FY 1998: Initiate the next phase of OMP by identifying a new experimental location to 

 confirm the representativeness of the Cape Hatteras results, or by addressing new 

 policy-relevant issues in coastal science. 



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 C0 2 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.01sen@mailgw.er.doe.gov 



