Comments on NPRB Draft Science Plan - Chapter 2
The purpose of Chapter 2 is to provide an overview of the environmental variables that affect and are involved in the ecosystems of the NPRB region of interest. As such, the discussion is necessarily broad, as it must encompass everything that the NPRB might undertake throughout its lifetime.
Given this broad purpose, the committee believes that the discussion of trophic levels in Chapter 3 (Sections 3.2-3.8) would logically be better placed in Chapter 2, where it can serve as a summary of background material rather than a description of NPRB science themes. Furthermore, the presentation of fragmented trophic levels in these sections reflects more of a “traditional research” approach that is not consistent with contemporary understanding. Any background discussion of trophic levels should include information about the organisms that dominate the biomass: the prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) and the unicellular eukaryotes. Even with such additional information, the trophic discussion should be shortened significantly. This change will also reduce some repetition between the two chapters. The recommended restructuring is outlined below in the recommendation, with Sections 3.2-3.8 being incorporated into Sections 2.3-2.5.
Because resources are limited, NPRB activities will have to be focused geographically in one or two regions for a given period of time (e.g., at least 5 and possibly as long as 10 years) as discussed earlier. A limitation of this focusing is that some important study areas and issues will have to be delayed. Its overriding benefit, however, is that geographically focused research will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the selected region, and yield results that are transferable to research undertaken in regions studied later.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
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Reorganize Chapter 2 within the following outline:
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Large Marine Ecosystems: Physical Environment
2.3 Large Marine Ecosystems: Biological Environment (edited from Chapter 3, Sections 3.2-3.8)
2.4 Ecosystem Dynamics
2.5 Human Dimensions
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The NPRB Implementation Plan should identify one or at most two geographical regions to focus their activities so NPRB activities in total build a comprehensive understanding.
