Peterson reviewed some perceived needs of the program that were not yet resolved-mostly due to insufficient funds. These needs include funds for and a place to house the (probably NOAA) plankton sorters, funds to support processing of ADCP data collected on the NOAA vessel, and some funds for equipment. Paul Smith commented on the "broadness" of the broad-scale surveys now that the station density had been reduced by half and constricted more narrowly to the bank itself. His concern was that the broad-scale sampling plan, although sufficient to estimate total populations of the target species, may not be sufficient to measure exchange rates (of water, properties, etc.) at the margins of the sampled region. Mountain commented that the broad-scale survey group recognized that the sampling plan might have to be modified for the field year (1997) in which exchange processes were the principal foci. Hunter commented on the apparent lack of benthic trawling of recently settled juvenile fish for otolith analysis (aging) and birthdate backcalculation. Peterson indicated that there was an O-group survey of juveniles in September during the groundfish survey and that the otoliths were in good enough condition to do daily increment counting. Peterson also commented on the uncertain role of the Polish sorting center. Potential missing elements of the program include in situ optical measurements in support of SeaWIFS calibrations, nutrient analyses and size-fractionated chlorophyll extractions. Potential underfunded (or unfunded to date) items are the broad-scale survey, acoustics, the data management office, and the project office.
Investigators funded to do modelling are Lynch (and co-PI's), Cushman-Roisin, and Gawarkiewikz (and co-PI's). Lynch described some earlier diagnostic model results indicating the importance of the location and timing of spawning, and the depth of eggs and larvae in determining whether larvae are retained on Georges Bank or advected elsewhere. Future plans are to develop a prognostic model. Cushman-Roisin will model currents on the southern flank of Georges Bank, concentrating on the region which appears critical to retention of larvae on the Bank. Gawarkiewikz's group will investigate the effect of transient events (such as storms and ring intrusions) on the physics and biology using trophodynamics and stage-structured population dynamics models.
Investigators funded for retrospective studies are Meise (and co-PI's), Bollens (and co-PI's), and Bisagni (and co-PI's). Meise will examine the 0.053 mm and 0.165 mm plankton samples from the MARMAP program for ca. 27 month period during 1978-1980. Bollens will be re- examining a set of ca. 0.250 mm mesh Clarke-Bumpus samples collected on 11 cruises during 1939-1941. Bisagni will examine the Georges Bank AVHRR and CZCS data for the periods when the sensors overlapped in time. They will also be responsible for archiving, and making contemporary satellite sensing data available (in real or near-real time) to other program investigators.
Investigators who made presentations about the broad-scale survey and mooring program were Lough, Brink, Dickey (for Van Holliday), Mountain, Wally Smith, Miller, Durbin and Wiebe. Lough outlined the timetable and station locations for broad-scale sampling (field program overview). Brink (and co-PI's) will deploy long-term moorings and drifters for Eulerian and Lagrangian measurements of physics, optics, acoustics and biology to study residence time, water paths, stratification, advection (esp. interannual variability) and episodic events. Dickey, presenting for Van Holliday, described the acoustic technologies that will be deployed to measure zooplankton abundance and size structure. Mountain described the reformulated broad- scale research program (reformulated because funds were insufficient to support the broad-scale survey as originally planned and proposed). He showed a schedule for the cruises and sampling and the instruments that will be deployed. Wally Smith described the sampling that his group will do to evaluate egg and larval abundance and distribution. Samples will be sent to Poland for sorting and identification and then returned to the U.S. for otolith analysis of age, growth, and birthdate. Miller described how he planned to exploit the broadscale and process cruise samples by evaluating dry weights, molting frequencies, lipid contents, etc., and will model population dynamics of the copepods. Ted Durbin described plans to collect zooplankton by pumps (with a fine mesh) for evaluation of Calanus egg and naupliar abundance and distribution, and to identify the timing and location of copepod reproduction and recruitment. Wiebe described how he planned to assess the biomass (possibly size-structured) of zooplankton and nekton using acoustics methods, coupled with net collections (for calibration). Cabell Davis and Scott Gallager showed some video collected by the VPR during the afternoon coffee-break.
