U.S-Netherlands Cooperative Research on the Response of Large Aggregates to Storms in the North Sea

该奖项支持北卡罗来纳大学海洋科学研究所的John T. Wells和Richard Luettich与荷兰海洋研究所的Doeke Eisma等人在物理海洋学方面的合作。他们的研究目的是增加对自然条件下浅海地区大颗粒聚集体行为的理解。威尔斯博士和他的团队目前正在北卡罗莱纳海岸进行研究。这笔资金将使他们能够将该观测项目扩展到北海的第二组现场，在那里，荷兰研究人员正在Doeke Eisma的指导下进行类似的研究。这两项实地工作都将受益于彼此实验室独立开发的技术。了解浅水水体中粒子聚集体的行为是一个非常困难的问题，对它几乎一无所知。这也是一个非常重要的问题，既具有根本意义，又具有立即适用的意义。基本的科学兴趣是了解海洋系统的地质过程（侵蚀、沉积等），而实际价值是了解海洋污染物的运输和命运的含义。它们会附着在细小的颗粒上，形成大的聚集体。

This award supports John T. Wells and Richard Luettich of the Institute of Marine Sciences of the University of North Carolina to collaborate in physical oceanography with Doeke Eisma and others of the Netherlands Institute for Sea Research. The objective of their research is to increase understanding of the behavior of large particle aggregates in the shallow coastal areas under natural conditions. Dr. Wells and his group are currently carrying out research on this off the coast of North Carolina. Funding from this award will enable them to extend this observational program to a second set of field sites in the North Sea where similar studies are being carried out by Dutch researchers under the direction of Doeke Eisma. Both field efforts will benefit from techniques developed independently in each other's laboratories. Understanding the behavior of particle aggregates in shallow water bodies is a very difficult problem about which almost nothing is known. It is also a very important problem, with both fundamental and immediately applicable implications. The fundamental scientific interest is in understanding geological processes in marine systems (erosion, deposition, etc.) while the practical value is the implications for understanding the transport and fate of marine pollutants, which are known to become attached to fine particles that often form large aggregates.