This award will support the planning activities for the development of the Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics Initiative of the NSF Global Geoscience Program and the U.S. Global Change Program for a period of two years. This initiative will address the role of physical ocean processes in the variability of populations of animals in the world's oceans and thereby assess the potential influences of changing global climate on animal abundance, distribution and production. Support will be used for workshops on technology conceptualization, theory and model international development and coordination of GLOBEC research; and for publications of the initiative.