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 mecha- 

 nisms that produce and sustain marine life. The program in- 

 cludes 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 understand 

 coastal upwelling ecosystems well enough to predict their re- 

 sponse to changes far enough in advance to be useful to man- 

 kind. This goal, when achieved, provides the basis for protecting 

 the long-term productivity of fisheries in these ecosystems. The 

 multidisciplinary CUEA projects are listed in table 15. To 

 achieve its goal, CUEA has four objectives: 



1. Describe and understand the mesoscale distributions that 

 define coastal upwelling ecosystems in space and time, in- 

 cluding such variables as solar radiation, winds, currents, 

 density, nutrients, phytoplankton, zooplankton, nekton, and 

 benthos, as well as analyses of the spectral characteristics 

 of each. 



2. Understand the dynamic processes that affect the total be- 

 havior of these ecosystems, and 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, res- 

 piration, and remineralization. 



3. Learn more about the physical, chemical, and biological 

 interactions that increase the production of coastal upwell- 

 ing ecosystems by an order of magnitude over that of open- 

 ocean areas. 



4. Develop models that will simulate the Northwest African 

 and Peruvian upwelling ecosystems to help predict the re- 

 sponse of these ecosystems to variabilities in scales and 

 rates of processes, or to different fishery management 

 strategies. 



During 1977, the CUEA program completed field work off 

 the coast of Peru and began the analysis and interdisciplinary 

 synthesis of the information that was obtained. The intensive 

 1977 field effort lasted from March to May and involved an 



unprecedented concentration of oceanographic facilities. The 

 expedition had shore-based meteorological stations; moored cur- 

 rent meter arrays and meteorological stations; four research 

 vessels from the academic fleet, the Wecoma, Melville, 

 Iselin, and Cayuse; and an aircraft to map sea-surface tem- 

 perature and winds. 



The scientific objective of concentrating the multidisciplinary 

 analysis on a single geographic region was to obtain a compre- 

 hensive view of the physical and biological parameters of the 

 upwelling process. The time-phase diagram (fig. 43) shows the 

 degree to which this objective was achieved in operational and 

 logistic terms. The March through May phase of JOINT-II, an 

 intensive, collaborative study of the Peruvian upwelling eco- 

 system, was called MAM 77. It succeeded in obtaining a 

 thorough description of the winds, currents, and physical con- 

 ditions and at the same time showing the biological response to 

 these conditions in terms of phytoplankton species composition, 

 zooplankton abundance and grazing, and fish distribution. 



The operational success of simultaneous deployment of bio- 

 logical, chemical, meteorological, and physical studies in MAM 

 77 was the culmination of experience and learning obtained in 

 the five earlier field programs: MESCAL I and II off Baja 

 California, CUE-I and II off Oregon, and JOINT-I off the 

 coast of Northwest Africa in 1974. These earlier programs 

 paved the way for JOINT-II, because scientists in the CUEA 

 program learned what scales of resolution are necessary to 

 document the physical/biological coupling and how the ships 

 and equipment should be deployed to obtain the needed reso- 

 lution. 



The absence of any major analysis failures (or even delays) 

 in MAM 77 was remarkable considering the harsh environment 

 of the south coast of Peru. The aircraft and meteorological 

 operations faced particularly tough desert conditions, but suc- 

 ceeded in carrying out their observations as scheduled. The 

 assistance of the Government of Peru was a key factor when 

 the Wecoma and the Melville needed emergency drydocking. 

 The Instituto del Mar del Peru arranged for the use of the 

 Peruvian Navy drydock during a scheduled port call. This vi- 

 tal assistance kept the vessel operations on schedule. 



The prevailing oceanographic conditions in the intensive pe- 

 riod of MAM 76 were distinctly different from those prevailing 

 in MAM 77. It is too early to provide a causal explanation 

 of the differences between the 2 years, but the characteristics 

 can be stated. During spring 1976, the ocean was distinctly 

 warmer than the long-term average, and the entire coastal region 

 from 5° S to 17° S was dominated by a single species of 

 phytoplankton, the dinoflagellate, Gymnodinium splendens. The 

 biomass of the dinoflagellate was very high, but the absolute 

 primary production was lower than that occurring in the same 

 area at the same time of year in 1966 and 1969 (fig. 44). 

 A very large increase in the jellyfish population accompanied 

 the dinoflagellate bloom all along the Peru coast. The jellyfish 

 fouled fishing equipment and oceanographic gear and, as preda- 



69 



