program, whole shelf cruises will be required which focus on measurements between George's 

 Bank and Cape Hatteras. These studies will look for carbon sources using geochemical 

 tracers, such as carbon and nitrogen isotopes and specific organic biomarkers, and further use 

 these tracers to see the integrated signal of carbon transformation and fluxes throughout the 

 NE shelf and slope region. In establishing and designing these studies, it is important to 

 recognize that the variability of benthic and water column systems vary on different space and 

 time scales and that the resulting study plan will reflect these differences. Whereas in general, 

 the BBL has more intense spatial heterogeneity, greater temporal variability is observed in the 

 water column. 



The overall experimental design can be thought of as "nesting" various sampling modes 

 over both temporal and spatial scales. Short-term studies of transformation processes are 

 nested within long-term, continuous sampling of chemical, biological and physical parameters 

 by moored instruments. Both moorings and process cruises are in turn nested within larger- 

 scale siu^eys of the NE shelf as a whole, and the larger-scale surveys are nested within 

 regional data acquired by remote sensing. Integrating parameters provide links and cross- 

 relations across all spatial and temporal scales of the Ocean Margins experiment. 



