Living Resources Program 



The goal of this program is to provide scientific knowledge 

 for improved management and use of the ocean's living re- 

 sources. Emphasis is on interdisciplinary studies of the 

 mechanisms that produce and sustain marine life. The program 

 includes the Coastal Upwelling Ecosystems Analysis (CUEA) 

 and Seagrass Ecosystem Study (SES) projects. 



Coastal Upwelling Ecosystems Analysis 

 (CUEA) 



The long-term goal of the CUEA program is to under- 

 stand coastal upwelling ecosystems well enough to predict their 

 response far enough in advance to be useful to mankind. 

 This goal, when achieved, provides the basis for protecting 

 the long-term productivity of fisheries in these ecosystems. 

 There are 20 multidisciplinary projects (table 10). To achieve 

 its goal, CUEA has four objectives: 



1. To describe and understand the mesoscale distributions 

 that define coastal upwelling ecosystems in space and time 

 including such variables as radiation, winds, currents, density, 

 nutrients, phytoplankton, zooplankton, nekton, and benthos, 

 and analyses of the spectral characteristics of each. 



2. To understand the dynamic processes that affect the total 

 behavior of these ecosystems, and to derive quantitative values 

 of wind-induced upper oceanic circulation, mesoscale flow 

 fields, uptake of nutrients by phytoplankton, and other processes 

 that can limit grazing, predation, excretion, respiration, and 

 remineralization. 



3. To learn more about the physical, chemical, and biological 

 interactions that increase the production of coastal upwelling 

 ecosystems, by an order of magnitude, over that of open ocean 

 areas. 



4. To develop models that will simulate the Northwest Afri- 

 can and Peruvian upwelling ecosystems, and which will provide 

 the basis for predicting the response of these ecosystems to 

 variabilities in scales and rates of processes, or to different 

 fishery management strategies. 



Five field programs are complete: MESCAL-I and II (fig. 

 19), CUE-I and II, and JOINT-I.' The sixth, JOINT II, began 

 in March 1976. The methods developed and experience gained 

 in the first four field programs were brought together in 



30' 



15' 



27° 

 00- 



45' - 



30' 



45' 



30' 



15' 



114°00' 



45' 



30' 



Figure 19. — MESCAL-II station locations. CM is location 

 of current meter. 



JOINT-I, the first major CUEA interdisciplinary expedition 

 (figs. 20 and 21). Cooperation with scientists in the 

 CINECA (Cooperative Investigations of the Northern 

 Part of the Eastern Central Atlantic) program made possi- 

 ble an international experiment involving ships, aircraft, equip- 

 ment, and personnel from 11 countries (fig. 22). The field 

 programs have provided comprehensive and detailed descriptions 

 of the physical, chemical, and biological processes that influence 

 the productivity or potential economic yield of each upwelling 

 ecosystem. The usefulness of the data and findings obtained 

 through the observational phases and theoretical research in 

 the field programs was confirmed at the meeting of the UNESCO 

 Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) Working 

 Group 36 in June 1974, where results from other laboratories 

 and from cruises to the Northwest African and Peruvian up- 

 welling regions were compared. 



CUEA will test its newly gained knowledge of upwelling 

 processes in JOINT-II, an intensive collaborative study of the 

 Peruvian upwelling region ecosystem from March 1976 to May 

 1977. Most JOINT-II investigations will be in an area about 

 100 by 100 km, centered at 15 ~S between Pisco and San Juan, 

 Peru (figs. 23 and 24), during three intensive phases: March- 



' MESCAL I and II were primarily biological studies off the coast of 

 Baja California during March 1972 and March and April 1973. CUE I 

 and II were physical oceanographic studies off the Oregon cgast during 

 April through October 1972 and the summer of 1973. JOINT-I was the 

 first integrated biological and physical field study, off the northwest coast 

 of Africa during February through May 1974. 



41 



