ExCO Meeting July 1, 1998

The meeting was held at the Pell Library at the University of Rhode Island. Attending were: P. Wiebe, L. Madin, R. Beardsley, D. Mountain, K. Wishner, T. Durbin, J. Bisagni. D. Busch also attended.

Peter reviewed the agenda:

Plan a meeting of Phase III investigators, as requested by the Program Managers;
Continue planning for the Data Workshop in September.

No other items were tabled for the agenda.

1. Phase III Meeting:

A list of potential Phase III PI's and proposal titles, supplied by the program managers, was distributed. Phil Taylor indicated that the list is not a definitive list, nor are the budgets that have been discussed with the PI's. The list was reviewed and broken out by theme: northeast peak dynamics/crossover, southern flank tidal mixing front, modeling, broad scale. (In some cases, the titles given below have been abbreviated.)

Process -

NE Peak:
- Beardsley and Limeburner - Frontal exchange over eastern GB
- Townsend et al. - Origins of cod on Georges Bank: contributions from the Scotian shelf
- (also some proposals listed under Southern Flank which will address both regions)
Southern Flank:
- Bucklin and McGillicuddy - Maintenance of Psuedoclananus populations
- Gifford, Belkin, Sieraki - Cross-frontal processes and Calanus diet
- Hebert and Barth - Cross-frontal fluxes and mixing
- Wishner - Cross-frontal exchange of zooplankton
- (the Gifford/Hebert/Wishner proposals are integrated - and may be both NE Peak and southern flank)
- Houghton - Cross frontal exchange dye study (both NE Peak & s. flank)
- Ledwell, Churchill - Cross frontal exchange (by dye and drifters)
- Lough, et al. - Tidal front entrainment of larval fish
- Madin et al. - Predation: role of tidal processes and small Predator species (includes broad-scale, lab and mesocosm work; field work at both southern flank and NE peak)
- Ohman, Durbin, Runge - Frontal processes and copepod population dynamics (includes broad scale survey sampling and NE peak)
- Schlitz, Chen, Lough - Phy/bio processes at the tidally mixed front
General:
- Bisagni - Satellite estimates of mixing

Modelling -

Franks and Chen - Modeling plankton and fish in the tidal-mixing front
Lynch et al. - Real-time data assimilation
Werner and Runge - Productivity of Calanus and fluctuations in larval growth and survival

Broad Scale -

Brink, Irish, Beardsley, Limeburner - Long term moorings/drifters
Durbin - Zooplankton distribution and abundance
Fairbanks and Houghton - Modes of circulation/mixing from oxygen isotopes
Miller - Growth and development of Calanus
Mountain et al. - Broad scale ichthyoplankton, hydrography and nutrient studies
Wiebe - Broad-scale acoustic patterns of zooplankton and nekton

Programmatic -

Wiebe and Groman - Program services and data management

One of the questions that needs to be answered at the PI meeting is "What components are not being funded that other PI's are depending on?" Another question is "What science that will be important to the program as a whole is not being funded?" In discussion, one potential missing component was identified as VPR-type sampling to rapidly measure zooplankton for estimating cross frontal exchange. This sampling might augment one of the currently identified frontal studies. A second was zooplankton conditions in the Gulf of Maine that are important to the development of the Georges Bank populations.

Indications from the program managers are that the tentative budgets currently on the table are about $1.1 million over what the program has available. They want to have PI input before making final decisions. One approach mentioned to dealing with a short fall in the first year would be postponing the field work a year. EXCO didn't feel that the postponing was a viable approach. A second approach would be to eliminate a component of the program - e.g., the north east peak work. A third would be for the budget of each funded proposal to be further reduced.

The PI Meeting may want to focus discussion on the different regional experiments - e.g., the southern flank studies and the NE peak studies. More information about the specifics of the shortfall (how much, which years) may be needed from the program managers before the PI meeting could explore all of the options to solve the short fall. In addition to the budgeting issue, the meeting will be the first time that the different PI's will be able to hear and see what the other PI's in the program are planning. This will be important to final planning of the ship scheduling.

2. Data Workshop:

It was decided to postpone further planning of the data workshop until the next meeting.

3. Additional Topic:

Ted Durbin raised the issue of continuing using the MOC-10 on broad scale survey cruises. His feeling is that the catches are so low that the samples don't warrant the time and effort required to collect them. Comparisons are being made between the catches of the MOC-1 vs the MOC-10 could indicate if the MOC-1 is as efficient as the MOC-10 for different species. The issue will be revisited when these comparisons are available - perhaps at the data workshop.

The meeting adjourned at 1 PM.

Last modified: July 6, 1996