The U.S. GLOBEC Office: The Coordinating Office of the Scientific Steering Committee

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U.S. GLOBec (GLOBal Ocean ECosystem--a part of the U.S. global change program) is a scientific effort designed to evaluate the consequences of global climate change, and the concomitant changes in physical transports in the sea, on the sustainability of animal production in the ocean. The program seeks to understand how physical processes influence the success of individual animals in the sea--their feeding, growth, reproduction, and survivorship. Models of global climate can then be used to relate global change to changes in regional ocean physics and, subsequently, changes in regional physics to modifications at the spatial scales that influence individual organisms. Effects on zooplankton life stages will be emphasized because so many marine animals undergo at least one planktonic life stage and because the planktonic size classes are most at the mercy of the physics of their fluid environment. This project seeks to maintain a U.S. GLOBEC Coordinating Office to carry out the many functions necessary for such a large inter- disciplinary program. The tasks of such an office fall into four broad categories. First, planning and coordination activities associated with the efforts--largely meetings--of the Scientific Steering Committee (SSC). Second, specifics of logistics and support for the SSC. Third, communications with the large and diverse GLOBEC community in the U.S. (and overseas)--involving both physical and biological oceanographers, as well as fisheries specialists. Finally, a new endeavor, planning and coordination with the recently-formed international program. Professor Thomas M. Powell will assume the chairmanship of the U.S. GLOBEC SSC before 1 May 1992. The Coordinating Office will move to its new home, at Powell's institution, in the Division of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Davis.