Facilities support for the CARICOMP network of cooperating Caribbean marine laboratories

约翰·奥格登博士是佛罗里达海洋学研究所所长，目前担任加勒比沿海海洋生产力计划（CARICOMP）指导委员会的联合主席，该计划是一个由位于20多个加勒比国家的30多个海洋实验室组成的联盟。该联盟成立于1985年，得到了国家科学基金会和教科文组织的支助，举办了一些讲习班，开始规划一个全流域信息网，专门收集和维持标准化的长期环境（海洋学、气象和生态系统）观测。将在教科文组织的支助下，在金斯敦西印度群岛大学设立一个数据管理中心，以操作该网络。奥格登博士建议通过在委内瑞拉、尤卡坦半岛、牙买加、圣卢西亚和巴巴多斯的五个代表性海洋实验室安装个人电脑、潜水水质数据记录器、远程自动化气象站和网络硬件和软件来启动数据网络。加勒比共同体网络将促进对沿海地区热带生态系统（珊瑚礁、红树林湿地、海草草甸）的纯粹和应用研究。拟议的努力将为研究全球变化以及社会和经济发展对热带沿海地区的影响提供重要的好处。

Dr. John Ogden is Director of the Florida Institute of Oceanography, and currently serves as co-chair of the Steering Committee of the Caribbean Coastal Marine Productivity Program (CARICOMP), a consortium of more than 30 marine labs located in more than 20 Caribbean countries. The consortium was established in 1985 and has received NSF and UNESCO support for workshops that initiated planning for a basin-wide information network dedicated to collecting and maintaining standardized long-term environmental (oceanographic, meteorologic, and ecosystem) observations. A Data Management Center will be established with UNESCO support at the University of the West Indies, Kingston, to operate the network. Dr. Ogden proposes initiation of the data network by installing personal computers, submersible water quality data loggers, remote automated weather stations, and networking hardware and software at five representative marine labs, located in Venezuela, the Yucatan Peninsula, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Barbados. The CARICOMP network will facilitate pure and applied research into the tropical ecosystems of the coastal zone (reefs, mangrove wetlands, seagrass meadows). The proposed effort will provide important benefits to research on global change and the impacts of society and economic development on tropical coastal zones.