneered modern ecol- 

 ogic studies of shallow water and intertidal en- 

 vironments using a manipulative experimental 

 approach. His work over the past 10 years has 

 resulted in a general redirection of such re- 

 search and in the widespread application of his 

 approach to a broad spectrum of shallow water 

 habitats, and, more recently, to the deep sea. 



Paine, R. T.. 1974. Intertidal community structure: Experimen- 

 tal studies on the relationship between a dominant competitor 

 and its principal predator, Oceologia 15, pp. 93-120. This publi- 

 cation is only an example. In 1974, Paine's previous publica- 

 tions in this research area were cited 133 times. 



Four interesting projects currently in progress. 



The following four ocean sciences projects are 

 currently in progress: 



• Cyclonic gulf stream rings. This project is 

 studying the generation, movement, and de- 

 cay of very large ocean eddies that break off 

 from meanders in the Gulf Stream. These 

 eddies are to the ocean what hurricanes are to 

 the atmosphere, and they may be a major 

 component of the ocean's "climate." Re- 

 searchers include Philip Richardson of the 

 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and 

 Andrew Vastana of Texas A&M University. 



• Seismic studies of the oceanic crust and upper 

 mantle. This project is developing and apply- 

 ing new seismic tools and field techniques to 

 investigations of the structure and physical 

 properties of the oceanic lithosphere and its 

 flexure seaward of subduction zones. Manik 

 Talwani of Columbia University is a major 

 researcher in this area. 



• Geochemical ocean sections (GEOSECS) 

 study. GEOSECS is an international coopera- 

 tive program involving geochemists from 14 

 U. S. universities. Investigators from Bel- 

 gium, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ja- 

 pan, and the United Kingdom are 

 participating in the GEOSECS program or are 



NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 201 



