Description: There is a pressing need to integrate biophysical and human dimensions science to better inform holistic ecosystem management supporting the transition from single species or single-sector management to multi-sector ecosystem-based management. Ecosystem-based management should focus upon ecosystem services, since they reflect societal goals, values, desires, and benefits. The inclusion of ecosystem services into holistic management strategies improves management by better capturing the diversity of positive and negative human-natural interactions and making explicit the benefits to society. To facilitate this inclusion, we propose a conceptual model that merges the broadly applied Driver, Pressure, State, Impact, and Response (DPSIR) conceptual model with ecosystem services yielding a Driver, Pressure, State, Ecosystem service, and Response (EBM-DPSER) conceptual model. The impact module in traditional DPSIR models focuses attention upon negative anthropomorphic impacts on the ecosystem; by replacing impacts with ecosystem services the EBM-DPSER model incorporates not only negative, but also positive changes in the ecosystem. Responses occur as a result of changes in ecosystem services and include inter alia management actions directed at proactively altering human population or individual behavior and infrastructure to meet societal goals. The EBM-DPSER conceptual model was applied to the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas marine ecosystem as a case study to illustrate how it can inform management decisions. This case study captures our system-level understanding and results in a more holistic representation of ecosystem and human society interactions, thus improving our ability to identify trade-offs. The EBM-DPSER model should be a useful operational tool for implementing EBM, in that it fully integrates our knowledge of all ecosystem components while focusing management attention upon those aspects of the ecosystem most important to human society and does so within a framework already familiar to resource managers.

Description: Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution October, 1977

Description: In many marine environments accumulations of chlorophyll have been reported to occur at or below depths to which 1% of ambient light penetrates. The phenomenon has been called the Deep Chlorophyll Maximum (DCM). On occasion zooplankton have been observed to be suggestively associated with a DCM. In order to determine, to what extent and under what circumstances, the DCM represents a significant food resource, data were obtained from vertically stratified net tows (both 0.333 μm and 0.067 μm mesh) and water bottle casts taken on eight cruises in the western North Atlantic between November 1973 and August 1976. Parameters measured included: zooplankton biomass, zooplankton functional group abundance, phytoplankton species abundance, chlorophyll concentration, ATP concentration, particulate nitrogen concentration, 14C fixation, biological macro-nutrients (N03, NO2, NH3, P04, Si(OH)4), oxygen concentration, temperature, and salinity. Parameters were measured as concommitanty as possible. Sampling was conducted in the Sargasso Sea, in Gulf Stream cold core rings, and in the Slope Water. Results obtained bear upon three major ecological problems: (a) the evolution of the biological community in a Gulf Stream cold core ring; (b) the sense in which the Gulf Stream represents an ecological discontinuity; and (c) the significance of the DCM as a locus for trophic activity. Zooplankton biomass in the upper 800 m of four Gulf Stream cold core rings significantly exceeded that in the Northern Sargasso Sea. The center of its vertical distribution was uniquely deep. Such a distribution may result in reduced ecological efficiency and increase the flux of organic matter to the deep sea. The phytoplankton assemblage of a cold core ring was significantly different from that of both the Slope Water and the Northern Sargasso Sea many months after ring formation. Certain species appeared to capitalize on some aspect of the ring environment and were especially numerous in ring samples. Due to the composition, distribution, and variability of its characteristic phytoplankton the Slope Water represented a herbivore habitat very different from that in either the Northern Sargasso Sea or a six-month-old cold core ring. Under highly stratified conditions the preceding contrast was maximal. No common species was found only on one of the other side of the Gulf Stream, yet the species could be sorted into groups that had maximal abundances either in the Slope Water or the Northern Sargasso Sea. These groups appeared to differ in their responsiveness to nutrient concentration variation. The DCM in diverse environments appeared to be an essentially identical phenomenon. The DCM accumulated phytoplankton cells (and possibly other organic particulates) sinking from above. Phytoplankton growth occurred as DCM depths despite low light levels. Various microbial processes appeared to be enhanced at DCM depths. As a consequence the DCM signalled a depth zone which, under stratified conditions, was a significant food resource especially since mixed-layer food was scarce. Concentrations of zooplankton biomass at the DCM and the vertical distributions of zooplankton functional groups indicated the DCM in the western North Atlantic was a locus of particularly intense trophic activity. The depth interval of the DCM had more total biomass and more microplankton biomass than above and below. Further, at DCM depths, the abundance of particular zooplankton functional groups appeared to reflect the size of the dominant phytoplankton. Not only presumed herbivores but a purely carnivorous group, the chaetognaths, on some occasions aggregated at DCM depths.

