The Biodiversity Ad Hoc Group, of the Joint Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology’s (JSOST) Interagency Working Group on Ocean Partnerships (IWG-OP), hosted a workshop on Attaining Operational Marine Biodiversity Observations. The workshop was held at the Consortium for Ocean Leadership in Washington, DC and was attended by more than 40 experts in the marine science field.
The goal of the workshop was to determine the status of current marine biodiversity observational capabilities and to scope future solutions to operationally monitor the status and trends of biodiversity. An online forum will be available in June for public comment on the recommendations of the workshop.
NOPP is proud to announce the 2009 Excellence in Partnering Award winner. The FY 2007 funded project, Toward a predictive model of Arctic coastal retreat in a warming climate, Beaufort Sea, Alaska, exemplified NOPP goals of partnering across industry, academia and government to promote cross-cutting oceanographic research on some of the nation’s most pressing issues. The lead project investigator was Dr. Robert Anderson from the University of Colorado Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research (IAAR) and other partners on the research team were from the IAAR, Stratus Consulting, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Naval Postgraduate School. The project focused on collecting empirical data to develop process-based models of coastal change. Coastal erosion processes were monitored using time-lapse photography, while trends in coastal erosion through time were identified from meteorological and oceanographic data sites along the coast and climatic and geographic data from the past few decades. The results of the project will help to predict patterns of coastal change as a function of projected changes in sea ice conditions, sea surface temperature, and changes in land surface temperatures.
Congratulations to all of the project partners! Learn more about the project and its impact on public awareness of Arctic coastal processes at http://www.oceanleadership.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/09anders.pdf.
