D - F
type: Concept

DISCOVERY 2010
type: Concept
definition: DISCOVERY 2010 will investigate and describe the response of an ocean ecosystem to climate variability, climate change and commercial exploitation. The programme builds on past studies by BAS on the detailed nature of the South Georgia marine ecosystem and its links with the large-scale physical and biological behaviour of the Southern Ocean. The aim is to identify, quantify and model key interactions and processes on scales that range from microscopic life forms to higher predators (penguins, albatrosses, seals and whales), and from the local to the circumpolar. Main objectives are to: Assess the links between the status of local marine food webs and variability and change in the Southern Ocean; and Develop a linked set of ecosystem models applying relevant marine physics and biology over scales from the local to that of the entire Southern Ocean. DISCOVERY 2010 will undertake an integrated programme of shipboard and land-based field studies of the marine food web, combined with modelling. We will pay particular attention to critical phases in the life cycles of key species, and to examining interactive effects in food webs. Interacting biological and physical processes will be modelled across a range of spatial scales to significantly improve our representation of the ocean ecosystem, upon which sustainable management and the prediction of future climate change can be based. DISCOVERY 2010 will link to BIOFLAME, ACES, and COMPLEXITY, two international programmes, and to a collaborative programme with the University of East Anglia on the role of the Southern Ocean in the global carbon cycle. Component Projects of Discover 2010 are: DISCOVERY-OEM: Ocean Ecosystems and Management; DISCOVERY-FOOD-WEBS: Scotia Sea FOOD-WEBS; DISCOVERY-FLEXICON: FLEXIbility and CONstraints in life histories; DISCOVERY-CEMI: Circumpolar Ecosystems; Modelling and Integration http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/bas_research/current_programmes/discovery_2010.php
in scheme: projects