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About us
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Email to <continental.margins@gmail.com>
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| Web-based Resources for Continental Margins Biogeochemical Research and Education |
| K.-K. Liu (NCU), Nicolas Dittert (MARUM), Kuo-Rong Lei (TORI), Hartwig H. Kremer (LOICZ), Lisa Maddison (IMBER) |
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Continental margins include coastal environments, continental shelves and slopes, boundary current systems and marginal seas. They are the interface between land and ocean, where the environmental conditions are dominated by physical and biogeochemical processes arising from the existence of the land-ocean-shelf-sea bottom and atmosphere boundaries. In recent years, continental margins within the earth system have been perceived as an important climate agent due to the active biogeochemical processes in continental margins that may serve as feedback mechanisms to the climate system. Despite its potential significance, continental margin biogeochemical research lags behind blue-water oceanic research as well as nearshore coastal environment studies and lacks public awareness. In light of the emerging importance of continental margin biogeochemical research and the rapid environmental change observed there, we establish this web site to provide information and teaching materials on continental margin biogeochemistry and to guide future research and education under the auspices of IMBER (Integrated Marine Biogeochemical and Ecosystem Research) and LOICZ (Land-Ocean Interaction in the Coastal Zone), both core projects of
IGBP (International Geosphere-Biosphere Program) and, in the case of LOICZ, also the International Human Dimensions Program on Global Environmental Change, IHDP. The web site supports the activities of the new Continental Margins Task Team, co-sponsored by IMBER and LOICZ. The web site is facilitated by the World Data System for Marine Environmental Sciences (WDC-MARE) operated by the Centre for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) at Bremen University. The Taiwan Ocean Research Institute (TORI) maintains a mirror site. The web site provides bathymetry maps of more than 100 continental margins around the world, a bibliography for many of the margins and a glossary of scientific terms and abbreviations among other items. It also provides links to other relevant biogeochemical or complementary information on shelf systems such as the
LOICZ biogeochemical budget database in Stockholm.
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