This IRES project offers U. S. students the opportunity to conduct research on the virtually unknown dynamics of the Zanzibar Channel, a 40km-wide and 100km-long area of ocean bounded by the Tanzanian mainland and the island of Zanzibar, in collaboration with local researchers at the Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) in Zanzibar, Tanzania. This research experience, which will be open to three undergraduate and graduate students from the US each year from 2009 to 2011, will allow students to produce new research results while experiencing Tanzania, a country that is strikingly different from the US. The overall research goal will be to develop a model of the dynamics of the Zanzibar Channel that produces an annual cycle that resembles as closely as possible the real annual cycle and thus can eventually be used to address natural resource management issues. The students will spend two months at IMS in Zanzibar, working on two different types of projects, one focusing on the model development and the other on making oceanographic measurements in the Zanzibar Channel to provide observational data for the model. The students will be mentored by senior Tanzanian scientists, by Dr. Javier Zavala-Garay of Rutgers University, who will be with the students in Zanzibar for 1.5 months each year, and by a network of experts who have agreed to act as an Advisory Board to the project. The development of a model for the Zanzibar Channel complements efforts by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the World Bank as both have a mandate to promote capacity development in the marine sciences in the developing world and both are supporting related projects in Zanzibar or in East Africa.
Because relatively little physical oceanographic research has been conducted on the Zanzibar Channel, this project will provide a first understanding of the dynamics of that channel. Beyond local relevance, coastal oceanographers are interested in new cases that might reveal unique coastal processes or could be used for comparison with other coastal regions. Because this project addresses one of IMS' top priorities, IMS will provide oceanographic instrumentation and use of a research boat. Additional instruments and computer support will be provided at no cost by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Georgia Institute of Technology, respectively.
This project will provide U.S. strudents with a rich and exciting international research opportunitiy and will also strengthen research collaboration between U.S. and African scientists. Students will be recruited from across the U.S., enabling many new partnerships between the U.S. and networks already existing in East Africa. Results of the research and the experiences of the students conducting research in Zanzibar will be documented in publications, at conferences, and via a website. The research also has potential to provide information of value to those managing natural resources in coastal zones.
This project is supported in part by NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences, Geosciences Directorate.
