Experimental Program

The experimental program will have three components; broad-scale studies, smaller-scale process studies and modeling. Each component will address specific hypotheses, but should be designed so that the information from each component will assist the interpretation of data from the other components.

The broad-scale studies will involve both bank-wide surveys and moored instrumentation. The broad-scale surveys will identify changes in the abundance of populations between survey periods and document the spatial extent of biological and physical conditions monitored on a finer temporal scale by moored instruments. The surveys also will provide the link between satellite imagery and the sub-surface oceanography. Mechanistic explanations for the biological and physical changes occuring on a bank-wide basis must come from interpretation of complementing biological and physical process studies. These interpretations will be supported by the development and use of models. The broad-scale information will guide the placement and allocation of effort in the smaller-scale process studies and will be needed a posteriori to interpret the relative influence of the various processes on the population as a whole.