The NSF CoOP Steering Committee was invited to attend the program overview and poster presentations at the Minneapolis EEGLE/KITES all-hands meeting. The Steering Committee met on Saturday and discussed their impressions of the two programs.
Attached are the minutes of the steering committee meeting relating to the all-hands meeting.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MINUTES CoOP SCIENTIFIC STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING October 30, 1999 Minneapolis, MN In Attendance were: Bruce Albrecht, Nick Bond, Larry Clark, Jane Hawkey, Susan Henrichs, Barbara Hickey, Debbie Jahnke, Rick Jahnke, Gail Kineke, Steve Lohrenz, Sally McIntyre, Billy Moore, Elise Ralph, Mike Roman, Tom Royer, Dave Schwab, Mary Scranton, Jim Wilczak, John Wickham EEGLE/KITES DISCUSSION On October 29, 1999 we heard summaries on the KITES (Sarah Green) and EEGLE (Brian Eadie) projects. After the presentations there were 52 poster presentations by the EEGLE and KITES investigators. The members of the CoOP SSC and outside guests (Sally McIntyre and Mary Scranton) reviewed the posters and discussed the results with the authors. Our overall impression of results to date from KITES and EEGLE was most favorable. The scientific focus and interdisciplinary nature of both projects fit well under the overall goals of the CoOP program. The knowledge gained on cross-margin transport in Lake Michigan and Lake Superior will provide important new insights on coastal ocean processes. The number and quality of poster presentations by graduate students was impressive. One important legacy of the EEGLE and KITES programs will be the graduate students who have conducted their research on high quality interdisciplinary research projects in the Great Lakes. Specific Comments of Program Components: Meteorology - Appropriate level of emphasis for both programs. Aspects of feedbacks from currents to meteorology innovative. Physical Oceanography - Overall most impressive. Keep up the interdisciplinary emphasis. Should consider the interaction of internal waves with the bottom. Breaking internal waves can resuspend sediments. Ground water flows may be important in Lake Superior. Moorings should have adequate spacing of thermistors to characterize stratification as well as bottom temperature. It may be possible to use CTD time-series to identify riverine inputs. Geological Oceanography - Generally low (< 10 mg/L) amounts of suspended sediments - need to emphasize calibration of total suspended solids (TSS) measurements. It also is important to ground truth the remote sensing data for turbidity, including the analysis of vertical profiles. There was concern about the accuracy of moored sediment trap measurements in the relatively high flows. Programs like JGOFS (Rept No. 10, 1989) have reviewed many of the pitfalls of sediment trap measurements. Several investigators are now using thorium isotopes to evaluate sediment trap efficiency. Chemical Oceanography - The investigators are encouraged to examine Pb inventories in Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. Radon measurements may be useful for assessing groundwater inputs. KITES investigators are encouraged to contact John Robbins for data on radionuclide distributions in Lake Superior. Metabolic rates in sands could be high. Low amounts of organic substrate could means fast throughput rather than no action. The use of radio-tracers for the dynamics of sediment transport is well done. The use of the ROV in Lake Superior for retrieving interfacial material is innovative. There has been beneficial collaborative research in Lake Michigan on air/sea/sediment exchanges of PCBs. Biological Oceanography- Where possible, the same sets of biological measurements should be conducted in both EEGLE and KITES. Coordination of techniques and synthesis of results will be important. The KITES program should consider some continuous measurements of zooplankton abundance (acoustics or optical plankton counter) that would be synoptic with their physical measurements. It is important to calibrate the optical plankton measurements against net tow data. Applicable to all disciplines is a word of caution against "program creep". This includes funded research elements that begin to focus on disciplinary issues that are not related to the CoOP objectives. The highest priority research goals of all parts of the programs should be on the interdisciplinary CoOP aspects of KITES and EEGLE. Interdisciplinary research goals have priority over disciplinary research efforts. LOGISTICS KITES should consider contacting Mike Helmsley of NDBC to determine if the data buoy could be left out later in the fall. The CoOP Office will write a letter of thanks to the Coast Guard for supporting EEGLE research efforts. It would be best for the EEGLE program to use the R/V Lake Guardian at the same time as the R/V Laurentian. KITES investigators should pursue the advice of other scientists who use the Sea Sciences Acrobat (e.g. Harvey Seim (Skidaway); Bill Boicourt (Univ of Maryland) to determine if they can easily extend their depth of measurements. DATA MANAGEMENT The EEGLE and KITES programs each have a Data Management Policy/Database. Both programs should also submit their data to NODC. The contact person at NODC should be Michael Ford (301-713-3272, x114; Michael.Ford@noaa.gov) COOPERATION AND SYNTHESIS OF KITES AND EEGLE RESEARCH The CoOP SSC and guests discussed several means of furthering cooperation between KITES and EEGLE investigators: Joint meetings which include graduate students should be continued. An exchange of seminar speakers at KITES/EEGLE institutions is encouraged. Small data analysis workshops on mutual sub-themes of interest to KITES and EEGLE investigators could encourage important synthesis efforts. Plan sessions at national meetings for presentations of KITES/EEGLE results. Plan for special journal volumes (i.e. Continental Shelf Research, Progress in Oceanography) and books (i.e. AGU monograph series) on KITES/EEGLE results. The CoOP Office will send a note to all KITES and EEGLE PIs reminding them to send reprints to the CoOP Office. LESSONS LEARNED FROM GREAT LAKES PROPOSAL PROCESS We discussed the effectiveness of the CoOP proposal structure as related to the formation of the EEGLE and KITES programs. EEGLE started as a large group of scientists and reduced the number of components as they developed their research objectives and responded to the reviews from the first proposal. KITES was a smaller group of scientists that added components that were submitted as individual proposals. Both types of proposal efforts should be encouraged. CoOP should continue to ask for interdisciplinary group proposals but also allow small groups or individuals to submit proposals. The CoOP program must avoid the misconception that all disciplines must be included in group proposals.