US GLOBEC Georges Bank ExCo Meeting
February 11, 2004
University of Rhode Island

Attendees: Ted Durbin, Charlie Flagg, Peter Wiebe, Greg Lough, David Mountain, Jeff Runge, and Robert Groman. Dian Gifford joined the group for the discussion of the AO. David Townsend, Jamie Pringle, and Bob Beardsley were unable to attend.

Peter reviewed the agenda:

  1. Revisions to the draft AO for Phase IV, part 2
  2. Plans for the PI meeting in June
  3. Preparations for the next volume of papers

    4. He also added the following:

  4. Program highlights to give Cisco Werner for a talk he will give to IGBP

No other items were raised. Peter provided a handout with various documents for different agenda items.

1. Revisions to the AO for Phase IV, part 2.

A version of the AO had been presented to the SSC last fall. The SSC was critical of the draft and made suggestions for its revision - mainly that it should be looking beyond Georges Bank itself and make a link to other areas on a broader basis. Zack Powell sent a detailed set of comments and recommendations.

The AO may be the final NW Atlantic AO, but it will not be the final AO for GLOBEC since the west coast programs are just beginning their synthesis. Some link to the other GLOBEC programs (west coast and Antarctic) likely should be included. Also, connection to the various European programs would be desirable, although no support could be anticipated for non-US investigators.

Considerable discussion took place comparing the original AO draft with the suggestions by Powell. The AO had three major areas:

  1. Physical/biological modeling
  2. Upstream and broader scale effects influenced by climate change
  3. Development of indices to characterize environmental and ecosystem status and change

Zack suggested better links to international programs, integration among the 3 US GLOBEC programs, physical/biological modeling on basin to local scales, a book summarizing the program findings and looking at the relation of the results to ecosystem management needs. The group felt that a book would be premature for the current AO, but should be an ultimate goal for the program. The physical/biological modeling section could more specifically identify local and basin-scale/regional modeling. The second section could more explicitly identify the importance of tying the modeling to basin-scale forcing. A 4th section could be added to specifically identify integration/comparisons between the US GLOBEC programs.

The group split into teams to revise sections of the original AO. Peter will integrate these into a rewrite of the AO and send it to the ExCo members and the Chair of the SSC (Dale Haidvogel) for review in the next few weeks.

2. June Science Meeting

The choices for location of the June were Whispering Pines (URI), the Appalachian Mountain Club facility in New Hampshire and Salve Regina University in Newport, RI. It was unanimously agreed to hold the June meeting at Salve Regina University from June 21-25.

3. Program Highlights for Cisco Werner

A somewhat stream-of-consciousness list of possible highlights was developed and discussed. Among the topics were:

Importance of SS crossovers
Wind influence on
Cod and haddock egg mortality
Early primary production in 1998 (Ji's result?)
High zooplankton that year?
 Tropho-dynamic model capable of reflecting cod observed growth rates
Diatom resurgence in June due to remineralization of silicate
Calanus in the GoM having an atypical life cycle compared to other Calanus populations
Documentation of set-up of the seasonal closure of the GB gyre (and a whole lot more)

Peter will provide Cisco with a few of these for his talk.

4. The Next Collection of Manuscripts

DSR II has expressed interest in publishing another GLOBEC special volume. A list of over 60 possible manuscripts had been put together from input at/after the PI meeting last November. It was decided that manuscripts would be due this coming September. The committee members felt that Peter and Bob Beardsley should be guest editors and they should ask additional persons whom they feel would help make a balanced editorship team.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:45.

Contributed by D. Mountain, February 17, 2004