Ocean Challenge Aims to Keep Its Readers up to Date ASSOCIATE EDITOR with What Is Happening in Oceanography in the UK and the Rest of Europe
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OCEAN Volume 9, No. 1, 1999 OCEAN The Magazine of the Challenger Society for Marine Science EDITOR SCOPE AND AIMS Angela Colling Ocean Challenge aims to keep its readers up to date ASSOCIATE EDITOR with what is happening in oceanography in the UK and the rest of Europe. By covering the whole range John Wright of marine-related sciences in an accessible style it Angela Colling andJohn Wright are both should be valuable both to specialist oceano- at the Department of Earth Sciences, graphers who wish to broaden their knowledge of The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, marine sciences, and to informed lay persons who Buckinghamshire MK7 6AA, UK are concerned about the oceanic environment. EDITORIAL BOARD Ocean Challenge is sent automatically to Chair members of the Challenger Society. Rachel Mills For more information about the Society, or for Southampton Oceanography Centre queries concerning individual subscriptions to Ocean Challenge, please contact the Executive Secretary of the Society at the address given on the Martin Angel inside back cover. Southampton Oceanography Centre INDUSTRIAL CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP Mark Brandon British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge For information about this, please contact the Executive Secretary of the Society at the Keith Dyer address given on the inside back cover. Institute ofMarine Studies, University of Plymouth ADVERTISING Peter Foxton For information about advertising through Ocean formerly Natural Environment Research Council Challenge, please contact the Executive Secretary of (Marine Sciences) the Society at the address given on the inside back Keith Harrison cover. The Ray Society AVAILABILITY OF BACK ISSUES Tim Jickells For information about back issues of Ocean School of Environmental Sciences, Challenge, please contact the Executive Secretary of University of East Anglia the Society at the address given on the inside back John Jones cover. University College, London INSTITUTIONAL SUBSCRIPTIONS Bill Prior-Jones Ocean Challenge is published three times a year. Specialist in Applied Marine Science The subscription (including postage by surface mail) John Scott is £70.00 ($133) per year for libraries and other Defence Research Agency, Winfrith institutions. New subscriptions, renewals and information about changes of address should be sent Hjalmar Thiel to Parjon Information Services, PO Box 144, Alfred-Wegener-lnstitut fur Polar-und- Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH16 2YX, UK. Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany Bill Turrell DATA PROTECTION ACT, 1984 (UK) Scottish Office Agriculture and Fisheries Department Under the terms of this Act, you are informed that this magazine is sent to you through the use of a computer-based mailing list. The views expressed in Ocean Challenge are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Printed in the UK by Halstan & Co. Ltd, Challenger Society or the Editor. Amersham, Bucks 0 Challenger Society for Marine Science, 1999 ISSN 0959-0161 CONTENTS 2 Foundation of the EFMS 3 News and Views 8 Progress with Aufosub: The Bermuda '98 Expedition Gwyn Griffiths 11 Not too big, not too small ... Why medium-sized research ships will be the workhorses for shelf-sea oceanography in the coming decades Ed Hill 14 The Island Trust: Changing Lives for the Better Dick Lloyd 16 Now, there's a funny thing ... John Wright 18 Investigating the Deep Ocean Benthic Boundary Layer - From Huxley to BENBO Kevin Black 24 Modelling the North Atlantic: How DYNAMO is pointing the way to improvements in predictive power Adrian New 29 From Astronomy to Oceanography: A Brief History of Bidston Observatory J. Eric Jones 35 Book Reviews 38 Multimedia 39 Letters to the Editor 40 Forthcoming Events Most of the figures and maps for this issue were drawn by John Taylor of the Cartography Office of the Department of Earth Sciences at the Open University. The cover and the titles of feature articles were designed by Ann Aldred Associates. The European Federation of Science Prof. John Simpson and Technology Marine Societies (for UK societies) was formally created in Paris on and Prof. Thomas Hopner (for the 11 December 1998, when delegates Deutsche Gesell- from seven European countries schaft fur Meeres- signed the 'Act of Creation of EFMS' forschung, Germany) under statutes of French Law. signing the Act of Creation This signing ceremony was the of EFMS. culmination of a process which The other national started in 1992 with an informal represen fa tives were: contact by the Union des Oceano- Dr Amiard (UOF, graphes de France with three other France), Dr jaspers European associations: the Deutsche (IZWO, Belgium), Dr Kivimaa (SMTSR, Gesellschaft fur Meeresforschung Finland), Dr (DGM), the Challenger Society for Dassenakis (GOA, Marine Science (CSMS) and the Greece), Prof. Associazione ltaliana di Oceanografia Albertelli (AIOL, e Limnologia (AIOL), at an annual Italy), and Elisabet scientific meeting of the UOF. The Fogelqvist (SH, Sweden) participants agreed the importance of developing close working relation- ships between their societies, and of mutual exchange of information. Two years later, the Challenger Society proposed to the various associations a charter for European marine science organizations. This was ratified by the UOF during its France (Union des Oceanographes de France, UOF) General Assemblv.,, and the idea of a The Objectives federation was thus launched. In Germany (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur of the EFMS 1996 the CSMS invited European Meeresforschung, DGM) scientists to its biennial conference in Greece (Creek Oceanographers' * To contribute to the advance- Bangor at which there were discus- Association, GOA) ment of research and education sions between the CSMS and DGM in Marine Science and Tech- Italy (Associazione ltaliana di which led to an agreement on sup- nology. Oceanologia e Limnologia, AIOL) porting the development of a Federa- United Kingdom (Challenger * To disseminate information tion. But in spite of continued regular and to promote the advance- Society for Marine Science, CSMS; exchange of information, it was not ment of Marine Science and Society for Underwater Technology, until September of 1997 at the Technology in Europe. General Assembly of the DGM in SUT; Marine Biological Association Hamburg, to which the UOF and the of the UK, MBA; Scottish Associa- For these purposes the Federation Challenger Society were invited, that tion for Marine Sciences, SAMS) undertakes: further progress was made. During Sweden (Svenska Havsforsknings- A To address jointly European that meeting, it was agreed to launch foreningen, SH) issues of common interest. the new European Federation of A To make known the philoso- Marine Science and Technology The first President of EFMS, for phies and needs of its members. Societies in 1998, appropriately 1999, is Professor Lucien Laubier, designated the UN Year of the Ocean. and the General Secretary at the A To promote the development of ~urthermeetings to discuss statutes French Office is Dr Jean-Francois Marine Science and Technology. were held in Paris and at Boulogne- Pavilion. A To promote the contribution of sur-Mer, and the concept of a Federa- Marine Science and Technology tion was advertised to the participants to European Union research of MAST days in Lisbon, in 1998. programmes. The Federation's registered office is A To assist the European Union At present, eight countries are located at: in obtaining technical advice members of EFMS, either as full lnstitut Oc6anographiquet from members of the Federation. members or as observers. They are: 195, rue Saint-Jacques, A To provide a permanent Belgium (Instituut voor Zeeweten- F-75005 Paris, France. network between Marine Science schappelijk onderzoek, IZWO) Tel. +33-(0)l-44-32-10-84; and Technology societies and a Finland (Suomen Meriteen la Fax: +33-(0)l-40-51-73-16; Email: common, but not unique, Tekniikan Seura Ry, SMTSR) 100670.61 [email protected] gateway to each of these societies and their national networks. 2 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 9, No. 1 News an Salinity and the Origin of Life rich atmosphere: could its ocean I Those nanobe-bearing rocks are have been a (mainly) sodium car- Cretaceous, so the petroleum in Could the development of multi- bonate solution, like today's East them cannot be older than -1 50 Ma cellular life have been hindered by African soda lakes? at most; and oil is pretty rare in high salinity in the primitive ocean? rocks older than about Devonian The Earth has always had an ocean, How high would the global average (-400 Ma). The discovery of hydro- to be sure, but can we be equally salinity need have been to inhibit carbon-bearing fluid inclusions in confident that the total quantity of evolution in that way? The proposi- Archaean sand-stones (-3 000 Ma water in the global water inventory tion has been made that all of the old) is therefore both new and has remained more or less constant salt presently in evaporite deposits interesting (Nature, 1998, 395, 885- throught geological time? Perhaps it was once in the oceans, so they 7). New, because the oldest rocks has been slowly increasing through were once much more saline than previously found to contain traces of net additions of juvenile water from they are now (Nature, 395, 1998, oil are about half that age, and the Earth's interior and/or via 564-5). interesting because this very ancient cometary impacts. Or perhaps any fossil oil may contain biomarkers Globally, there are around 1016 gains have been offset by losses that can provide information about tonnes of eva~orites.and if all of through photolytic dissociation of Archaean life-forms, which are - to that went back into the oceans, H20, the hydrogen escaping and the say the least-not plentiful as fossils. salinity would go up to 40-45 g I-', oxygen (in part as OH-) being saltier than the Red Sea but much sequestrated in oxidation reactions. Indeed, the fossil record remains less salty than the Dead Sea.