U.S.GLOBEC-NEP
type: Concept
in scheme: projects
definition: U.S. GLOBEC (GLOBal ocean ECosystems dynamics, http://www.usglobec.org/) is a research program organized by oceanographers and fisheries scientists to address the question of how global climate change may affect the abundance and production of animals in the sea. The U.S. GLOBEC Program currently has major research efforts underway in the Georges Bank / Northwest Atlantic Region, and the Northeast Pacific (with components in the California Current and in the Coastal Gulf of Alaska). U.S. GLOBAL OCEAN ECOSYSTEM DYNAMICS, NORTHEAST PACIFIC GOAL: -To understand the effects of climate variability and climate change on the distribution, abundance and production of marine animals (including commercially important living marine resources) in the eastern North Pacific. -To embody this understanding in diagnostic and prognostic ecosystem models, capable of capturing the ecosystem response to major climatic fluctuations. APPROACH: To study the effects of past and present climate variability on the population ecology and population dynamics of marine biota and living marine resources, and to use this information as a proxy for how the ecosystems of the eastern North Pacific may respond to future global climate change. The strong temporal variability in the physical and biological signals of the NEP will be used to examine the biophysical mechanisms through which zooplankton and salmon populations respond to physical forcing and biological interactions in the coastal regions of the two gyres. Annual and interannual variability will be studied directly through long-term observations and detailed process studies; variability at longer time scales will be examined through retrospective analysis of directly measured and proxy data. Coupled biophysical models of the ecosystems of these regions will be developed and tested using the process studies and data collected from the long-term observation programs, then further tested and improved by hindcasting selected retrospective data s…

S - U
type: Concept