First Georges Bank Phase IV Synthesis Meeting
Narrative
The meeting started at 1000 on 11 July 2002 in Smith conference room at
the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. After opening remarks by Peter
Wiebe and Bob Beardsley, the rest of the morning and early afternoon
were devoted to talks by the lead PI's for each of the projects. An open
discussion ensued during the latter half of the afternoon covering a
variety of topics including what do people need from other funded
groups, what's missing from the synthesis effort, and what NSF/NOAA
might have in mind for next call for proposals on modeling. Also
discussed were what topics should be the focus of special working
sessions scheduled for the morning's sessions.
Widely recognized as essential was the development of a chronology of
physical and biological events that took place during the GLOBEC field
years. This chronology has already been started as part of working group
sessions held in 2000 and will be completed during the first year of the
synthesis effort. The gridding of data sets was also the subject of
considerable discussion, in particular the need for a common set of grid
points and possibly a common gridding methodology. A group ( D.
McGillicuddy, J. Quinlan, T. Durbin, J. Bisagni, and D. Mountain) was
formed to come up with a plan for how to do this by the
Broad-scale workshop in late October. Time Series products for Georges
Bank that rely on gridded data include data sets of zooplankton species
and biomass, temperature, salinity, nutrients, chlorlophyll, POC/DON,
ADCP currents, acoustic backscatter (several sources), and the position
of fronts. For the ADCP currents there is an issue of the synoptic
time-scale for Bank wide currents and whether it is even possible to
create accurate maps given the temporal variability that occurred in the
current field within the measurement period of an individual cruise.
Two items were specifically addressed as "missing" from the synthesis
effort that would likely be needed. The absence from the synthesis of
larval fish process work and the development of a more realistic
metabolic models for larval fish could significantly affect the
trophodynamic modeling of the target fish species. Similarly, the
absence of cross-frontal zooplankton studies with MOCNESS, VPR, and
SeaSoar were considered liabilities.
The second day of the meeting (12 July) was held in the conference room
at the National Marine Fisheries Service Aquarium in Woods Hole. There
was first an open discussion to outline a proposed plan of workshops and
meetings followed by two working group sessions. The first working group
session involved almost all of the investigators and again focused on
sharing information about how each of the projects intended to carry out
there synthesis plans. During the second session, the zooplankton
modeling group met separately to coordinate their internal activities
while general discussions amongst the other groups continued.
In developing a time line, discussions focused the occurrence of
individual project workshops to be held early in Phase IV year one and a
larger jointly held data workshop to be held in the latter half of year
one. After considerable discussion about the nature of "Phase IV
Symposia" that were described in the proposal coordination document
prepared by the Georges Bank Executive Committee for use in Phase IV
proposals, the term was dropped. Instead the first yearly meeting would
be used as a follow-up to GLOBEC Georges Bank data workshops to see how
work promulgated there had progressed and to work on synthesis volume
publications. Several National and International Meetings (listed
below) were targeted as especially important forums in which Phase IV
investigators should be encouraged to present the synthesis results.
Time Line for Phase IV Workshops/Meetings and Relevant Scientific
Meetings
2002 |
October 15-18 | International GLOBEC open meeting in China. |
October 28-? | Broad-scale Workshop back to back with a PO Modeling
Workshop. |
November 15 | Abstracts Due for the Third International Zooplankton
Productivity Symposium |
2003 |
January 7-10 | IGBP Post JGOFS/GLOBEC planning meeting in Paris. |
February | ASLO Aquatic Science Meeting |
March | Phase IV Data Workshop - 3.5 days
|
May 20-23 | Third International Zooplankton Productivity Symposium. |
July | Second Joint Phase IV meeting. |
2004 |
February | AGU/ASLO Ocean Science Meeting. |
July | U.S. GLOBEC Symposium (this would be a symposium organized by the
National Office for all of the investigators in the U.S. Program -
Georges Bank, Northeast Pacific, and Southern Ocean). |
Before closing, the subject of a Phase IV Executive Committee was
discussed. During each previous phase of the program, a committee was
formed by nomination of a slate of candidates and an election of the top
8 to 10 candidates. For this phase, given that only five science
projects existed, it was decided that each project, at their discretion,
should elect one or two individuals to the Executive Committee, a
process that has been initiated.
The meeting ended around 1300 on 12 July.
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