ExCo Meeting Feburary 27, 1998

     
ExCo Meeting
February 27, 1998
CMAST
Umass, New Bedford
     
Committee members attending were P. Wiebe, L. Madin, S. Gallager, G. 
Lough, R. Beardsley, E. Durbin, J. Bisagni, and D. Mountain.  D. Busch 
and R. Groman also attended.
     
Jim Bisagni welcomed the Committee to the new CMAST facility.  A copy of 
the agenda was passed out and Peter Wiebe asked if the were any 
additions.  Two were offered.  David Mountain added an issue relating to 
requesting SWIFS data for the next field season.  Scott Gallager added 
an item relating to a proposed tank facility at WHOI.
     
1.  Scientific Investigator's Data Workshop
     
        The time, duration and location of the next Scientific
Investigator's data workshop needs to be decide so arrangements can be 
made.  Peter stressed that this is a very important meeting where the 
fruits of our labor will finally begin to take shape in an integrated 
form.  Enough time should be planned to allow good interactions to occur 
- at least 10 days.  Preliminary discussions about possible sites had 
been held.  The Alton Jones facility at URI now has difficulty providing 
a long enough block of time and enough rooms.  The facility at UNH has a 
block of time reserved in August (13-23) and also has an alternative 
period of September 8-14 (maybe through the 17th).  The National Academy 
of Sciences in Woods Hole also is being checked.  An additional issue is 
whether to have the 1999 ship planning meeting held during the data 
workshop, as was done in November 1996.  Some investigators have 
indicated they would prefer not to do this.  With proposal awards 
anticipated to be announced in May or June, a PI meeting to address 
initial problems and concerns likely would be held in July.  The 
question of a ship planning meeting could be decided at the PI meeting. 
After discussion the Committee decide to hold the SI Data Workshop at 
UNH for 10 days, but will poll all PI's to choose between the August and 
September time periods - with answers by next Thursday (March 5).
     
2.  Phase III Proposals:
     
An unofficial list of Phase III proposals was reviewed.  The list was 
developed by the PI's forwarding the information to Bob Groman, and was 
recognized to be incomplete.  In a related issue, a  heads up' had been 
received from NOAA/COP about the R/V ENDEAVOR possibly being used in the 
Pacific next year and unavailable for GLOBEC Georges Bank.  The note also 
suggested a total target of about 243 days.   The shiptime requests from 
all proposals likely exceeds 400 days - although how many of those 
proposals are to be funded is unknown.  Peter will try to get 
clarification on the issue of shiptime.
     
3.  Collaboration with European colleagues:
     
Peter attended the second annual TASC Science Investigator meeting in 
January in Bremerhaven, where he heard talks about the ongoing "GLOBEC" 
studies currently underway in the eastern Atlantic waters.  He was asked 
to present an overview of the current status of the Georges Bank work. At 
the end of this talk, he suggested that there needs to be a closer 
collaboration between TASC and GLOBEC Georges Bank.  The programs share 
many of the same research issues, and collaboration could provide a 
pan-Atlantic look at these questions to the benefit of both programs. The 
collaboration should include exchanges of investigators.  One initial 
step would be to invite some TASC investigators to the Data Workshop this 
summer.  Our program also might fund one or two investigators to go to 
Europe for two or more weeks to work with TASC investigators.  Next year 
is the TASC synthesis period, which would be a good time for 
collaboration.  Also some of TASC researchers might go on cruises here in 
1999.  The synthesis between the two groups should be a component of 
Phase IV of our program.  ExCo will develop a list of potential 
candidates for participating in an exchange, and ask TASC to do the same.
     
A related issue is the need to start developing a better justification 
of having a Phase IV synthesis.  A small sub-group of the Committee will 
get together for a few days in April or May to develop a white paper on 
the need for a Phase IV.  This could be presented to the national GLOBEC 
Scientific Steering Committee at its October meeting.
     
In a second related issue, Larry Madin presented information on the 
proposed "PIVOT" program (Plankton Investigations with in-Vitro Tools). 
This effort was generated by the feeling that modeling efforts are being 
conducted in a number of place on various marine species - and that more 
information on important life history parameters and individual 
characteristics is needed, particularly in a consistent format and in 
common units.  To satisfy this need will require laboratory, 
experimental work.  PIVOT is to hold a symposium to identify what is 
needed and to encourage ongoing programs to make the needed 
measurements.  Larry Madin and Wulf Greve (Hamburg) are leading this 
effort.
     
4.  The Next DSR Volume:
     
Time is drawing close to put together the next DSR volume.  The editors 
will be Wiebe, Beardsley, Bucklin and Mountain.  A list of possible 
contributions was circulated, developed from titles submitted to Peter. 
The volume is anticipated to have 20-30 manuscripts.  Manuscripts will 
be accepted from June 1 through September 30.  If too many manuscripts 
are received for a single volume, early submission may gain priority. 
An announcement will be sent out, with a request for an indication of 
title and authorship as soon as possible.  Some contributions may be 
submitted from European investigators working on GLOBEC related topics 
(e.g., TASC, Cod and Climate results).The need to encourage some 
contributions in certain areas was discussed.  One example would be a 
climatology manuscript.  Also, having presentations which are primarily 
data summaries without a lot of analysis was discussed.  These could be 
like a short contribution with the data on an enclosed CD.
     
