Studying Ecosystems at the Interface of Land and Sea
For decades coastal ecosystems have been pervasively and substantially altered, principally by human activities in watersheds. Until recently, research in these systems seemed to fall through the cracks between the pure terrestrial and ‘blue water’ oceanography.
Under the Land Margin Ecosystems Research (LMER) program funded through the Biotic Systems and Resources and the Ocean Sciences divisions of the National Science Foundation (NSF), research on ecosystems at the land-sea interface has begun at four sites which are widely distributed geographically and which, although they encompass different land-margin environments, take the unifying approach of examining dynamics of ecosystem processes on different time scales (i.e., seasonal versus interannual with nutrient cycling and hydroperiods with turbidity maximum dynamics).
The sites range from the large estuaries of Chesapeake Bay in the Mid-Atlantic states, and the Columbia River, whose watershed extends into several Pacific Northwest states and British Columbia, to Tomales Bay, an intermediate-sized bay in a relatively dry agricultural California watershed, and Waquoit Bay, a small shallow lagoon in a forested and urbanized watershed in New England.
The first two rounds of proposals, which grew out of a 1987 workshop held at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, emphasized the incorporation of novel technologies, a strong modeling component to synthesize and coordinate research, and a clearly defined scientific and administrative coordination.
A third round of proposals will be considered this year.
All LMER investigators encourage cooperative research proposals by external investigators; with prior arrangements, some logistical support, vessel time, and access to laboratory and housing facilities can be provided.