FUTURE DIRECTIONS IN OCEAN SCIENCES 107 



DIRECTIONS FOR COASTAL OCEAN PROCESSES 



Summary 



In the coming decade, coastal research will be more interdisci- 

 plinary than it is now. Understanding coastal processes will re- 

 quire interdisciplinary studies of biological, chemical, physical, 

 and geological processes. There will probably be considerable 

 progress on the exchange of materials across continental shelves 

 and between the ocean and the atmosphere. For example, physi- 

 cal mechanisms for cross-shelf exchange and their interactions 

 with nonphysical mechanisms should be thoroughly studied. By 

 the end of the decade, estimations of air-sea fluxes of momentum, 

 heat, and gases in a nonequilibrium sea state (typical for the coastal 

 ocean) should be possible. Further, the understanding of biologi- 

 cal, chemical, and geological processes that affect these fluxes 

 should have advanced substantially. Considerable progress should 

 have been achieved in understanding the complex inner shelf (wa- 

 ter depths of 3 to 30 meters), where measurements are difficult to 

 make and processes difficult to model because of the many more 

 factors that influence the system, compared to the open ocean. In 

 the same vein, a more predictive understanding of the flux of 

 materials through estuaries will emerge as our knowledge of the 

 interactions of biological, geochemical, and physical processes 

 improves. 



Cross-shelf exchange and its related biological, chemical, geo- 

 logical, and meteorological components will be an active research 

 area. So too will ocean fronts and their implications for biology, 

 chemistry, and meteorology. Fronts are distinct boundaries be- 

 tween water masses and are nearly ubiquitous in the coastal ocean. 

 The mechanisms that create them offer their own sampling and 

 modeling difficulties. 



Other areas of research are the global implications of coastal 

 nutrient, carbon, and trace metal cycles and the study of ecosys- 

 tem structures, which affect chemical cycles. Because of the di- 

 versity of coastal ocean regions, significant progress in understanding 

 coastal processes may be achieved in some areas, but it is un- 

 likely that results from all coastal regions can be integrated within 

 the decade. Emphasis on toxic algal blooms, ecosystem structure 

 changes, the invasion or dominance of nuisance species, and other 

 human-induced biological effects may well increase. 



In terms of facilities, it is likely that the demand for research 

 aircraft will increase over the decade. The deployment of moored 