Beardsley, Lough, Buckley, Gifford, Gallager, Durbin, Runge, Moore, Bucklin, Blades- Eckelbarger, Madin and Grosslein made presentations about process-oriented research. Beardsley described the moored measurement program and shipboard studies that will be conducted during January to July. Moorings will be deployed for ca. 6 months at three sites on the southern flank of Georges Bank. Lough described plans to use MOCNESS to sample the vertical distribution, growth and condition of larval fish. Buckley will measure short-term growth of larval fish using RNA/DNA indices. Gifford and Gallager described how their group will investigate the ingestion of microzooplankton by copepods and the early feeding larvae of cod. Durbin and Runge will measure growth and egg production, respectively, of Calanus and Pseudocalanus in shipboard and in situ experiments. Moore described the research that he and Stegeman will do to evaluate short-term growth in copepods using cellular markers. Bucklin described the integration of biology and physics, and investigations of population source regions and transport patterns, that she hopes to achieve by coupling genetic diversity information and physical circulation patterns. Blades-Eckelbarger described the continuous flow-through culture facility that will be developed to maintain long-term cultures of oceanic copepods (esp. Calanus), and her proposed experiments to evaluate diapause phasing and physiology in Calanus. Madin and Grosslein described the work that the predation group will conduct to evaluate predation mortality by invertebrates and vertebrates, like schooling fishes, upon larval cod and haddock and copepods also. This also includes MERL tank experiments of predation rate and measurement of digestion rates. Grosslein showed data indicating that schools of mackerel follow the 7-8 deg. C isotherm across Georges Bank in the spring, and that these migrating schools have a severe impact on the abundance and distribution of cod larvae. Their predation studies are a collaborative effort funded by the NOAA Coastal Ocean Program and U.S. GLOBEC.
To wrap up the first day, there were two general presentations. Wiebe spoke about the need to have a data management office for the NW Atlantic program that would ensure high quality data, prompt data submission and distribution and data archiving. Finally, Mountain summarized the program (quoting Mick Jagger) "You can't always get what you want....". He observed that (1) primary production, nutrient concentrations, zooplankton egestion and respiration, and long-term moorings at two additional sites were "missing" from the program; (2) broad-scale studies of zooplankton and predator populations, broad-scale acoustics for zooplankton and predators, and support for fish stomach analyses were underfunded (underrepresented); and (3) issues of trawling on broad-scale surveys, bunk allotments on process cruises, selection of an advisory council, and data management remained to be resolved.
All of the presentations were done well. Discussions following the presentations were lively, topical and hopefully useful and informative to both the PI's and the SSC. We adjourned for the day following the summary by Mountain.
OPEN-2, a successor to OPEN-1, is in the proposal development stage. Themes for the program are that it deal with (1) the groundfish crisis that is occurring off Atlantic Canada (focus here will likely be cod stocks); (2) shellfish enhancement for scallops (possibly on Georges Bank or in the Bay of Fundy); (3) toxic blooms and fish diseases (because of their importance to aquaculture). Groundfish studies will focus on rebuilding the population structure of northern cod and on hindcast modelling of Scotian Shelf cod stocks. OPEN-2 studies will likely begin in April 1994 and continue till 1998.
Canada GLOBEC held their first meeting in Fredericton, New Brunswick (June 1993) to develop a plan for developing a Canadian GLOBEC program. Themes that emerged from that meeting and subsequent discussions include the following: advective coupling between regions, such as between Newfoundland, the Scotian Shelf, and Georges Bank; the coupling of physics to fish via phytoplankton and fish; an emphasis on climate variability, especially as it may affect freshwater outflow (for example, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence); nested numerical modelling; and the use of experiments to understand longer-time scales. Regions identified for tentative field studies are the Newfoundland Shelf, the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Georges Bank, including Scotian Shelf, and the Pacific coast, possibly focusing on the LaPareuse Bank region.
DAY TWO (Friday, 8 October 1993; Carriage House)
The morning session, devoted to discussion of a U.S. West Coast study, was joint with the Coastal Ocean Processes (CoOP) scientific steering committee. All U.S. GLOBEC SSC members, except Hofmann, that were present on the prior day were in attendance. CoOP SSC members present were: John Bane, Ken Brink, Tom Church, Chris Fairall, Susan Henrichs, George Jackson, Val Klump, Chris Martens, John Milliman, Dave Rogers, Mike Roman, Bob Smith and Jim Yoder.
Also attending this day were Gary Geernaert (ONR, ex CoOP SSC), John Hobbie (LMER Coordinating Office, MBL, Woods Hole), Amy Freise (GLOBEC.INT), Ron Schlitz (ONR), Ted Strub (OSU), and Larry Madin (WHOI).
