NEPIP - Introduction

## Introduction

This implementation plan was developed by U.S. Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (U.S. GLOBEC) to guide proposals intended to address how marine populations of the eastern Pacific, esp. the California Current and coastal Gulf of Alaska ecosystems, respond to climate variability and climate change. This document provides more specifics about the scientific research U.S. GLOBEC seeks to conduct in the eastern Pacific. It is based on earlier U.S. GLOBEC documents resulting from several community-wide meetings that provided forums where U.S. scientists from the oceanographic and fisheries communities could help specify the key scientific issues and develop U.S. GLOBEC research programs in the eastern Pacific. Following the initial large meetings for the California Current System (Sept. 1991 - Bodega Bay) and North Pacific (April 1995 - Seattle), many more additional scientific questions arose in both the North Pacific and California Current Ecosystems than U.S. GLOBEC could potentially investigate. Subsequent to each of the larger meetings, the program supported several smaller meetings, bringing key scientists together, to provide a clearer focus and priorities for a Northeast Pacific scientific program. Prior reports of the U.S. Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (U.S. GLOBEC) research program describe the physical and biological oceanography, and list the central questions and goals for U.S. GLOBEC studies in these regions. For the California Current System, these are U.S. GLOBEC Report No. 7 (Report of the first California Current GLOBEC Workshop held at Bodega Bay in September 1991) and U.S. GLOBEC Report No. 11 (California Current Science Plan). For the coastal Gulf of Alaska, the relevant reports are U.S. GLOBEC Report No. 15 on Climate Change and Carrying Capacity of the North Pacific Ecosystem (U.S. GLOBEC, 1996a) and U.S. GLOBEC Report No. 16 titled Climate Change and Carrying Capacity (CCCC) Science Plan (U.S. GLOBEC, 1996b). Copies of these documents are available from:
US GLOBEC Scientific Steering Committee Coordinating Office
UMCES / Chesapeake Biological Laboratory
P.O. Box 38 / One Williams Street
Solomons, MD 20688 (USA) Tel: (410) 326-7370
Fax: (410) 326-7341
E-mail: Linda Lagle

Additional copies of this report may be obtained from the above address or via the world wide web from the U.S. GLOBEC homepage.