News Archives

November - December 2007

- South Atlantic Regional Planning

The National Sea Grant Program recently launched a program to create research plans for U.S. coastal and Great Lakes areas. Sea Grant Programs from the South Atlantic region of the coastal USA (NC, SC, GA, FL) are working together to identify priority regional-level research needs and then develop an action plan to address these needs. The project involves coordination with NOAA laboratories, state and federal agencies, and academic partners, as well as participation from politicians, representatives from industry, and other stakeholders from throughout the region. The GCRC is managing this project in association with Georgia Sea Grant. Please visit the new SARRP website.

- Funding Announcement: Office of Naval Research

In January 2007 the National Science & Technology Council's Joint Subcommittee on Ocean Science & Technology issued a federal Ocean Research Priorities Plan for the next decade -- (http://ocean.ceq.gov/about/sup_jsost_prioritiesplan.html).  Four near-term priorities have been identified within which rapid progress can be expected and is desired. The FY08 announcement seeks proposals for new projects under three of these priorities;

• Priority 1. Forecasting the Response of Coastal Ecosystems to Persistent Forcing and Extreme Events
• Priority 3. Sensors for Marine Ecosystems
• Priority 4. Assessing Meridional Overturning Circulation Variability (Implications for Rapid Climate Change)

The deadline for proposal submission is December 11, 2007.  For more information, including guidelines for submission, please refer to the broad area announcement:
http://www.onr.navy.mil/02/BAA/docs/07-040_ONR%20NOPP%20BAA%20FY08.pdf

- Coastal Research Summaries

The current issue of Georgia Sound * features a coastal research summary prepared by the GCRC. We have highlighted some recent work by Dr. Christopher Craft (a GCRC-affiliated scientist at Indiana University). His paper, Freshwater input structures soil properties, vertical accretion, and nutrient accumulation of Georgia and U.S. tidal marshes, appeared in Limnology and Oceanography earlier this year (volume 52, pp 1220-1230.) Read it online at the CRD website -- http://crd.dnr.state.ga.us/content/displaycontent.asp?txtDocument=278.

* We plan to summarize a recent peer-reviewed journal article in each issue of the Coastal Management Program newsletter.  If you have (or know of) a recent paper on coastal Georgia that might be of interest to managers, please let us know.