GLOBEC Canada 1996-2000: a sampler

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that the ocean’s physical environment and its resident biological communities are changing in ways and at time scales that have important consequences for ocean and terrestrial ecosystems and for society. The Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics research program (GLOBEC) is an international effort to document and understand these changes, with a specific focus on how marine ecosystems respond to climate variability (both natural and anthropogenic). A Canadian national component of GLOBEC began in 1996, funded jointly by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO, 1996 to the present) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Research Partnerships program (through March 2000). The program brought together a large number of marine scientists (45) and students and postdoctoral fellows (35) affiliated with both universities (seven) and DFO laboratories (five). The accompanying set of eight papers is a representative cross section of results from GLOBEC Canada. All were initially presented at our final Phase I workshop (May 1999 in Halifax, N.S.). Additional clusters of publications appeared in two previous issues of the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (56: 2420–2486 and 57: 2488–2546) and individually in a variety of journals (see complete publications list at the GLOBEC Canada Web site ). GLOBEC Canada investigators also contributed to dedicated issues of Fisheries Oceanography and Deep-Sea Research II (cf. Eckman 1994; Wiebe and Beardsley 1996; Coombs et al. 1998; Wiebe et al. 2001) sponsored by GLOBEC International and U.S. GLOBEC. This brief introduction is provided to emphasize the shared themes and approaches that have characterized GLOBEC Canada research. A key motivation for GLOBEC research was a realization, growing within the oceanographic community over the past two decades, that biological “output” variables often covary strongly and for prolonged periods with variables that affect and reflect the physical dynamics of the ocean (for examples, see deYoung et al. 1994). These time series correlations suggest a close association between marine populations and “ocean climate.” Yet, correlative associations also have a disturbing tendency to break down part way through long time series. We need to recognize where, when, and why present and future changes will occur, and ideally, we would like to develop an advance predictive capability. To accomplish this, we need (i) cross-disciplinary collaboration between biologists and physicists to resolve the relative importance of the various paths and circumstances (Fig. 1) under which the physical environmental can affect plankton and fish populations, (ii) a continuing interplay and cross-referencing among three scientific approaches: retrospective analysis of long time series, focussed process studies, and numerical modelling, and (iii) comparisons among different species and regions. Because of the long term nature of some of the changes and interactions, even multiyear bivariate time series at single locations are insufficient to document the full range of system behaviour or to provide sufficient statistical power for tests of associations. The papers in this issue, and those published earlier and elsewhere, provide examples of these synergies.