Priorities for Coastal Ecosystem Science (1994) / Chapter Skim
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4: RELATIONSHIP OF REGIONAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMS
4: RELATIONSHIP OF REGIONAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMS
Pages 59-70
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From page 59... ...
This focus is congruent with those of the Water Subcommittee and the Committee to Identify High-Priority Science to Meet National Coastal Needs, so the committee examined the nine Regional Marine Research Plans to assess whether any common themes and research priorities emerged among the regions. RMRP research could fill a niche in the national coastal research program because of its regional, ecosystem-level focus, which brings together the capabilities and expertise of individuals and agencies from (in most cases)
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From page 61... ...
Those primarily concerned living resource utilization and management. The priorities shared most consistently among the regional assessments and the national assessments of the committee are as follows: indicators of ecosystem health that can be used in monitoring; studies of eutrophication and the response of coastal ecosystems to nutrient inputs; assessments of the fate and effects of selected toxicants, particularly in sediments; and investigation of the effects of physical modification of habitats and the restoration of these habitats.
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From page 63... ...
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From page 64... ...
Only a few of the recommended research efforts for freshwater environments are not somehow embodied in the science priorities identified in this report: biodiversity inventories, quantification of aesthetic and recreational values, and biogeochemical research on enhanced ultraviolet radiation, linked cycles, and gas flux. This is largely a result of the fact that the Committee to Identify High-Priority Science to Meet National Coastal Needs addressed only those issues under consideration by the Water Subcommittee; the additional freshwater priorities given in The Freshwater Initiative may be more closely related to issues being addressed by other CENR subcommittees (see Chapter 5~.
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From page 65... ...
ecoregions Understand effects of modified hydrological regimes on biodiversity, biotic interactions, riparian and downstream ecosystems, and biogeochemical cycling of particles, nutrients, and other chemicals Ecosystem Goods and · Determine effects of toxicants, nutrients, organic matter, Services and sediments on water quality and quantity · Evaluate biological productivity in terms of factors limiting heterotrophic production; biophysical transformations that affect productivity in land-water ecotones; role of food web structure; and effects of environmental lagtimes and life history controls on community structure and dynamics · Quantify aesthetic and recreational values and establish carrying capacities Predictive Management Solving Future Problems Determine how changes in frequency, intensity, and duration of disturbance events are influenced by human actions and affect freshwater ecosystems Understand how environmental disturbances create longterm lagtimes and legacies at the watershed scale Develop and evaluate biological indicators and integrative measures of ecosystem and biogeochemical functioning Develop coupled physical-biological models · Physical research to improve predictions over wide spatial and temporal scales; relate alteration of temperature and water availability to environmental processes; and understand how biophysical patches and boundaries affect water quality · Biogeochemical research on enhanced ultraviolet radiation, linked cycles, and gas flux with the atmosphere - Biological research on species persistence and environmental change, theory development, and sensitive landscape components
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From page 66... ...
The Water Subcommittee's geographically targeted strategic research should be integrated with its overall research plan to avoid competition for funds and to ensure that local research programs contribute to Water Subcommittee goals. The focus on local issues within a national strategic framework of the National Sea Grant College Program (NRC, 1994f)
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From page 67... ...
Moreover, the United States has made international commit ments to implement integrated coastal management under Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development and to maintain global biodiversity under the Biodiversity Treaty. Contributions by U.S.
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From page 68... ...
Focus 1, dealing with the effects of changes in external forcing or boundary conditions on coastal fluxes, is very coherent with science priorities identified in this report: catchment basin (watershed) dynamics and delivery, atmospheric inputs, fluxes across coastal systems, and development of coupled land-estuarine-ocean models.
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From page 69... ...
FOCUS 1: The effects of changes in external forcing on boundary conditions on coastal fluxes 1.1 Catchment basin dynamics and delivery 1.2 Atmospheric inputs to the coastal zone 1.3 Exchange of energy and matter at the shelf edge 1.4 Factors influencing the mass balance of materials in coastal systems 1.5 Reconstructions of past changes in the coastal zone 1.6 Development of coupled land-estuarine-ocean models for coastal systems FOCUS 2: Coastal biogeomorphology and sea-level rise 2.1 Role of ecosystems in determining coastal geomorphology 2.2 Biogeomorphological responses to changes in land use, climate, and human activities in the coastal zone 2.3 Prediction of coastal geomorphology for different scenarios of relative sea level change FOCUS 3: Carbon fluxes and trace gas emissions 3.1 Cycling of organic matter within coastal systems 3.2 Estimation of net fluxes of N2O and CH4 in the coastal zone 3.3 Estimation of global coastal emissions of dimethyl disulfide FOCUS 4: Economic and social impacts of global change on coastal systems 4.1 Evolution of coastal systems under different scenarios of global change 4.2 Effects of changes to coastal systems on social and economic activities 4.3 Development of improved strategies for the management of coastal resources deals specifically with Monitoring of the Coastal Zone Environment and Its Changes, and other modules concerned with climate, the health of the ocean, living marine resources, and marine meteorology are also highly relevant to the objective of coastal ecosystem integrity (NRC, 1994d)
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