Living Resources Program 



The goal of the Living Resources Program, which became 

 the fourth IDOE program area in 1971, is a better understand- 

 ing of the processes and relationships existing between the 

 biological aspects of marine organisms and the chemical, phys- 

 ical, and geological environment in which they live. Currently, 

 the program is concentrating on marine ecosystems analysis 

 through Coastal Upwelling Ecosystems Analysis (CUEA) pro- 



jects. The basic goal of CUEA is to understand the coastal 

 upwelling ecosystem so that the response of the system to 

 change may be predicted from monitoring a few biological, 

 physical, or meteorological variables (fig. 35). United States 

 participants in CUEA are listed in table 6. 



Coastal upwelling is a predominant mesoscale ocean-at- 

 mosphere process along the low-latitude and midlatitude west- 

 ern coasts of most continents. Fishery reports have suggested 

 that perhaps 50 percent of the world's fish supply is produced 

 in upwelling regions. By increasing the understanding of the 

 dynamics of the upwelling system and by relating the physical 

 dynamics to the biological and chemical dynamics in upwelling 

 ecosystems, it may eventually be possible to predict the size of 

 commercially important nekton stocks. Knowledge of a few 

 oceanographic and meteorological variables may faciUtate such 

 a prediction. 



Progress in both the theory and measurement of upwell- 

 ing processes over the past few years has reached the point 

 where a concerted scientific research effort may make it possi- 

 ble to predict upwelling and to understand the processes taking 

 place within the food chain. Such effort will surely help man to 

 improve his use of the oceans as a source of food. 



The following are basic to the work in the CUEA pro- 

 gram: 



1. Description in spatial and temporal detail of the circu- 

 lation and distribution of organisms and properties in coastal 

 upwelling regions. 



2. Elucidation of the physical processes and mechanisms 

 causing and affecting upwelling and their importance in con- 

 tributing to the observed spatial and temporal variability. 



3. Computer simulation models of upwelling ecosys- 

 tems, based upon a combination of field observation and labo- 

 ratory and shipboard experimentation. 



4. Comparisons of model predictions and field observa- 

 tions of real systems. (A validation field measurement step is 

 required. 



The approach that has been developed by the CUEA 



scientists will be used to continue studies of upwelling ecosys- 

 tems (figs. 36 and 37). Figure 36 is concerned with the philos- 

 ophy and interaction of environmental data, experimental 

 work, data analysis, and simulation models essential for inves- 

 tigation of total ecosystems. Flow of information is cyclic 

 where the initial inability of a simulation model to describe 

 adequately the experimental and field results is shown to serve 

 as necessary feedback to ongoing work. Construction of an 

 upwelling systems model is viewed as the method of channell- 

 ing information within subprograms and of maintaining conti- 

 nuity of data required for input to the various process submo- 

 dels making up the system model. The interactions between the 

 physical, chemical, and biological components of the program 

 are shown with the idea that existing submodels are compared 

 with the real world. With each pass through this cycle the 

 discrepancies are used to guide experimental design of the next 

 set of field and laboratory efforts, to improve the next set of 

 process submodels, and to update the system model. 



Figure 37 is concerned with the implementation of system 

 philosophy. A reasonably sophisticated understanding and the 

 ability to predict the dynamics of a marine ecosystem require a 

 directed and coordinated effort in data collection. In the figure 

 the circulation, upper ocean dynamics, and abiotic submodels 

 (inhibition, light, nutrients, and temperature) are used as 

 input to the coupled biological state variable submodels. Tem- 

 poral and spatial distributions are computed through the indi- 

 vidual process submodels (nutrient uptake, photosynthesis, 

 sinking, metabolic losses of excretion and respiration, grazing, 

 behavior, predation, and heterotrophic assimilation). 



The foundation for the CUEA program has been estab- 

 lished by the work of physical and biological oceanographers 

 in several preliminary experiments. MESCAL-I and II were 

 primarily biological cruises off Baja California in March 1972 

 and 1973 and were designed to obtain time series measurements 

 on variables such as chlorophyll, nitrogen, silicon, and tempera- 

 ture and to examine associated biological processes in the 

 development stages of an upwelling system. 



During summer of 1972, the first Coastal Upwelling Ex- 

 periment (CUE-I) was conducted off the northwestern coast 

 of the United States. The goals were to define the time and 

 space scales of the upwelling process, test theoretical hy- 

 potheses and models, as well as prove out experimental hard- 

 ware and techniques for future studies of upwelling ecosys- 

 tems. 



CUE-II will be the second physical experiment off the 

 coast of Oregon in as many years. The time frame for opera- 

 tions is July and August 1973 and will involve the use of four 

 oceanographic vessels from three research facilities. The RV 

 OcEANOGRAPHER, from Pacific Oceanographic Laboratories, 

 NOAA, will make extensive hydrographic surveys of the study 

 area; the RV Cayuse and RV Yaquina, from Oregon State 



36 



