SMP Central Program Elements
1. Global and regional mass
balances: synthesis of improved estimates of natural and anthropogenic carbon inventories and of fluxes of carbon and related biologically active chemical substances.
2. Mechanistic controls of local carbon balances:
identification and modeling of the
principal processes that control within-ocean and ocean-atmosphere partitioning of carbon and related biologically active
chemical substances, with a view towards
developing regional and global syntheses and models.
3. Extrapolation, monitoring, and
prediction: development and application of methods that will allow knowledge gained on small
spatial and temporal scales to be scaled to seasonal, annual, and
interannual time scales and to regional and
global spatial scales; and development and application of methods that will improve our ability to monitor and predict the role of
oceanic processes in determining the
partitioning of carbon between the ocean and atmosphere and the resulting feedback to the climate system.