Bob Smith (Chair of the CoOP workshop on Wind Driven Processes on the U.S. West Coast) summarized the discussions that took place at the July workshop in Portland, OR. Ted Strub (Chair of the U.S. GLOBEC California Current Working Group) then reviewed GLOBEC's planning efforts to date and attempted to identify themes, goals and approaches which were similar, complementary, or at odds between the GLOBEC and CoOP plans. Discussions in Portland took place with consideration to the overall CoOP goal: "to obtain a new level of quantitative understanding of the processes that dominate the transports, transformations and fates of biologically, chemically and geologically important matter on the continental margins". CoOP's west coast study would focus on cross-shelf transport phenomena occurring in strongly wind dominated coastal shelves.
Discussions at the Portland workshop occurred in both disciplinary and interdisciplinary working groups-much more so in the latter. Five interdisciplinary working groups determined primarily by different regions (or features) within an upwelling coastal domain were identified: upper ocean, interior ocean, bottom boundary layer, inner shelf and fronts. Each working group had representatives from most of the five disciplines: physical, biological, geological and chemical oceanography and marine meteorology. Smith listed the fundamental "motherhood" questions posed by each interdisciplinary working group and then listed and briefly discussed the specific issues which each working group discussed. A report of the Portland workshop will be published by CoOP.
In summary, both GLOBEC and CoOP agree that ocean dynamics (and the ecosystem) need to be studied in a three-dimensional sense. Approaches of both programs will likely involve moored instrumentation packages, drifting instruments, shipboard surveys and extensive oceanographic station work. Both programs believe that future field programs should be concentrated where prior studies have been done-to best use knowledge gained from earlier observations. Both programs believe that field programs must be accompanied by modelling- numerical and theoretical. To quote the CoOP report, "The processes of interest to CoOP, along with the straw-man sampling plans of the interior, inner shelf and frontal zone working groups, are similar to those in the detailed mesoscale surveys discussed by U.S. GLOBEC. Comparative studies between sites as discussed by the same groups could also be included in those discussed in U.S. GLOBEC's approach to large-scale comparative studies."
U.S. GLOBEC's focus on climate change and marine animal populations, including zooplankton, fish and the pelagic larvae of benthic invertebrates, is more focused than CoOP's interest in interactions among physical, chemical, geological and biological components of shelf systems. There may be emphasis placed on different trophic levels in the two programs (GLOBEC- zooplankton and fish; CoOP-phytoplankton), which could be complementary. Finally, the two programs anticipate different durations: CoOP is looking to a 1-2 year focused field study, whereas GLOBEC is looking towards a 5-7 year study. Mountain pointed out that perhaps the shorter-term CoOP cross-margin exchange study is analogous to the isolation of important processes-e.g., stratification, exchange, etc.-in the Georges Bank study into different focused field years. As such, a collaborative field study with CoOP could be viewed as only a single component of a much broader, larger (basin) scale and longer-term GLOBEC study.
During the discussion that followed the presentations, Hunter commented that the consequences of a CoOP-GLOBEC marriage ("affair" in Strub's words) should be carefully considered. Focusing a project solely on the issue of "retention on or return to the shelf", which is where the two programs interests most overlap, would mean that some economically major "pelagic" stocks, such as hake and sardine, of the west coast would not be studied in favor of other species, such as crabs, urchins and groundfish. These latter species have shorter historical catch statistics, are of lower economic value (and thus importance) and potentially of less interest to NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service. Hunter also remarked that the major effect of climate change on the U.S. West coast may be shifts in faunal provinces (such as are caused by El Ni–o events), long-term shifts in the abundance dominant species (sardine/anchovy), effects on spawning habitat, and changes in trophic structure. He expressed concern that our understanding of such effects may not be advanced much by studying mesoscale dynamics effects on coastal species. Huntley commented that GLOBEC should attempt to couple coastal processes (which are studied) to offshore processes as a way to answer the "pelagics question".
Perhaps Walstad summarized the impending "affair" best: "GLOBEC needs to know what's coming out to the mesoscale California Current from the nearshore. The large alongshore and cross-shore gradients need to be known, and CoOP's planned studies can help in this regard." It was resolved that U.S. GLOBEC and CoOP would develop separate implementation plans, but in concert with one another. Each program will identify five scientists to develop the implementation plan. Chair of the U.S. GLOBEC implementation working group is Ted Strub. Bob Smith will probably chair the CoOP group. Such an arrangement should facilitate communication between the programs since both are at Oregon State University. Remaining implementation group members are to be selected by the chair and each program's SSC. Later in the afternoon, U.S. GLOBEC developed a list of scientists, from which Strub, with guidance from the SSC, will select to complete the makeup of the U.S. GLOBEC California Current Implementation group. As for a schedule, we asked that the implementation group be selected and develop an implementation plan which could be presented to the SSC and discussed at the March 1994 SSC meeting.
We discussed membership on the outreach committee, which Huntley has agreed to chair. Other members are Batchelder, Paul Smith, Sharon Smith, and Eckman. Huntley (and possibly Eckman, as well) agreed to attend the Global Change Conference being held on 27-28 October at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Dickey expressed his desire to step down as chair of the Technology committee. Ortner was asked to assume the responsibility and accepted. We discussed membership and eventually suggested a committee of Ortner (C), Dickey, Briscoe, Tim Stanton(WHOI) and Uwe Kils. Powell agreed to contact Kils and Stanton to determine their willingness to serve on this committee. Tasks which we identified for this committee include: keeping abreast of new sensor (acoustic/optic) developments; serving as liaison with JGOFS technology, sensors, sampling, methodology and techniques; examining cross-scale issues (integration of sensing technologies from fine-scale to broad-scale); investigating the issue of a national facility for instruments; determining how to proceed on calibration and standardization issues; and keeping U.S. GLOBEC moving towards the transition from fixed-period process studies to long-term monitoring operations.
Robinson briefly summarized the white paper on retrospective research that was included in the briefing book. The document reflects the U.S. West Coast regional bias of its developers. We decided that it needed to be broadened by adding a global perspective, especially to the examples presented within the text. Four tasks were identified during our discussions for improving this document: (1) suggest specific existing datasets, and potential research questions that can be addressed by retrospective examination of the datasets (identify hypotheses); (2) develop a "work in progress" table which lists ongoing retrospective studies, and how they have contributed to scientific understanding not achievable in any other way; (3) develop a comprehensive bibliography of relevant retrospective references (e.g., relevant to issues of climate change); and (4) add a genetics component to retrospective research to examine changes through time from archived samples. As an example of ongoing research, Paul Smith noted that the CPR data is being re-examined. Finally, comments on the first draft (as included in the briefing book) are desired. The deadline for commenting on the Retrospective Research document is January 1, 1994. It is hoped that a revised draft of this report will be completed by February 1, 1994, so that it is available for distribution to SSC members that attend the San Diego Ocean Sciences meeting.
At the workshop a consensus was developed to recommend a multiple step implementation. First would be retrospective studies, e.g., reanalysis of existing data sets and review of the literature to screen potential target species candidates. Second, would be pilot scale studies, which might include repeating prior sampling programs (transects) to examine temporal changes, such as are likely in phytoplankton in the North Pacific subtropical gyre. This second phase might also include the initiation of several "low-tech" time series observations by developing countries. A final phase would be a dedicated open ocean program, which would include large scale studies aimed at target species over a 1-2 year period. The study should be repeated 5-10 years later to examine global scale climate change. Inasmuch as the workshop was less than one month before the SSC meeting, there was no written report. Madin estimated that a report of the workshop might be available in about six months.
Southern Ocean. Huntley briefly summarized the Southern Ocean GLOBEC.INT meeting held in Norfolk, VA in June 1993. A report from the meeting will be produced which summarizes the discussions and recommendations from the meeting. This report will provide the foundation for a meeting that will be held in spring 1994 to develop an implementation plan for a Southern Ocean GLOBEC program.
Upwelling Programs. Hunter briefly mentioned an international upwelling program that is developing. Several countries, including Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, South Africa and Japan have expressed interest in conducting comparative studies in upwelling systems. There will be an international ad hoc science plan meeting in summer, 1994.
GLOBEC Glossy. Batchelder provided to SSC members draft copies of the first U.S. GLOBEC Glossy brochure. He asked that comments on the science content and technical layout be returned to him by November 15, 1993. He hopes to revise the glossy and have it printed by mid-January, in time for it to be available for the February Ocean Sciences meeting.
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Quotes of the meeting occurred during our discussion
of the "marriage" of CoOP and GLOBEC in developing a
joint U.S. West Coast Plan...
Best we can hope for is an affair. -Ted Strub
That would be no stranger than some of the marriages
in California -Tom Powell
...especially when they are both on welfare.
-Paul Smith
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