Group Leader: Frank Muller-Karger
Objective: To assess the role of the ocean margins and pelagic-margin exchange in the global carbon cycle and to lay the ground work for incorporating the coastal environment into general circulation models.
Background: The importance of continental margins in the global and marine carbon cycles has been pointed out in peer-reviewed publications (e.g., by authors like Walsh, Jahnke, and others). It is important that these regions, and the very active physical and biological processes that take place there, be represented in global assessments for which GCMs and coupled biological models are being used. Thus these processes should be incorporated into the newer GCMs at the proper space and time scales. Although the primary emphasis of the U. S. JGOFS SMP is on the pelagic carbon cycle, the SMP can provide leadership in this area through the continental margin working group via communication with the coastal, pelagic and GCM modeling communities.
Tasks: The continental margins working group plans to convene a small meeting of experts (5-6 people) from both within and outside the JGOFS community in the Fall to address the following issues: