Program: Basin-scale Analysis, Synthesis and INtegration

Basin-scale Analysis, Synthesis and INtegration (BASIN) is an initiative to develop a joint EU and North American research program in the field of ocean ecosystems in support of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) initiative. The first BASIN meeting took place in Iceland in March 2005. Three additional meetings were held since 2007 to engage both the European and North American communities, explore coordinated funding mechanisms and to produce a BASIN Science Plan. The implementation of joint research programs is at present a significant obstacle facing researchers in many research areas where a large-scale multi-national approach is now needed to tackle the key problems of the future (e.g. climate, ecosystem research). BASIN seeks to identify, with the aid of program managers, appropriate and effective implementation mechanisms.

BASIN is envisioned to consist of two phases: The first phase focuses on organising and developing existing data for use in basin-scale marine ecosystem models and beginning to collect new data in order to resolve crucial basin-scale problems. The second phase of BASIN will involve a substantial field effort whose detailed design will be guided by the modelling and synthesis activities accomplished during the first phase, as well as laboratory results.

GEOGRAPHIC DOMAIN: BASIN, as its name implies, focuses on the North Atlantic basin and associated shelf-seas. In developing a program the geographic scale of BASIN, it is crucial to define the interests and needs of the program. It has been agreed that the primary focus of BASIN would remain the sub-polar gyre system and associated shelf systems of the North Atlantic, but that important connections to the sub-tropical gyre would not be neglected.

BASIN AIM: At present the aim of BASIN is to understand and simulate the impact of climate variability and change on key species of plankton and fish, as well as community structure as a whole, of the North Atlantic and to examine the consequences for the cycling of carbon and nutrients in the ocean and thereby contribute to ocean management.

More information, including workshop reports, can be found at http://www.na-basin.org/