NEWS YORK TIMES: Mysterious New Diseases Devastate Coral
prtaylor at nsf.gov
prtaylor at nsf.gov
Fri Aug 22 10:39:34 EDT 1997
22 August 1997
FYI,
Thanks go to Roger Griffis over at NOAA for distributing the NY Times
piece (by Carol Yoon) on coral disease in the western tropical
Atlantic Ocean. This important article has been, no doubt, widely
read. It will hopefully bring further attention to ecological
problems in the world's coral reefs, as well as the difficulty of
studying the etiology of diseases in natural marine ecosystems.
One piece of untruth in the article is particularly troublesome. It
is found in the following quote:
"We've tried getting money from the National Science
Foundation," said Dr. Goreau. "You send a proposal and
wait a year or two for the review. You can't deal with
this kind of emergency science that way."
I won't debate why any of Dr. Goreau's attempts to secure funding for
basic research related to the biology/ecology of coral diseases were
not successful. I will simply point out that the U.S. National
Science Foundation is indeed fully capable of making very rapid awards
to respond to time-dependent opportunities for scientific discovery.
Commitments are sometimes made on time-scales of less than a week
after complete internal review of the proposal science.
As a very appropriate example, Dr. Drew Harvell (Cornell University)
received last year a rapid-response award from the Division of Ocean
Sciences, NSF for studying disease in tropical Atlantic gorgonians and
has just received supplemental, rapid-response support for additional
studies. At the same time, Dr. Harvell is attempting to secure
longer-term funding via peer-reviewed science proposals to the NSF and
perhaps other funding agencies. Dr. Harvell was one of the
scientists interviewed for Ms. Yoon's article.
Another example relevant to the ecology of reefs and their responses
to perturbations comes with agreement earlier this year to support Dr.
Gerard Wellington's (University of Houston) request for rapid-response
funding. Dr. Wellington, who is supported by the NSF for other
studies on reef ecology, will use the rapid-response funding to look
at the impact of the coming ENSO (El Nino-Southern Oscillation) on the
population ecology of reef fishes in the Galapagos and to compare the
impact of this ENSO to the intense one experienced in the 1982-83 time
frame. Some current predictions suggest that the coming ENSO will be
even more intense than that of 1982-83.
And again, last year Dr. Deborah Brosnan (Sustainable Ecosystems
Institute) received a rapid-response award from the NSF for studying
the response of coral reef ecosystems to the volcanic eruptions on
Montserrat.
By three examples of very many, this should show that the U.S.
National Science Foundation is very capable of responding to
time-dependent scientific research opportunities. And it welcomes and
supports such requests routinely. Brief proposals showing high
scientific merit -- an important problem, an appropriate scientific
approach that will likely yield rigorous results, investigators with
evidence of strong scientific credentials and experience - do yield
success. And these successful exploratory efforts are often followed
with additional support of proposals that have entered the usual,
4-to-6-month, full peer-review process.
Respectfully
Phil Taylor
*********************************
Phillip Taylor, Director
Biological Oceanography Program
Division of Ocean Sciences
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Blvd. Suite 725
Arlington, VA 22230
prtaylor at nsf.gov
phone 703-306-1587 fax 306-0390
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