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Bridging Boundaries Through Regional Marine Research (2000) / Chapter Skim
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2 Regional Marine Research, Why Do It?
Pages 15-24

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From page 15...
... Assessing and understanding the effects of natural perturbations and anthropogenic stresses on coastal ecosystems requires a regional perspective that links larger-scale changes in ocean circulation, climate, and land-use practices to local changes in coastal marine ecosystems. Although some programs are regional, as defined by the size of the area that is under investigation, a special feature of many regional programs is the ability to fill the gap between local and global scale studies.
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From page 16...
... Although prediction is fundamental to understanding interactions and exchanges within and among coastal ecosystems, little progress has been made in predicting change and variability across scales of time, space, or ecological complexity (Nixon, 1996~. Linking local events to global-scale environmental changes will provide a powerful tool for resource managers, policymakers, and the public in preparing for future management challenges.
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From page 17...
... RESEARCH IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINED OBSERVATIONS Hypothesis-driven, or question-oriented, studies designed to reveal the mechanisms underlying environmental processes are especially valuable when done in the context of sustained, long-term observations. Monitoring provides the information needed to develop, test, and refine environmental models and therefore is an integral component of regional research programs.
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From page 18...
... This made it clear that a regional initiative was needed because "the sardine respects neither state lines nor national boundaries" (CalCOFI, 1950~. In 1948, the California Cooperative Sardine Research Program was established to study the biological, physical, and chemical oceanographic processes that affected the sardine populations in the waters off California (NRC, 1990b)
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From page 19...
... Important and underdeveloped tools include assimilation techniques and numerical models for timely analysis and predictions of extreme events and their consequences. Current programs to address this need are being funded by the National Ocean Partnership Program, with the goal of integrating local and regional measurement systems and numerical models through data assimilation schemes.
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From page 21...
... , it is likely that the unsustainable use of resources will persist until the full scale of the problem is appreciated (Lee, 1993~. For example, spatial scale mismatches occur when the consequences of change are far removed from the source of change (e.g., mass mortalities of sea lions along the southern California coast and E1 Nino, depletion of oxygen in bottom water of the northern Gulf of Mexico and fertilizer use in the watershed of the Mississippi River, declines in fish stocks in a coastal ecosystem and upstream diversions of freshwater)
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From page 22...
... An important result was the development of a process for producing data products useful to scientists, managers, and policymakers through a three-tiered reporting strategy that was endorsed by the National Research Council (NRC, 1990a) : · Level I, semi-annual data reports for technical audiences summarize the status of data collection and tabulates data; · Level II, bi-annual reports, also for technical audiences, provide some analysis that describes relationships among variables and places data into an ecological and regional perspective; · Level III reports, produced periodically for politicians, management agencies, and the public, provide an overall assessment of the status of the Bay and of potential management actions that might follow from scientific findings.
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From page 23...
... Hence, the challenges of coastal zone management are exceptionally difficult and underscore the importance of implementing proactive, adaptive approaches to environmental and resource management. In many cases, comprehensive regional research programs that are based on an extensive communication network will be needed to effectively link political, social, cultural, commercial, and environmental interests.
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From page 24...
... The purpose of LabNet is to provide the infrastructure required to exchange and integrate data collected at different locations, on different time and space scales, and using different methodologies for a nearly seamless analysis and visualization of patterns.
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Key Terms

  • coastal ecosystems
  • regional marine
  • marine research
  • california cooperative
  • management decisions

  • environmental changes
  • cooperative oceanic
  • oceanic fisheries
  • living resources
  • ecological complexity

  • management agencies
  • coastal ecosystem
  • fish stocks
  • environmental processes
  • numerical models

  • coastal zone
  • data products
  • global scale
  • regional research
  • scales tend

  • water quality
  • water temperatures
  • bay agreement
  • regional context
  • data center

  • fisheries investigations
  • west coast
  • environmental change
  • integrated data
  • data dissemination


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