From a biological perspective, the coastal ocean has two important characteristics 

 distinguishing it from the open ocean: (1) very high rates of biological productivity based on 

 upwelling and the influx of nutrients from land, and (2) dynamic interactions at the seabed 

 interface. High variability in space and time characterize processes related to these phenomena. 

 This has traditionally confounded interpretation and understanding, but it is increasingly 

 apparent that these processes, governed by ocean physics, are very much less stochastic than 

 formerly thought. This apparent noise in coastal biological patterns and processes is made up of 

 important signals which several programs are being designed to unravel. 



One of these is MECCAS, already in its first field phase. It is designed to follow the Chesapeake 

 Bay estuary plume onto the continental shelf and to determine the biological transformations 

 taking place along its path and its effects on the productivity of the adjacent region. In a second 

 physical/meteorological program, biologists are involved in assessing the effects of the passage 

 of coastal winter storms on fish spawning and larval survival. There are programs in advanced 

 planning stages designed to investigate the biological significance of sediment resuspension 

 caused by storms, waves, and currents off the coast of California. Many organisms important to 

 productivity cycles, from dinoflagellates to copepods, are now known to produce resting spores 

 or eggs which accumulate in sediments. 



Transient physical phenomena may be responsible for the bulk of biological production in some 

 regions of the coastal ocean. Another planned program takes as its premise the gobal biological 

 significance of western boundary currents, which aire an order of magnitude less intense than 

 eastern boundary upwellings but often occur over much longer coastlines and are often sustained 

 over large parts of the year. The potential for nutrient enrichment of coastal regions and the 

 fate of subsequent particulates produced are currently a matter for speculation, but it is certain 

 that large amounts of biogenic carbon are fluxed across the ocean margin into the deep ocean 

 basins. 



Funds to support biological aspects of a coastal flux program will need to begin by FY 1 989 and 

 sharply increase to $6M by FY 1994. 



4. Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics and Recruitment. Animal populations 

 frequently vary in abundance year to year by orders of magnitude, usually due to variable 

 survival of larval or juvenile stages. Climate, physical processes, variability in primary 

 production or zooplankton production, and variability in predation have been hypothesized to 

 regulate such large changes, which often have huge economic impacts. This NSF initiative, 

 together with efforts planned by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), 

 UNESCO, and FAO (and their member states, including France and the U.K.) could provide new 

 solutions to understanding recruitment variability and ecosystems dynamics in temperate and 

 tropical seas. 



A central question concerns the mechanisms by which relatively small (three- to-fourfold) 

 variability in annual primary production within an ecosystem is magnified to express ten- to 

 hundredfold variability in fish or benthos recruitment. Differences in recruitment mechanisms 

 in high and low latitude systems need to be considered as do probable differences associated with 

 the dominant type of primary producer at the food chain base. Predicting recruitment and shifts 



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