The Estuarine Research Federation Initiative in Biocomplexity:
Facilitation of Research on Estuarine Responses to
Climate Change and Variability

Coastal and estuarine systems are very sensitive to climate change and variability through changes in temperature, sea level change, river flow, coastal circulation and storms. Although there is a general understanding of the physical effects of such changes, the consequences to the biodiversity and the functioning of these systems - or their biocomplexity- are poorly understood.

To accelerate the involvement of the estuarine science community in addressing these complex and critically important questions the Estuarine Research Federation is holding a series of meetings to bring together estuarine, social and climate scientists. The goal is to identify productive and innovative avenues of research related to the effects of climate change and variability on biocomplexity and the mechanisms by which biocomplexity allows ecosystems to adapt to those forces. The National Science Foundation is supporting this initiative under its Biocomplexity in the Environment Program.

To address these goals there will be a workshop held in the spring of 2002 to outline the major research priorities need to advance our understanding of climate variability and change on estuarine ecosystems and to work on three synthesis documents relating to critical areas in need of more inter-disciplinary research. The workshop will be by invitation and will include about 40 scientists, managers and policy makers. The critical areas chosen are:

After the initial workshop has produced a report and three synthesis documents we will be holding a series of regional workshops to disseminate the results, seek further input, and to help facilitate building the multi-disciplinary research teams necessary to address these issues.

Over the next several weeks we will be providing more information on these workshops at this web site and will have a sign up form for those wishing more information about how to participate in one of the workshops.

The complete proposal (Adobe Acrobat Reader required) can be viewed and downloaded. (http://ca.umces.edu/president/ERFbiocomplexity.pdf)

Donald Boesch (http://ca.umces.edu/president/index.htm), University of Maryland, and Anne Giblin (http://ecosystems.mbl.edu/staff/giblin.html), Marine Biological Laboratory, are serving as the Principal Investigators on the project.

Additional information on this topic can be found in the report by Boesch, D., J.C. Field, and D. Scavia. 2000. The Potential consequences of climate variability and change on coastal areas and marine resources. NOAA Coastal Ocean Program Decision Analysis Series # 21. This report is available on the web at http://www.cop.noaa.gov/pubs/das/das21.html. (Adobe Acrobat Reader required).

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