Joint Research Planning Meeting-Comparative Studies of Coastal and Nearshore Environmental Changes in the U.S. and China

0827111 Chang，Ping，（Texas A M U.）该奖项支持美国和中国海岸和近岸环境变化比较研究联合研究规划会议。 会议将于2008年10月在中国山东省青岛市举行。 主要的中方合作伙伴是中国海洋大学的杨邹生教授和中国科学院海洋研究所的胡敦新教授。TAMU和中国研究人员之间的初步讨论确定了三个优先研究领域：1）近岸/海岸过程，2）地球化学过程，3）气候/流域尺度过程。规划会议将使与会者能够就这些主题编写联合研究提案。 这些研究提案将利用长江和密西西比河流域之间的相似之处，解决受人类活动和气候变异性和变化严重影响的沿海和海洋环境相关主题的不确定性。这些变化反过来又有可能造成广泛的社会和环境变化。 由NSF奖支持的十名参与者包括两名高级教师，两名初级教师和六名高级研究生和博士后研究人员。 预计此次规划会议将产生的联合研究提案将与美国和中国以及其他国家共同面临的社会问题相关，从地方和区域渔业经济到全球气候的永久性变化。 除了研究进展外，这些建议还将加强对沿海、海洋和气候科学家的培训，使他们能够在所有空间和时间尺度上解决关键的环境问题。 ***

ABSTRACTOISE 0827111 Chang, Ping, (Texas A&M U.)This award supports a Joint Research Planning Meeting on Comparative Studies of Coastal and Nearshore Environmental Changes in the U.S. and China. The meeting will be held in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China, in October 2008. The key Chinese partners are Prof. Zousheng YANG, of the Ocean University of China; and Prof. Dunxin HU, of the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Preliminary discussions between the TAMU and Chinese researchers have identified three priority research areas: 1) nearshore/coastal processes, 2) biogeochemical processes, and 3) climate/basin scale processes. The planning meeting will allow the participants to prepare joint research proposals on these themes. The research proposals will exploit the parallels between the Yangtze and Mississippi River basins to resolve uncertainties on the interrelated themes of coastal and ocean environments that are heavily impacted by human activity and climate variability and change. Such changes, in turn, have the potential to create widespread societal and environmental changes. The ten participants to be supported by the NSF award include two senior faculty, two junior faculty, and six advanced graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. The joint research proposals expected to result from this planning meeting will be relevant to societal issues shared by the U.S. and China and beyond, ranging from local and regional fisheries economies to permanent changes in global climate. In addition to the research advances, the proposals will enhance the training of coastal, ocean, and climate scientists capable of addressing critical environmental concerns at all scales of space and time. ***