Bridging Boundaries Through Regional Marine Research (2000) / Chapter Skim
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6 Conclusions and Recommendations
6 Conclusions and Recommendations
Pages 67-75
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From page 67... ...
The formulation and implementation of sound environmental policies to meet these challenges requires programs that integrate research and monitoring to develop the ability to predict the consequences of human actions on these valuable but vulnerable coastal ecosystems. Detecting, assessing, predicting, and mitigating the effects of natural perturbations and human-induced stresses on coastal ecosystems sometimes requires a broader, regional perspective to evaluate local changes in marine ecosystems that may be influenced by larger scale changes in climate, ocean circulation, fishing activities, and land-use practices!
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From page 68... ...
Regional approaches also promote coordination of the efforts of local, state, and federal programs; enable the timely analysis of data; and supply the information needs of resource managers and policymakers. Regional programs can provide resource managers and policymakers with better information to respond to stresses in coastal aquatic ecosystems, for example, tracing the fates of nutrients and chemical contaminants, identifying the causes of fish kills or mass mortalities of birds and marine mammals, or predicting the impacts of habitat loss, alterations of freshwater flows, or dredging (see also Table 1-1~.
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From page 69... ...
serve as examples of Agency Plans. The NOAA Sea Grant program is a hybrid of agency and community-based planning with research objectives set at the national level and research needs determined at the state level.
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From page 70... ...
RECOMMENDATIONS Enabling Regional Marine Research The review of regional marine research programs and the barriers to their implementation revealed essential elements and actions that will be required for the successful development of a regional approach to marine research and monitoring in coastal ecosystems. A program for regional marine research should incorporate the following elements: · Involve all stakeholders in the planning and implementation of regional programs through workshops, advisory councils, and boards; · Build a program that is more than the sum of its parts through more effective use of existing resources and research projects, and facilitate multiple uses of data to serve the needs of a variety of users; · Facilitate ongoing interactions among monitoring programs (to reveal spatial and temporal patterns of change)
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From page 71... ...
Establish a communications network that effectively links political, social, economic, and environmental interests in the design, implementation, and evolution of the program for more effective science education, public outreach, economic development, and management of ecosystems and living resources; · Facilitate adaptive management strategies by assessing the efficacy of environmental policies and testing alternative approaches. · Ensure sustained public and political support for stable funding through outreach activities that increase awareness of current research activities, describe changes in the health of coastal ecosystems, and explain how the results of research and monitoring are used to support environmental decisionmaking.
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From page 72... ...
National leadership will be needed to manage the data resources developed through regional programs, to ensure long-term archiving of data, and to establish national standards for measurements, metadata, and dissemination. Robert Wall, former Chairman of the Gulf of Maine Regional Marine Research Board (GOM-RMRP)
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From page 73... ...
Additionally, regional programs will require funding partnerships with coastal states in the target regions. While NOPP is a promising mechanism for interagency coordination of regional marine research initiatives, it is still a new program and hence lacks a record of successful agency cooperation.
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From page 74... ...
Previous NOAA programs have not fulfilled the goals for regional research as envisioned by this committee. Research supported by the National Sea Grant College Program tends to be limited in geographic scope, and Sea Grant has institutional barriers that hinder or preclude research efforts that span state or international borders.
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From page 75... ...
NOAA has devoted substantial resources to coastal ocean research and management, and has achieved some success in addressing coastal ocean problems from a regional perspective, such as the GOM-RMRP and NECOP initiatives described in this report. However, it is unlikely that NOAA can implement the recommendations in this report unless senior NOAA management designates responsibility for regional marine research to a single office within NOAA.A1though several NOAA programs have important resources to contribute, a single office should be given the responsibility, as well as sufficient authority, to provide direction, overall coordination, and oversight to create regional initiatives that best serve local, state, and national interests.
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