Abstracts
SEARCH Open Science Meeting
October 27, 2003
Seattle, Washington, USA
Land-Shelf Interactions: An Update on Science Planning for Arctic Near-shore and Coastal Zone Research
Lee W. Cooper1
1Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, 10515 Research Drive, Suite 100, Knoxville, TN, 37932, USA, Phone 865-974-2990, Fax 865-974-7896, lcooper1@utk.edu
The Land-Shelf Interactions (LSI) science plan was developed with broad research community involvement over a three-year period with the goal of formally identifying critical research topics in Arctic coastal regions (both nearshore and onshore) that need to be addressed in order to predict and respond to environmental change that is, or will be, significantly impacting human and biological communities. This science planning effort, sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s Arctic System Science Program, has been largely completed, following a series of open workshops, on-line forums, comments on draft iterations of the science plan, and a collective editorial process that generated a “virtual” science plan that is available at http://arctic.bio.utk.edu/RAISE/index.html
Among the key research topics that have been identified as needing emphasis include such unresolved issues as the impacts of dynamic changes on Arctic coasts, including erosion, and the intermediate and ultimate fates of biogeochemical constituents provided to the coastal zone by rivers and as a result of shoreline retreat. The human dimensions of environmental change have also been recognized as having importance, including changes in subsistence gathering activities that are likely with changes in climate, sea ice regimes, and biological communities.
Within the context of SEARCH and its programmatic ties to internationally coordinated research efforts, the LSI initiative has incorporated international information sharing and coordination. LSI is an outgrowth of the Russian-American Initiative for Land-Shelf Environments (RAISE) research framework, which is the only binational science program jointly supported by both the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. Information about the potential research topics that could be supported through LSI and linked to internationally coordinated efforts have also been shared with research programs such as Land-Ocean Interactions in the Russian Arctic (LOIRA) and Arctic Coastal Dynamics (ACD), as well as international coordinating groups such as the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) through its International Science Initiative in the Russian Arctic (ISIRA) and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) through its Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOCIZ) program.
Following presentations at ARCSS Committee meetings in October 2002, and March 2003, the LSI science priorities are being formally considered as components of a new science announcement of opportunity that is expected to be recommended to the Office of Polar Programs at NSF by the ARCSS Committee.
Abstract Categories: Coastal Processes
Back to main abstract page
To view the list of records returned in your search you can use your browser's
back button, or perform the same search again:
| 