Planning Workshop for GEOSECS-II

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ABSTRACTOCE-0221833Much has been learned in recent years about the biogeochemical cycling of trace elements and isotopic tracers, but progress has been limited by the lack of any large-scale coordinated research effort in this area since the GEOSECS program. With NSF funding through this project, researchers at the Lamont-Dougherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University will convene a workshop to lay the foundation for a coordinated international study of the biogeochemical cycles of trace elements and isotopes used as "tracers " in oceanography. Such a study would be disciplinary in the sense that its primary objective would be to improve understanding of the marine biogeochemical cycles of a suite of chemical tracers. However, it would at the same time interdisciplinary, in that it seeks to understand the complex couplings between the biogeochemical cycles of trace elements and the biological and physical processes that influence those cycles. The long-range objectives are highly interdisciplinary, in that the improved understanding of these tracers will be of immediate and substantial benefit to applications in biological, physical, and geological oceanography.The proposed study has been termed GEOSECS-II to reflect the fact that many of its objectives follow directly from those of the original GEOSECS program. Furthermore, the proposed study will be conducted in the spirit of the original GEOSECS program with the appreciation that a global perspective is required to understand completely the cycling of chemical tracers within the ocean.