5.  Modeling Workshop chaired by C. Werner:
     
A biophysical modeling workshop was held at UNC in January which 
involved US, Canadian, and European scientists.  Dan Lynch was going to 
present a summary of a report of the meeting, but was unable to attend 
ExCo.  After the ExCo meeting, Wiebe talked with Lynch and he forwarded 
a copy of the draft report which indicates that the workshop was very 
successful.  This report will be circulated shortly by Cisco Werner who 
was the US host of the meeting.
     
Peter asked if there are other mini-workshops we should be organizing to 
address specific topics?  One area would be using the circulation models 
with the observed plankton fields, such as the eggs, larvae and 
zooplankton from the Broad Scale surveys.  Zooplankton egg production 
was another possible topic.   In a more formal mode, the next backward 
facing workshop will be held in Woods Hole in May - looking at the cold 
conditions in the 1960's and the effect on the local ecosystem.  If 
there are individuals in the program planning to hold discussion groups 
or mini-workshops in the near future, please let Bob Groman know about 
them.
     
6.  Data Management
     
The protocol for reporting data errors in the program data base was 
reviewed by Bob Groman.  If errors are found in the data served by the 
GLOBEC data management system, the responsible investigator should be 
notified, with a copy to the Data Management Office (i.e., Bob Groman). 
The DMO and the investigator will decide if a larger audience needs to 
be notified of changes which are made.  During the discussion of this 
topic, examples were cited where it was discovered that individuals had 
been working with data sets in which errors were found.  The individuals 
had corrected their downloaded copy of the data, but had not told either 
the responsible investigator or the DMO of their findings.  Please take 
to the time to close the loop and make sure errors that are caught are 
corrected globally.
     
7.  International GLOBEC meeting in Paris in March:
     
Dan Lynch will be giving an overview of the Georges Bank program at this 
meeting.  Also representing the U.S. GLOBEC program will be Mike Fogarty 
and Hal Batchelder.
     
Other meetings of interest are:  a Canadian GLOBEC science meeting was 
held in Vancouver, B.C. in January.  David Mountain  has been asked to 
make a presentation at CMOS in June (Dartmouth, NS) about the Georges 
Bank GLOBEC program and fisheries.  Peter Wiebe and Bob Groman have been 
asked to make a presentation at MTS in November on database management 
systems.  A workshop on Ocean Optics will be held in Hawaii in 
September, at which Scott Gallager will present optics related work in 
GLOBEC.
     
8.  Request from NE Fishery Management Council
     
A letter was received from Paul Howard, Executive Director of the NEFMC, 
asking what impact renewed scallop dredging in the Georges Bank closed 
areas would have on our research.  One area would be an increased threat 
to moorings.  Another would be comparing the occurrence of hydroids in 
the water column between open and closed areas.  Peter will get more 
information on what areas are closed to scalloping in order to respond 
fully.
     
9.  Group Participation in national/international meeting:
     
A few PI's will be attending the TOS meeting in Paris in June.  TASC 
will be having a meeting in August 1999 in Tromso and Peter Wiebe is on 
the planning committee.  ASLO Aquatic Sciences meeting will be in Santa 
Fe next February.  Karen Wishner is a co-chair and has asked if we want 
to request a special session at the meeting.  It comes in the middle of 
the 1999 field season, which would make it difficult for us to 
participate as a group.  The general consensus was that this would be 
too early and we should wait to the Ocean Sciences meeting in 2000. 
While individual investigators would be encouraged to attend the Santa 
Fe meeting, ExCo did not wish to request a special session.
     
10.  Funding Opportunities:
     
A description of the Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence theme at NSF 
was distributed.  Phil Taylor has indicated that this is an area we 
should consider exploiting.  We need to read more about this before 
deciding how to proceed.  More information is available at:
     
                http://ww.erh.nsf.gov/kdi.
                http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/1998/nsf9855/nsf9855.htm 
                http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/kn/default.htm
     
Letters of intent are due April 1, 1998, with proposals due May 8.  A 
note will be sent to GGBALL suggesting that everyone take a look and 
forward any ideas.  Gallager, Beardsley, Bisagni, Wiebe, and Lynch will 
get together to begin thinking about this.
     
11.  SWIFS data in 1999:
     
The CoastWatch Node at the NMFS lab in Narragansett asked if we would be 
interested in real-time SWIFS data next year - and if so, write a letter 
requesting it.  Jim Bisagni indicated that the legality of this is
complicated.   UMass will be processing images and could provide the 
data to individual chief scientists - provided there is a signed 
agreement not to share the data with others outside of the program.  To 
do this, we would need to request access to the data from Chuck McClain 
(NASA/GSFC).  We need to find out more about this before deciding how to 
proceed, but there was consensus that having real-time SWIFS data at sea 
during the 1999 field season (January to August) would be exceedingly 
useful for the process work.
     
12.  Proposal for Deep Tanks at WHOI
     
Scott Gallager (and collaborators) is proposing to construct deep tanks 
(10m deep, 4m wide) at WHOI for studying bio/physical interactions under 
controlled conditions.  He would be interested in short notes indicating 
interest in using such a facility.   Scott will send a note to GGBALL to 
find if any investigators have such interest.
     
The meeting was adjourned at 2:15, at which point Jim Bisagni provided 
at tour of the new CMAST facility.