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2.2 Technical Contributions: A Well Developed Starting Place 



While all the previous sections have stressed the management and scientific challenge of Minerals Management 

 Service's new emphasis upon long-term effects and process oriented studies, the following technical contributions 

 demonstrate very clearly that much of the needed expertise does exist. Not only is there existing expertise from 

 which to draw, but other organizations have made considerable progress towards appropriate study design. 



Starting points for appropriate design can be found. The National Research Council is in the process of 

 developing a generic model for linking management and monitoring in the coastal ocean (Boesch, section 2.2.1). 

 Building upon previous MMS descriptive work, the State of Florida has developed a process oriented study on 

 the Florida Keys reef tract (Vargo, section 2.2.6). Many design elements needed for an effective long-term 

 program have been incorporated in a southern California MMS study (Brewer, section 2.2.7). The critical issue 

 of appropriate statistical design are being considered in many planning efforts (Green, section 2.2.2) 



Meaningful process oriented approaches are being developed. Understanding of coastal marine foodchains has 

 been considerably advanced in the past few years (Pomeroy, section 2.2.3). The link from the foodchains of 

 ecologists to the populations of MMS concern is being made possible through new techniques, such as isotopic 

 analysis, which allows species and populations to be placed into correct trophic perspective (Fry, section 2.2.5). 

 Increasingly, the benthos is becoming more than a time consuming inventory project; the dynamics of nutrient 

 flux, sediment mixing, and community development are intricately linked (Rhoads, section 2.2.4 and Montagna, 

 section 2.2.8). Not only is the ability to carry out studies of natural processes advancing, but oil and gas related 

 sources of stress can now be viewed from a geochemical process perspective (Means, section 2.2.9 and Jones, 

 section 2.2.10). 



Within this developing management design and technology framework, the Northern Gulf of Mexico is the ideal 

 location for long-term effect and process oriented studies. The ecosystems of the northern Gulf have been 

 adequately described to begin process studies (Rabalais, section 2.2.15 and Schroeder, section 2.2.16). The 

 distribution of hydrocarbons is now well understood so as to separate sources (Kennicutt, section 2.2.14). And, 

 enough is known about ecological functions in these areas to design process studies effectively (Turner and 

 Rabalais, section 2.2.11,; Rowe and Darnell, section 2.2.12; and Dortch, section 2.2.17). Finally, oceanographic 

 linkage between physical and biological processes is now possible due to improved understanding of transport 

 in the TEXLA region (Wiseman, section 2.2.13). 



