The National Science Foundation (NSF), with the National Aeronautics and Space, Administration (NASA), continues to support the planning and implementation of the U.S. Global Ocean Flux Study (GOFS). GOFS is expected to be fully implemented during the 1990s.The purpose of GOFS is to identify and quantify the physical, chemical, and biological processes controlling biogeochemical cycling in the ocean, and their interactions with the global atmosphere. The goal is to understand the processes governing the production and fate of biogenic materials in the sea well enough to predict their influences on and responses to perturbations on a global scale. The Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), the planned international initiative under the auspices of the Scientific Committee on Ocean Research (SCOR), is a key element of the International Geosphere‐Biosphere Program (IGBP).