4
Chapter 1: Toward an Ecological Geography of the Sea
of surface drifters and of subsurface floats, these data form a set of observations that will
remain the primary description of ocean physics for a long time to come. WOCE data
are, of course, intended primarily to support climate modeling, but they are accessible to
us all on DVD or at various Web sites.
The principal interest in TOGA (1984–1994) for ecologists may be the array of
moorings arranged on 11 sections 10
N–10
S across the entire equatorial Pacific that
permitted the first long-term description of the response of the ocean to the atmospheric
Southern Oscillation that will be discussed later. Permanent monitoring of ocean conditions is promised by the GOOS (Global Ocean Observing System), currently organized
by the IOC of UNESCO. This is intended to match, and mesh with, the atmospheric
World Weather Watch to facilitate regional modeling of the coupled atmosphere–ocean
system.
Concern over the effects of the increasing content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
on future climate states has, of course, led to attempts to model the fluxes of carbon
between atmosphere and ocean, and the cycling of biologically active elements in the
oceanic biogeochemical cycle. But, as McCarthy et al. (1986) commented, it had been
hard to make the numbers add up and, in particular, to compute with any conviction the
role of water column photosynthesis and the subsequent sedimentation to the interior
of the ocean of biogenic carbon detritus. Arising from this uncertainty, a Joint Global
Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) was planned in the mid-1980s to clarify the workings of
this system at the scale of ocean basins, and to quantify the links among atmospheric,
oceanic, and sedimentary carbon pools. This, it was understood, would require careful
and sophisticated investigation of the production and consumption of organic material in
the upper ocean, and it was toward these processes that JGOFS was specifically directed.
Oceanographers from at least 20 nations participated in the work at sea, as JGOFS
studies were undertaken in the equatorial Pacific, the North Atlantic, the Arabian Sea,
the Subarctic Pacific, and the Southern Ocean, as well as in the marginal seas of the Gulf
of St. Lawrence and the Bay of Biscay. From each of these representative regions we now
have excellent information about the relations between organisms from microbiota to
zooplankton, and concerning the production, consumption, excretion, and sedimentation
of organic aggregates. Our knowledge of the functioning of the planktonic component of
oceanic ecosystems became immeasurably greater as a result of JGOFS, which has been
a critical catalyst in the unfolding “microbial revolution” that is the subject of the next
section.
JGOFS also gave birth to two long sets of time-series observations, both starting
in 1988, the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series (BATS) and the Hawaii Ocean Time-series
(HOT). The data from these programs provide an unprecedented description of seasonal
changes in open ocean physics and chemistry, but also in some ecological processes,
including rates of phytoplankton production and organic sedimentation. These data have
already been used to suggest that a response of the oceanic inorganic carbon system to
the rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide is already observable.
Finally, it will be useful to mention one collective response of biological oceanographers to the global fishery crisis of the end of the century and to the failure of many fish
stocks to recruit successfully. GLOBEC (Global Oceans Ecosystems Dynamics) is a study
of the response of top predators in marine ecosystems to variability in physical oceanographic conditions, and—like the other international programs I have mentioned—was
implemented as a series of regional studies, starting in 1992. In each, the variability of
the physical regime was analyzed in terms of the response of a small series of “target
organisms,” essentially the regionally important commercial fish and the planktonic or
nektonic organisms forming their main food. Studies of fisheries ecosystems, predominantly in continental shelf regions, have been undertaken in both the North Atlantic
Chapter 1: Toward an Ecological Geography of the Sea
of surface drifters and of subsurface floats, these data form a set of observations that will
remain the primary description of ocean physics for a long time to come. WOCE data
are, of course, intended primarily to support climate modeling, but they are accessible to
us all on DVD or at various Web sites.
The principal interest in TOGA (1984–1994) for ecologists may be the array of
moorings arranged on 11 sections 10
N–10
S across the entire equatorial Pacific that
permitted the first long-term description of the response of the ocean to the atmospheric
Southern Oscillation that will be discussed later. Permanent monitoring of ocean conditions is promised by the GOOS (Global Ocean Observing System), currently organized
by the IOC of UNESCO. This is intended to match, and mesh with, the atmospheric
World Weather Watch to facilitate regional modeling of the coupled atmosphere–ocean
system.
Concern over the effects of the increasing content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
on future climate states has, of course, led to attempts to model the fluxes of carbon
between atmosphere and ocean, and the cycling of biologically active elements in the
oceanic biogeochemical cycle. But, as McCarthy et al. (1986) commented, it had been
hard to make the numbers add up and, in particular, to compute with any conviction the
role of water column photosynthesis and the subsequent sedimentation to the interior
of the ocean of biogenic carbon detritus. Arising from this uncertainty, a Joint Global
Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) was planned in the mid-1980s to clarify the workings of
this system at the scale of ocean basins, and to quantify the links among atmospheric,
oceanic, and sedimentary carbon pools. This, it was understood, would require careful
and sophisticated investigation of the production and consumption of organic material in
the upper ocean, and it was toward these processes that JGOFS was specifically directed.
Oceanographers from at least 20 nations participated in the work at sea, as JGOFS
studies were undertaken in the equatorial Pacific, the North Atlantic, the Arabian Sea,
the Subarctic Pacific, and the Southern Ocean, as well as in the marginal seas of the Gulf
of St. Lawrence and the Bay of Biscay. From each of these representative regions we now
have excellent information about the relations between organisms from microbiota to
zooplankton, and concerning the production, consumption, excretion, and sedimentation
of organic aggregates. Our knowledge of the functioning of the planktonic component of
oceanic ecosystems became immeasurably greater as a result of JGOFS, which has been
a critical catalyst in the unfolding “microbial revolution” that is the subject of the next
section.
JGOFS also gave birth to two long sets of time-series observations, both starting
in 1988, the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series (BATS) and the Hawaii Ocean Time-series
(HOT). The data from these programs provide an unprecedented description of seasonal
changes in open ocean physics and chemistry, but also in some ecological processes,
including rates of phytoplankton production and organic sedimentation. These data have
already been used to suggest that a response of the oceanic inorganic carbon system to
the rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide is already observable.
Finally, it will be useful to mention one collective response of biological oceanographers to the global fishery crisis of the end of the century and to the failure of many fish
stocks to recruit successfully. GLOBEC (Global Oceans Ecosystems Dynamics) is a study
of the response of top predators in marine ecosystems to variability in physical oceanographic conditions, and—like the other international programs I have mentioned—was
implemented as a series of regional studies, starting in 1992. In each, the variability of
the physical regime was analyzed in terms of the response of a small series of “target
organisms,” essentially the regionally important commercial fish and the planktonic or
nektonic organisms forming their main food. Studies of fisheries ecosystems, predominantly in continental shelf regions, have been undertaken in both the North Atlantic