Large-Scale Ocean Research Programs

Project Data Management Web site and Report
Project Summit I Web site and Report
Project Summit II Web site
 

SCOR Resolution Regarding JGOFS at its Completion

Global Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (GEOHAB)
Chair: Robin Raine (Ireland), Vice-Chair: Raphael Kudela (USA)

Following a request from the international community of scientists that studies harmful algal blooms (HABs), SCOR and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) convened a workshop in Havreholm, Denmark in 1998 to determine the need for an international program to coordinate research on HABs and development of observation systems and predictive models to help anticipate and mitigate the effects of such blooms. Participants at the Havreholm workshop recognized the need for an international HAB research program. A Scientific Steering Committee was formed in 2000 to define the program, Global Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (GEOHAB), in greater detail. The GEOHAB Science Plan was published in 2001. The GEOHAB Implementation Plan was published in late 2003. GEOHAB is now convening a series of four focused open science meetings to develop research plans for comparative ecosystem studies.

GEOTRACES Scientific Steering Committee
Co-Chairs: Robert Anderson (USA) and Gideon Henderson (UK)

The GEOTRACES Planning Group will plan and implement an international research project to study the global marine biogeochemical cycles of trace elements and their isotopes. Although the primary objective of the GEOTRACES project is an improved understanding of the marine biogeochemistry of trace elements, benefits of the project will extend into multiple sub-disciplines of oceanography. The project will be global in its scope and international in the composition of its participants. Furthermore, the project will involve close linkages with several other major international oceanographic research initiatives, such as IMBER, SOLAS, CLIVAR, and LOICZ.

Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC)
Chair: Ian Perry (Canada), Vice-Chair: John Field (South Africa)

International GLOBEC was initiated by SCOR and IOC in 1991, in response to the recommendations of a joint workshop that identified a need to understand how global change will affect the abundance, diversity, and productivity of marine organisms, particularly zooplankton and fish. GLOBEC became a Core Project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) in 1995. International GLOBEC will continue through 2009.

Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) Project
Chair: Julie Hall (New Zealand), Vice-Chair: Mike Roman (USA)

Projects of SCOR and IGBP are now synthesising many of the results of the first decade of ocean research. In 2000, the two organizations started a process to develop plans for ocean research for the next 10 years of IGBP Phase II. To begin the process of planning the new IGBP marine element, SCOR and IGBP held a workshop in Plymouth (UK) on 23-26 September 2000. The Plymouth workshop was designed to gain input from representatives of the existing and planned marine projects, both within and outside IGBP.

Following the Plymouth Workshop, SCOR and IGBP assembled an Ocean Futures Planning Committee, which worked through 2001, to draft an integrated Framework for important new international ocean research that will build on and identify areas of cooperation among existing activities of SCOR and IGBP. The Draft Framework report was reviewed in January-February 2002 and the report and reviews were used by an Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) Transition Team to plan an Open Science Meeting and will be used as the basis for a Science Plan/Implementation Strategy by the end of 2003.

Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) - COMPLETED
The formal organization of international JGOFS commenced in February 1987, when SCOR sponsored a meeting of experts in Paris. At that meeting, the goals, scientific elements, topics of emphasis, and organizational structure of JGOFS were developed. The SCOR Executive Committee established an international planning committee for JGOFS, which met for the first time in January 1988. The international effort grew out of the groundwork of the United States and several European countries that were planning ocean flux field studies. In 1989, a formal agreement was reached between SCOR and IGBP to make JGOFS a core project of IGBP. JGOFS held its final Open Science Meeting in May 2003 and closed its International Project Office at the end of 2003.

Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS)
Chair: Doug Wallace (Germany)

The recent history of SOLAS started with the formation of a small informal planning group, sponsored by SCOR and IGBP, which convened the first SOLAS open science conference in February 2000 in Damp, Germany. At the conference, the scientific background to SOLAS was fully discussed by more than 250 scientists from 22 countries representing a wide variety of disciplines. The reports of the various discussion groups were summarized, synthesized, and transformed by an editorial team into a science plan, which was approved by SCOR, IGBP, the Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution of the International Association for Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences, and the World Climate Research Programme. These organizations approved SOLAS and its Scientific Steering Committee (SSC), which met for the first time in December 2001. In 2002 and 2003, the SOLAS SSC has revised the project's Science Plan and has developed its Implementation Strategy. The combined document will be published in mid-2003.

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