Program Goals of the

The U.S. Joint Global Ocean Flux Study

At the initial NAS workshop in 1984, the goal for the GOFS (later U.S. JGOFS) program was conceived in these words:
  "To identify and quantify the physical, chemical and biological
   processes controlling biogeochemical cycling in the ocean, and
   their interaction with the global atmosphere.  The goal is to
   understand the processes governing the production and fate of
   biogenic materials in the sea well enough to predict their
   influences on, and responses to, global-scale perturbations."
U.S. JGOFS is a major element of the international JGOFS program, established in 1987 and now numbering more than 30 nations among its participants. Its goals are: 
  "To determine and understand on a global scale the processes
   controlling the time-varying fluxes of carbon and associated
   biogenic elements in the oceans, and to evaluate the related
   exchanges with the atmosphere, sea floor and the continental
   boundaries."
and 
  "To develop a capability to predict on a global scale the
   response of oceanic biogeochemical processes to
   anthropogenic perturbations, in particular those related
   to climate change."
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