UN Atlas of the Oceans
ABOUT: Ecology: Ecosystems.
Changes in Ecosystems See More...

Oceanographers and biologists in national fisheries laboratories and universities around the world study the relationship of marine life to its environment. A leader in the field, and a good example, is the Pacific Fisheries Environmental Laboratory (PFEL) in Pacific Grove, California, USA. Scientists with the PFEL study environmental influences on marine ecosystems. The laboratory

• provides environmental information to fishery scientists and managers,
• describes links between environmental processes and population dynamics of important fish stocks,
• investigates natural environmental variance,
• develops means to effectively forecast effects of environmental variations on fish population availability and resilience to exploitation, and
• assesses the effects of global climate change on oceanographic processes important to fish population dynamics.

The PFEL works closely with the U.S. Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, which is the primary U.S. government facility concerned with marine weather and ocean conditions. The PFEL is the only place in the United States where fishery scientists can immediately and directly access information on ocean properties and processes occurring within the fishery habitat.

The data delivery systems at PFEL are tailored to provide environmental data for research in fisheries and marine ecosystems and are delivered worldwide. The use of Live Access Servers (LAS), developed by the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) is widespread in the oceanographic and atmospheric data community. At PFEL it has been customized for the interaction between physical and chemical parameters in the ocean and their impact on ecosystems. Go to Data Products R&D

Frances B Michaelis
April 9, 2003