Ocean Sciences 2002

[Jennifer E Smith]

Appologies for any cross postings.

Friends and Colleagues,

This is just a friendly reminder to let you all know that the deadline for
abstract submission for the ASLO/AGU Ocean Sciences 2002 meeting in
Honolulu, HI this Feb. is about a week away. All abstracts must be
submitted electronically by Nov 8, at 1:00 eastern time.

John Runcie and myself would like to encourage anyone conducting
innovative  research on nutrient dynamics in coastal ecosystems (physical
or biological processes) to submit abstracts to the following session
(abstract follows):

OS42 Nutrient Dynamics in Coastal Ecosystems: Linking Physical and
Biological Processes

More information can be obtained at the following site:
http://www.agu.org/meetings/os02top.html

Student travel awards are available through AGU-see web page for more
details.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact John or myself.



Abstract OS42:
Understanding the relative importance of natural and human-induced
elevated-nutrient events on coastal ecosystems is an important global
issue. As yet there are few clear answers. Considerable progress has been
made in our understanding of the hydrology of coastal waters, the ecology
of the organisms living in these waters and their physiology; and nutrient
dynamics have been an important component in many of these studies. Yet,
of these studies, few cross the traditional lines of discipline. In
temperate regions, upwelling and large scale physical processes have long
been shown to deliver substantial levels of nutrients to coastal
ecosytems, thereby supporting high biomass communities such as kelp
forests. In contrast, tropical marine communities are generally considered
to be nutrient limited where they exist on tightly recycled and newly
generated nutrients. However, recent research has shown that not all
tropical areas conform to this paradigm. The effects of localized and
large scale physical processes on tropical benthic or pelagic communities
remains largely unstudied. Anthropogenic nutrient imputs in both temperate
and tropical regions have often been suggested as the primary cause of
large scale phase shifts in benthic marine communities. The precise role
of nutrients in these ecosystem-wide changes remains largely debated. This
session is intended to be a forum where researchers from a variety of
disciplines present their views of how
best we can understand the real influence of elevated nutrients on coastal
ecosystems. An integral part of the session is to open the floor for
discussion in the form of open questions for any of the speakers in the
session. We hope to break down some of the barriers between researchers
traditionally working in separate fields.
Conveners: John Runcie, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, P.O. Box 1346,
Kaneohe, HI 96744 USA, Tel: (808) 236 7477, Fax: (808) 236 7443, email:
runcie at hawaii.edu, and Jennifer Smith, University of Hawaii Manoa, 3190
Maile Way, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA, Tel: (808) 956-3943, email:
jesmith at hawaii.edu

********************************************************************
Jennifer E. Smith
Graduate Research Assistant
Botany Department
University of Hawaii Manoa
3190 Maile Way
Honolulu HI 96822

office (808)956-3944
email: jesmith at hawaii.edu
http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/GradStud/smith/JENHOME.htm
*********************************************************************



~~~~~~~
For directions on subscribing and unsubscribing to coral-list or the
digests, please visit www.coral.noaa.gov, click on Popular on the
menu bar, then click on Coral-List Listserver.