and the means of dissemination of global and regional productivity data to feed the requirements 

 of Open Ocean and Coastal Dynamics and Fluxes programs, the Land/sea Interface, and 

 Recruitment Processes. Some of these activities are currently being funded at a minimal level in 

 the core program. By FY 1989 the effort will require at least an additional $2M, increasing to 

 $6Mby FY1993. 



Global Ocean Flux Studies will require an interdisciplinary effort by chemical, biological, 

 physical, and geological oceanographers. The sediment trap will be one of the major sampling 

 tools, but the diversity of biological projects needed will require major use of traditional and 

 new sampling technologies. From a biologist's perspective, the most effective flux program 

 design would incorporate onshore-offshore sampling to estimate influences of terrestrial 

 sources, basin boundaries, and advective processes on both the vertical and horizontal movement 

 of materials. For convenience, the program can be sub-divided into open ocean and coastal 

 components. 



2. Open Ocean Fluxes A major research effort is required to examine the flux of biogenic 

 particles from the sea surface to the benthos and the mechanisms by which materials are 

 transported, transformed, and cycled. Rates of primary production and seasonal succession of 

 phytoplankton species,loss and regeneration rates of nutrients, dynamics of plankton 

 communities, and energetics at the organism, population, and community level all must be 

 studied to understand particulate flux. 



The fate of particulates reaching the seabed, the effect of turbulence on benthic organisms, the 

 pathways by which benthic communities utilize, transform, and regenerate materials, and the 

 role of nekton in both lateral and vertical transport of materials must be considered. Because 

 flux of materials varies between ocean basins and with the seasons and climatic conditions, a 

 successful program will require broad coverage of major marine ecosystems and multiyear 

 commitments to measure intra- and interannual variability. 



Planning and long-lead time activites for a community effort designated Global Ocean Flux 

 Studies began in 1 986 with the joint assistance of NASA and NSF. Pilot ocean basin observational 

 programs will be mounted before the end of this decade. The biological oceanography component 

 of this program will require $2M by FY 1989 increasing to $10M by FY 1992 when full scale 

 global field programs should be in place. This will help biological oceanographers to phase 

 into a major interdisciplinary flux program and allow development of instrumentation as well 

 as training of technical personnel critical to the initiative's success. These figures include the 

 funds required to help support ship and facility operation and the establishment of an Ocean 

 Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Center essential to both the GOFS and WOCE 

 programs. 



3. Coastal Ocean Dynamics and Fluxes. The new in situ and satellite imagery tools 

 provided oceanographers with the first vivid realization of the complex dynamics of the 

 micro-and mesoscale physical structure and its inevitable consequences for sediment transport, 

 geochemistry, and population recruitment processes. This dynamic mosaic of currents, 

 upwelling, eddies, and jets has been clearly seen to influence equally complex patterns of ocean 

 surface color, itself an index of biomass and productivity as revealed by the coastal zone color 

 scanner. 



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