Narrative

The meeting began with Cabell Davis welcoming the group, presenting meeting logistics and goals, and reviewing/summarizing program interconnections.

Welcome, logistics and program overview.

Davis reviewed the meeting agenda. The meeting began at 09:00 with introductory comments by Davis followed by individual project talks from 09:15-12:30, including a coffee break from 10:30-11:00. Following lunch from 12:30-13:30, free time was allocated from 13:30-15:00 to allow for intra- and inter-project interactions and discussions. From 15:00-17:00, the PIs discussed the nature and potential content of a US GLOBEC Northwest Atlantic (NWA) synthesis volume. The meeting adjourned at 17:00.

In his overview, Davis presented the meeting goals and briefly reviewed the overall US GLOBEC NWA program goal and major findings of the field program. He reviewed the interconnections between the different Phase 4B projects. He gave a quick synopsis of the program goal: "To understand the processes controlling recruitment of cod and haddock and their dominant prey species", and showed the stock-recruitment and biomass-at-age data for Georges Bank haddock. He pointed out that our ultimate objective is to provide insights into the causes of good and bad year classes. He then reviewed the US GLOBEC broadscale station results, including the increase in copepod abundance from 1995-1999, the low-salinity anomaly and its association with earlier spring phytoplankton blooms, and the enhanced growth and survival of cod and haddock larvae. The source of the low-salinity water from the Labrador Sea and possible Arctic origin was reviewed.

Individual Project Talks

Following this introduction and program overview, the individual project talks began. Six talks from four projects were presented during the morning session. (The Greene et al. project was not represented at the meeting, but Pershing emailed a project briefing to Davis prior to the meeting.)

Davis presented an introduction of the NPZD-copepod species FVCOM-modeling project, Modeling 3D Copepod Distributions on Georges Bank During 1995 and 1999.

Following this overview, Rubao Ji presented the latest results of the copepod modeling work, An Update on Bio-Physical Coupled Modeling Study for U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank Phase 4B.

Bob Beardsley presented the latest FVCOM physical modeling results via teleconference, Progress Report of the Gulf of maine Integrated Model System.

Dave Townsend presented results on nutrient analysis for the Gulf of Maine region, Nutrient Dynamics in the Georges Bank -- Gulf of maine Region.

Trond Kristiansen then presented larval fish modeling results for the Werner et al. project, Factors Determining Growth and Survival in Early Live Stages of North Atlantic Cod: A Comparitive Study Between the NW Atlantic and Norwegian Sea Echosystems .

Catherine Johnson reviewed progress in the Runge et al. Calanus diapause study, Characteristics of Calanus finmarchicus Dormancy Patterns in the Northwest Atlantic .

Avijit Gangopadhyay summarized progress on their basin-scale Calanus study, Update on Basin-Scale Modeling and IBM .

Copies of the PowerPoint presentations are available via the abstract pages of this report.

Meeting Summary

The Phase 4B meeting successfully accomplished its goals. Each group gave clear presentations of their project goals and progress. The interactions between groups were useful including transfer of modeling techniques and tools between the Davis et al. copepod model and the Runge et al. diapause model. Linkages were established between the modeling work in the Werner, Davis, and Gangopadhyay projects. The results from these studies will contribute to a broad understanding of the effects of local and remote forcing on ecosystem and population dynamics of the target species. While the focus of the phase 4B research is primarily on scientific questions, this research is being done with consideration for transitioning results and models to operational tools useful to management. The discussion of the synthesis volume also was useful and it was decided that rather than prepare a book, which will have small readership, a special volume of a journal such as Progress in Oceanography with electronic presence would be the best venue. Electronic format has wide web presence and allows presentation of animations and a better forum for outreach interactions.


Last modified: November 5, 2007