Oceanography Challenges To Future Earth

This book documents the effects of natural hazards on coastal ecosystems in detail. The sea is an indispensable component of the Earth system, and human societies obtain many goods and services from the marine environment. Global warming threatens marine ecosystems through seawater temperature rise, acidification, sea-level rise and the increased frequency of severe storms. The repeated effects of tsunamis also have major impacts on coastal ecosystems. Increases in population and industry activities along the coast cause the degradation of coastal ecosystems through direct and indirect uses of the environment such as reclamation, overexploitation of bioresources, and pollution. Given these facts, we need to improve our understanding of the physical, chemical and biological mechanisms characterizing marine ecosystems, in order to better measure the effects of anthropogenic and natural impacts on the sea and its ecosystems. Equipped with a comprehensive understanding of the sea, including the effects of the main pressures on it, we will have a better idea of the future state of the sea based on several scenarios of global warming. The 16th France-Japan Symposium on Marine Science focused on using advances in oceanography to better understand the current status of the sea from physical, chemical, biological and ecological perspectives, including fishery sciences and integrated approaches.

This book documents the effects of natural hazards on coastal ecosystems in detail. The sea is an indispensable component of the Earth system, and human societies obtain many goods and services from the marine environment. Global warming threatens marine ecosystems through seawater temperature rise, acidification, sea-level rise and the increased frequency of severe storms. The repeated effects of tsunamis also have major impacts on coastal ecosystems. Increases in population and industry activities along the coast cause the degradation of coastal ecosystems through direct and indirect uses of the environment such as reclamation, overexploitation of bioresources, and pollution. Given these facts, we need to improve our understanding of the physical, chemical and biological mechanisms characterizing marine ecosystems, in order to better measure the effects of anthropogenic and natural impacts on the sea and its ecosystems. Equipped with a comprehensive understanding of the sea, including the effects of the main pressures on it, we will have a better idea of the future state of the sea based on several scenarios of global warming. The 16th France-Japan Symposium on Marine Science focused on using advances in oceanography to better understand the current status of the sea from physical, chemical, biological and ecological perspectives, including fishery sciences and integrated approaches.

Oceanography has moved into the spotlight of urgent social concern, because of the oceans' impact on issues such as global climate change, biodiversity, and even national security. This new volume points to improved partnerships between ocean scientists, federal agencies, and the oceanographic institutions as the key to understanding the oceans and their effects on our lives. Oceanography in the Next Decade outlines pressing marine research problems and offers recommendations for how they may be solved, with detailed discussions of: How oceanographic research is currently conducted. Recent discoveries and research needs in four subdisciplinesâ€"physical, chemical, geological, and biological. Coastal oceanography, which is important because of growing coastal populations. The infrastructure of oceanography, with a wealth of information about human, equipment, and financial resources. A blueprint for more productive partnerships between academic oceanographers and federal agencies. This comprehensive look at challenges and opportunities in oceanography will be important to researchers, faculty, and students in the field as well as federal policymakers, research administrators, and environmental professionals.

The ocean is an integral component of the Earth's climate system. It covers about 70% of the Earth's surface and acts as its primary reservoir of heat and carbon, absorbing over 90% of the surplus heat and about 30% of the carbon dioxide associated with human activities, and receiving close to 100% of fresh water lost from land ice. With the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, notably carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion, the Earth's climate is now changing more rapidly than at any time since the advent of human societies. Society will increasingly face complex decisions about how to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change such as droughts, sea-level rise, ocean acidification, species loss, changes to growing seasons, and stronger and possibly more frequent storms. Observations play a foundational role in documenting the state and variability of components of the climate system and facilitating climate prediction and scenario development. Regular and consistent collection of ocean observations over decades to centuries would monitor the Earth's main reservoirs of heat, carbon dioxide, and water and provides a critical record of long-term change and variability over multiple time scales. Sustained high-quality observations are also needed to test and improve climate models, which provide insights into the future climate system. Sustaining Ocean Observations to Understand Future Changes in Earth's Climate considers processes for identifying priority ocean observations that will improve understanding of the Earth's climate processes, and the challenges associated with sustaining these observations over long timeframes.

On January 8 and 9, 2009, the Ocean Studies Board of the National Research Council, in response to a request from the Office of Naval Research, hosted the "Oceanography in 2025" workshop. The goal of the workshop was to bring together scientists, engineers, and technologists to explore future directions in oceanography, with an emphasis on physical processes. The focus centered on research and technology needs, trends, and barriers that may impact the field of oceanography over the next 16 years, and highlighted specific areas of interest: submesoscale processes, air-sea interactions, basic and applied research, instrumentation and vehicles, ocean infrastructure, and education. To guide the white papers and drive discussions, four questions were posed to participants: What research questions could be answered? What will remain unanswered? What new technologies could be developed? How will research be conducted?

This book describes the development of ocean sciences over the past 50 years, highlighting the contributions of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to the field's progress. Many of the individuals who participated in the exciting discoveries in biological oceanography, chemical oceanography, physical oceanography, and marine geology and geophysics describe in the book how the discoveries were made possible by combinations of insightful individuals, new technology, and in some cases, serendipity. In addition to describing the advance of ocean science, the book examines the institutional structures and technology that made the advances possible and presents visions of the field's future. This book is the first-ever documentation of the history of NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences, how the structure of the division evolved to its present form, and the individuals who have been responsible for ocean sciences at NSF as "rotators" and career staff over the past 50 years.

This volume is one of the most significant results of the conference Science-Technology Synergy for Research in Marine Environment: Challenges for the XXI Century held in Erice and Ustica, Italy, September 1999. It presents state of the art developments in technology and scientific research in sea floor observatories. Scientific conclusions of earth science and environmental studies obtained from these observatories as well as results from long term monitoring are provided. Descriptions of new technologies enabling deep sea long term observatories are offered and marine environment and risk assessment issues are discussed.This is the first work detailing recent and on going experiments world wide specifically devoted to deep sea multi disciplinary observation systems, the technology enabling sea floor observatories, and the presentation of first results from these systems.

Ocean science connects a global community of scientists in many disciplines - physics, chemistry, biology, geology and geophysics. New observational and computational technologies are transforming the ability of scientists to study the global ocean with a more integrated and dynamic approach. This enhanced understanding of the ocean is becoming ever more important in an economically and geopolitically connected world, and contributes vital information to policy and decision makers charged with addressing societal interests in the ocean. Science provides the knowledge necessary to realize the benefits and manage the risks of the ocean. Comprehensive understanding of the global ocean is fundamental to forecasting and managing risks from severe storms, adapting to the impacts of climate change, and managing ocean resources. In the United States, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is the primary funder of the basic research which underlies advances in our understanding of the ocean. Sea Change addresses the strategic investments necessary at NSF to ensure a robust ocean scientific enterprise over the next decade. This survey provides guidance from the ocean sciences community on research and facilities priorities for the coming decade and makes recommendations for funding priorities.