Program Interfaces 



The DOE Ocean Margins Program is fully integrated with the National Science and 

 Technology Council's (NSTC) Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (CENR), as 

 a focussed effort within the Subcommittee on Global Change Research and as a contributary 

 effort within the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Coastal and Marine Environments. 

 The OMP is the major U.S. integrated multidisciplinary research effort for understanding the 

 ocean margin's role in the global carbon cycle. It is strongly linked with the JGOFS and 

 GLOBEC Programs because there is compelling evidence that the input of nutrients to coastal 

 areas from land-based sources (via rivers and the atmosphere) and from interior-ocean sources 

 (via coastal upwelling and frontal exchange), cause as much as 30%-50% of the total primary 

 production of the global ocean to occur along its margins. The OMP and its scientific 

 researchers are also interacting with IGBP's LOICZ Program and several U.S. Agency 

 programs concerned with quantifying the processes that affect the transport and fate of water, 

 carbon, nutrients, biota, sediments, and pollutants in changing coastal environments, including 

 EPA, MMS, NASA, NOAA, ONR, and NSF's Program on Coastal Ocean Processes. 



Policy Payoffs 



Research within the OMP is important for; (i) predicting the dispersal and 

 biogeochemical fate of carbon, nutrients, and other biogenic elements in coastal waters, (ii) 

 quantifying primary productivity and ecological dynamics (structure and function) in ocean- 

 margin systems, and (iii) examining the impacts of nutrient loading and other pollutants from 

 anthropogenic sources. 



Quantitative information on the flux and fate of CO2 and biogenic elements at the 

 land/ocean interface is important for the IPCC and other integrated assessments of sources and 

 sinks in the global carbon cycle. In addition, quantitative information on coastal processes 

 underpins policy decisions on resource management in changing coastal areas. 



CONTACT: Dr. Curtis R. Olsen, Program Manager 



Office of Health and Environmental Research 



Office Energy Research, ER-74 



Department of Energy 



Washington, DC 20585 



Telephone 301-903-5329; Fax 301-903-8519 



Internet: Curtis.Olsen mailgw.er.doe.gov 