Description: The dissertation research described was supported by ONR NOOOI4-66-C-0240 and N00014-24-C-0262 NR 083-004, NSF DES74-02783Al, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Graduate Education Program, and the Tai Ping Foundation.

Description: © The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Szuts, Z. B., Bower, A. S., Donohue, K. A., Girton, J. B., Hummon, J. M., Katsumata, K., Lumpkin, R., Ortner, P. B., Phillips, H. E., Rossby, H. T., Shay, L. K., Sun, C., & Todd, R. E. The scientific and societal uses of global measurements of subsurface velocity. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, (2019): 358, doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00358.

Description: Ocean velocity defines ocean circulation, yet the available observations of subsurface velocity are under-utilized by society. The first step to address these concerns is to improve visibility of and access to existing measurements, which include acoustic sampling from ships, subsurface float drifts, and measurements from autonomous vehicles. While multiple programs provide data publicly, the present difficulty in finding, understanding, and using these data hinder broader use by managers, the public, and other scientists. Creating links from centralized national archives to project specific websites is an easy but important way to improve data discoverability and access. A further step is to archive data in centralized databases, which increases usage by providing a common framework for disparate measurements. This requires consistent data standards and processing protocols for all types of velocity measurements. Central dissemination will also simplify the creation of derived products tailored to end user goals. Eventually, this common framework will aid managers and scientists in identifying regions that need more sampling and in identifying methods to fulfill those demands. Existing technologies are capable of improving spatial and temporal sampling, such as using ships of opportunity or from autonomous platforms like gliders, profiling floats, or Lagrangian floats. Future technological advances are needed to fill sampling gaps and increase data coverage.

Description: This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, United States, Grant Numbers 1356383 to ZBS, OCE 1756361 to ASB at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and 1536851 to KAD and HTR; the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, United States, Ocean Observations and Monitoring Division and Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory to RL; Royal Caribbean Cruise Ltd., to PBO; the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy National Environmental Science Programme and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes to HEP; and the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Grant V-487 to LS.

Description: Also published as: Journal of Marine Research 38 (1980): 507-531

Description: The potential significance of the Deep Chlorophyll Maximum (DCM) as a food resource for pelagic food chains was studied in three hydrographic regimes of the Northwestern Atlantic Ocean: the Slope Water, the Northern Sargasso Sea and a Gulf Stream cold core ring. Samples for phytoplankton species, chlorophyll and related water chemistry were obtained with a series of water bottle casts from the upper 200 m; microzooplankton and macrozooplankton were also obtained in the upper 200 m with Clarke Bumpus (67 m mesh) and MOCNESS (333 m mesh) net systems. Samples were obtained in the summer when the DCM was well developed and in the fall when mixing had erased the DCM in most areas. Total zooplankton biomass was significantly enhanced within depth intervals including or adjacent to the seasonal thermocline in the three hydrographic areas. Hydrocast data show the DCM in these regions was predictably associated with the seasonal thermocline. Thus these data indicate zooplankton biomass was enhanced about the DCM when it was present. In some cases, the zooplankton assemblage at DCM depths was distinguishable from those both at deeper and more shallow depths and its composition appeared related to the food available at DCM depths. Overall, in environments ranging from moderately rich near-shore Slope Waters to the more oligotrophic open-ocean Sargasso Sea, our data suggest that the DCM signals a depth zone of particularly intense trophic activity.

Description: Prepared for the Office of Naval Research under Contracts N00014-66-C-0241; NR 083-004; N00014-74-C-0262; NR 083- 004 and the National Science Foundation under Grant DES 02?83A1.