COASTAL OCEAN AND NEAR-SHORE PROCESSES Sample Clauses

COASTAL OCEAN AND NEAR-SHORE PROCESSES. The coastal ocean is a critical region from several perspectives. It is energetic, with the wind, waves, and currents giving rise to coastal and estuarine transports of sediments, nutrients, contaminants, and species. Air-sea exchanges and aerosol production are enhanced by the waves. At the same time, it is where much of man's impact on the ocean as well as man's inter- action with the ocean occurs. We have created dumpsites and introduced contaminants into the coastal ocean, but this is where we also fish and work toward establishing aquaculture. Research under CICOR on the coastal ocean and near-shore processes is extremely broad, including scientific research on fundamental processes of biology, physical oceanography and sediment and sand transport, as well as the effects of contaminants and the changing environ- ment upon the ecosystems and the habitats for marine mammals, fish and humans. In areas where there is a sufficient understanding of the physical processes to make meaningful predic- tions of the response to changes in atmospheric forcing, it may now be possible to develop pre- dictive models for the occurrence of Harmful Xxxxx Xxxxxx, the response of the Georges Bank fisheries and other similar phenomena. The common theme in all of this research is that finding the solution to problems requires the bringing together of basic understanding of processes in several fields—an interdisciplinary effort. The development of a predictive capability requires a sustained effort to make meaningful observations of phenomena on scales comparable to the physical variability, and incorporation of the critical data into models. Making these observa- tions on appropriate spatial and temporal scales requires new technology, so there is a substantial focus on developing and exploiting acoustic technology, as well as recent advances in chemical and biological sensors. One research area that illustrates the breadth of the Coastal and Near-shore research theme is Aquaculture. Aquaculture studies have played a large role in the WHOI Biology Department. Our principal facility for work of this type, the Environmental Systems Laboratory (ESL), was conceived and built as a unique, large-scale marine research laboratory by Xx. Xxxx Xxxxxx in 1970. Under Xxxxxx’x direction, the laboratory saw about 12 years of large scale basic research on phytoplankton and macroalgae physiology, nutrient dynamics, and trophic energy transfer through marine food chains. Large ponds were u...