2003/08/26 by Martin Frank, Catherine Jeandel, Robert F. Anderson +5 · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Marine and coastal ecosystems #Isotope Analysis in Ecology #Marine Biology and Ecology Research
paper · doi:10.1029/2003eo340006
There is a growing international interest among geochemists and oceanographers in building a coordinated global study of the marine biogeochemical cycles of selected trace elements and isotopic tracers. This is reflected by the increasing numbers of contributions to corresponding special sessions at meetings such as the 2001 AGU Fall Meeting, the 2002 Goldschmidt Meeting, and the 2003 European Geophysical Union Annual Meeting. With support from the U.S. National Science Foundation's Chemical Oceanography program, the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique in France, the University Paul Sabatier, and the Observatoire Midi‐Pyrénées, an international planning workshop was recently held to define the scientific goals for such a global study. Eighty‐five scientists from 15 nations representing fields as diverse as physical oceanography, dynamic and biogeochemical ocean modeling, ocean geochemistry, and paleoceanography attended the workshop. There was a broad consensus recognizing the need for a coordinated research effort in the spirit of the 1970s Geochemical Ocean Sections Study (GEOSECS) program, which led to fundamental advances in the understanding of ocean circulation and biogeochemical cycles. Dramatic advances have been made in a nalytical techniques, chemical sensors, and modeling since the days of GEOSECS, but progress in understanding the global biogeochemical cycles of trace elements and their isotopes has been limited by the lack of a large‐scale coordinated effort. Workshop participants enthusiastically endorsed the development of such a program, for which the name GEOTRACES was adopted.