B. The Global Program 



The first NSF Long-Range Plan for Ocean Sciences (released in late 1984) outlined two new 

 initiatives -- a Global Ocean Study and an Ocean Lithosphere Study. The essential elements of 

 these two were later combined into a single initiative, the Global Geosciences Program 

 (included in the NSF FY 1 987 budget). It brings together related research efforts of the Ocean, 

 Atmospheric, Polar, and Earth Sciences Divisions. Areas of inquiry include studies of global 

 ocean and atmospheric processes and circulation; biogeochemical fluxes and their relationships 

 to climate variability; global tropospheric chemistry; the properties and dynamic processes of 

 the solid earth; and the dynamics of global ecosystems. This program also includes studies of 

 global ecosystem dynamics and of interaction between the geosphere and biosphere undertaken 

 by the Division of Ocean Sciences in cooperation with NSF's Division of Biotic Systems and 

 Resources. 



This revised and updated Long-Range Plan builds upon that initiative and outlines the essential 

 ocean sciences components of the Global Geosciences Program and its contribution to major 

 national and international studies of global change. For consistency with the original Plan, the 

 two global initiatives detailed here are called "Global Ocean Studies" and "Ocean Lithosphere 

 Studies." 



These programs enable NSF to focus its resources and contribute to critical national and 

 international research programs such as the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) and its 

 World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE); the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program 

 (IGBP); and Global Ocean Flux Studies (GOFS). Each of these is referenced in the relevant 

 sections below and in the detailed programmatic information contained in the appendices. 



While multi-investigator, coordinated programs will be required to implement these major 

 initiatives, the programs listed above are not necessarily synonymous with the initiatives or 

 their components described below. Several coordinated programs may be appropriate under a 

 given topic; such programs might be conducted simultaneously, sequentially, or both. Several 

 components of the initiatives are closely related; thus, a single research program could 

 be relevant to more than one component. Furthermore, smaller research programs, including 

 many conducted by individual investigators, will also make significant contributions to these 

 initiatives. 



Initiative 1. GLOBAL OCEAN STUDIES 



There are five components or subinitiatives within this initiative: Global Ocean Circulation, 

 Climate, and Productivity; Open Ocean Fluxes; Coastal Ocean Dynamics and Fluxes; Global Ocean 

 Ecosystem Dynamics and Recruitment; and the Land/Sea Interface. Detailed descriptions of each 

 follow. 



Global Ocean Circulation, Climate, and Productivity 



Continuing developments in satellite remote sensing, numerical modeling, biological sampling, 

 acoustic tomography, and transient tracers present opportunities for major advances in our 

 understanding of the oceans. The research combines synoptic global-scale information from 

 satellites (TOPEX, ERS-1, NROSS, and others) on oceanic dynamic topography and wind forcing 

 stress with data from ships on ground truth, properties and dynamics in the underlying water 

 column, and distribution of transient tracers. 



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