A Century of Ecosystem Science Planning Long-Term Research in the Gulf of Alaska (2002) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-16
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From page 1... ...
One element of various legal proceedings occurring as a result of the spill was a civil settlement that required Exxon Corporation to pay $900 million over 10 years to restore resources injured by the spill and compensate for reduced or lost services the resources provide. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council composed of three federal and three state members was established to administer the funds.
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The Trustee Council is to be commended for its foresight in setting aside money over the years to create the trust fund that will provide longterm support to the GEM program. As envisioned, that program will offer an unparalleled opportunity to increase understanding of how large marine ecosystems in general, and Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska in particular, function and change over time.
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From page 3... ...
but also the expectations of various other Alaskan stakeholders and the inevitable political forces present in the Trustee Council itself. While this committee whole-heartedly endorses the idea of a long-term ecological research program in the Gulf of Alaska and commends the Trustee Council and other public decision makers for having the foresight to create such a program, we want to be clear that this report is not an endorsement of implementation of the GEM program as currently designed.
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CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATION The GEM program is conceived as a long-term monitoring program, because long time series are essential to detecting ecosystem change. However, it is absolutely vital to recognize that long-term monitoring per se will not necessarily lead to a better scientific understanding of the ecosystem.
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Instead, GEM must incorporate the sense that marine ecosystems change in response to physical and biological changes and human impacts, as is clearly expressed in the GEM mission statement. GEM planners are aware of the difficulty of pursuing long-term monitoring in the face of short-term interests: The GEM program has provisions for multidecade measurements and for shorter research programs targeting specific issues or hypotheses, so that GEM can respond to current concerns without sacrificing the gathering of long-term data sets that will prove increasingly useful as they accumulate.
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The rationale underlying this recommendation was the difficulty of designing a useful research plan for such a broad area given limited funds, coupled with the utility of extending existing time series at the core of the area affected by the spill in 1989. Nevertheless, the Trustee Council is well within its prerogative to select any geographic scope, but if the program is to be successful, the scope should be justified on science and management grounds and must be appropriate to the funding level.
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COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT Community involvement and the incorporation of traditional knowledge is critical to the GEM program's long-term success. Early GEM-related documents indicated a clear desire to incorporate community involvement and traditional knowledge, however this emphasis appears to have receded in successive documents.
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The goals must be to facilitate data exchange among GEM scientific investigators, make data available to the public and others outside the scientific community, and archive GEM data products. GEM will need to make a major commitment to fund data management activities, probably through a Data Management Office composed of a data manager, assistants, and the necessary infrastructure to organize, disseminate, and archive data.
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, many have not. The knowledge gained and publicized about Prince William Sound is extensive because of Trustee Council funding.
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The coastal Long-Term Ecological Research sites funded by the National Science Foundation provide good models of such long-term research. Elements of a Sound Long-Term Research Plan Conclusion: A sound, long-term research plan must clearly define its conceptual foundation, scope, organizational structure, data management methods, and methods for periodic synthesis and review.
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The conceptual foundation needs to be discussed early in the GEM planning document because that placement captures its importance as the fundamental building block on which the rest of the program depends. The science plan should include a broad conceptual foundation that is ecosystem-based.
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Community Involvement Conclusion: The GEM plan does not currently describe effective and meaningful ways to involve local communities. This involvement should occur at all stages, from planning (e.g., selecting the questions to be addressed and variables to be monitored)
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Nonetheless, we are certain that the community involvement debate will continue until better resolution of this issue is found. Geographic Scope Conclusion: No program can be expected to meet the needs of all potential data users, and tradeoffs are inevitable between the intensity and spatial range of sampling.
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Recommendation: GEM planners, with input from the science community, should identify how these three kinds of scientific endeavors will be incorporated and managed within the science plan. For instance, longterm research projects, short-term research projects, and synthesis efforts will require different mechanisms for proposal solicitation and evaluation and different time frames for funding.
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From page 15... ...
Recommendation: The design of proposal solicitations and final recommendations for Trustee Council funding should be major functions of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee and chief scientist. In designing proposal solicitations, the Advisory Committee should be responsible for developing the scientific and technical subjects required to address GEM goals.
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From page 16... ...
The committee commends the initial development of data management procedures; careful implementation of these procedures is key. Recommendation: GEM should create a comprehensive Data Management Office (not just an archive but a group of people who address these issues)
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