Continuing support is provided for the international oceanographic activities of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) that are relevant to U.S. interests in marine sciences and the Division of Ocean Sciences. Support of these international activities through SCOR began in 1987. The SCOR provides an international, interdisciplinary, non-governmental focus for ocean research and makes it possible for national ocean science communities to (1) participate in international research projects, (2) identify important ocean science issues and create working groups to address the issues, and (3) participate in capacity-building activities (40% of SCOR national committees are based in developing countries).
Funds provided by NSF for the activities of international Scientific Steering Committees (SSCs) of large-scale ocean research projects ensure SCOR oversight of these projects in terms of SSC membership, terms of reference, and scientific directions and progress. The proposed support from NSF is especially important for SCOR involvement in and oversight of the major ocean projects. Funding is requested for partial support of the SSCs of the Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC) project, the Surface Ocean ? Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS), the Global Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (GEOHAB) program, the Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) project, and the GEOTRACES project. These activities also are supported by other international and national sponsors.
Broader Impacts
These major programs have origins in U.S. and have turned to SCOR to provide a forum for international planning and coordination. SCOR's impact has and will continue to be evident in the standardization of measurement protocols, sharing of data, coordination of ship time, and the enlargement of field studies which would be impossible without international coordination.
This award funded ocean science activities of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR). SCOR is an international non-governmental science organization whose mission is to help ocean scientists from around the world to work together on scientific activities that are important for both increasing our fundamental knowledge of the ocean and to provide information that will be useful for dealing with ocean issues important to society, on both short and long terms. SCOR helps link U.S. scientists with scientists from other nations. Over the course of the four-year period of this grant, NSF funding partially supported several types of SCOR activities, including working groups, large-scale ocean research projects, and other activities. SCOR working groups are small international groups of ocean scientists focused on specific topics; NSF funding is used to help pay for group members to meet several times. Funding from other nations participating in SCOR were also used to support these groups. Over the past four years, support from NSF was used by SCOR working groups to (1) examine the effects of climate cycles on phytoplankton and zooplankton; (2) document the state of the science on fluxes of materials from the deep ocean across continental shelves, the role of microbes in creating and using the pool of dissolved carbon in the ocean, and the role of organic substances (ligands) that control the bioavailabilty of trace metals in the ocean; (3) advance the use of automated methods for identifying zooplankton; (4) compile datasets related to the results of experiments on the effects of additions of iron to the ocean; (5) determine the effects of nutrients on harmful algal blooms in coastal areas; (6) recommend new ways to use commercial ships for scientifically useful ocean observations; (7) develop new models of the role of mid-ocean ridges in the global carbon cycle; (8) compile data on chlorophyll in polar regions and develop new models to explain how sea ice affects the exchange of gases between the ocean and atmosphere; and (9) improve understanding of the role of the ocean-air interface in transfer of gases and particles. Working groups disseminate their results to the scientific community through peer-reviewed publications, special sessions at scientific meetings, and databases. The results of working groups are made available to the public through Web sites, newsletters, and occasionally with videos. NSF funding was used for partial support of five large-scale ocean research projects. In these projects, the NSF funding was used for the scientific steering committees of the projects to meet to ensure coordination of national research efforts to achieve global goals. The research projects supported focus on (1) the role of ocean physics and climate on ocean fisheries; (2) learning how harmful algal blooms (red tides) in the ocean are controlled by ocean conditions; (3) the distributions of trace elements and isotopes in the ocean, what controls these distributions, and how these elements and isotopes can be used to understand ocean processes; (4) understanding how the cycles of important elements in the ocean interact with marine organisms; and (5) understanding how the ocean and atmosphere interact to control the global levels of carbon dioxide and other gases that are important in affecting ocean ecosystems and global climate. These projects enhance coordination of national research cruises and other field work, and usually stimulate hundreds to thousands of scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, which advance the foundation of fundamental knowledge that forms the basis for future policy development. Part of the grant was used to help coordinate data on ocean carbon that are collected worldwide, from the ocean surface and throughout the ocean water column. The ocean carbon work supported by this grant also helped the scientific community develop standards for collecting and analyzing samples, analyzing data, and other actions that are necessary to ensure that samples can be compared from all locations worldwide and that data can be accessed and re-used by other scientists. SCOR is working with other organizations to stimulate the development of a coordinated system of observations for the Southern Ocean, the area surrounding the continent of Antarctica. The group that is partially funded through this grant is helping to identify existing observations that could be part of a Southern Ocean Observing System and to recommend new systematic observations that should be implemented. SCOR used funds from this grant to work with other organizations to develop and implement new ways to link data with scientific publications, to make such data more accessible for re-use and to make research results more transparent. Two pilot projects have been developed through this activity and a "cookbook" has been published to show how to implement systems that link data and produce "data publications".
