Murphy¹, Eugene, J., Eileen E. Hofmann², Ulrich Bathmann³, Steve Nicol⁴, Deborah Thiele⁵ and Evgeny A. Pakhomov⁶

¹British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OET, United Kingdom, Tel: 44 1223 221614, Fax: 44 1223 221259, E-mail: ejmu@pcmail.nerc-bas.ac.uk, ²Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography, Crittenton Hall, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, ³Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Marine and Polar Research, D-27515 Bremerhaven, Germany, ⁴Australian Antarctic Division Channel Highway, Kingston, Tasmania 7050, Australia, ⁵School of Ecology and Environment, Deakin University, P.O. Box 423, Warrnambool, Victoria 3280, Australia, ⁶University of Fort Hare, Zoology Department, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa

ICCED: Integrated analyses of Circumpolar Climate interactions and Ecosystem Dynamics in the Southern Ocean - a Southern Ocean initiative for the OCEANS programme

During the past decade national and international studies of Southern Ocean ecosystems were undertaken to understand the processes controlling marine population variability. These programmes encompassed the whole ecosystem, including environmental structure, and will provide the basis for synthesis and modelling activities and additional focussed studies in the coming years. An emerging result is the importance of circumpolar climate variability and connections in the regional dynamics of Southern Ocean ecosystems, which implies that climate must be an integral focus of future research programmes developed for this region. The ICCED initiative proposes a coordinated circumpolar approach to understanding climate interactions in the Southern Ocean and implications for ecosystems and the impacts on biogeochemical cycles. The initiative will be composed of circumpolar remote instrumentation and monitoring, an internationally coordinated circumpolar field effort and enhancement of WOCE transects for ecosystem studies, and focussed process studies in key regions. The initiative will extend existing circulation and biological models and further develop modelling efforts directed at an integrated circumpolar view of the operation of the whole ecosystem. An important objective will be to develop international expertise and capability through focussed training courses, workshops, and personnel exchanges. The ICCED initiative directly addresses the questions put forward as a science focus for OCEANS and is related to programmes with a Southern Ocean focus including CLIVAR, CCAMLR IMAGES, GLOBEC, GOOS, SCAR, and the IWC.