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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Researchers to begin pole-to-pole marine surveyCoastal biodiversity to be inventoried from Alaska to AntarcticaFAIRBANKS, Alaska—Roughly translated, nagisa is a Japanese word that describes the narrow zone where land impacts the sea. NaGISA also is the name of a new international research effort to inventory the diversity of marine life along the world's coasts, including Alaska's vast coastline. The Census of Marine Life is funding the NaGISA program, which stands for Natural Geography In Shore Areas. The Census of Marine Life is a ten-year $100 million program to assess the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine organisms in the world's oceans. In addition to NaGISA, the Center is funding research aimed at inventorying marine species in the deep oceans. Recently, the Census of Marine Life selected the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences (SFOS) as headquarters for the NaGISA program's Eastern Pacific efforts. The Alaska center will coordinate an Arctic to Antarctic survey of nearshore species diversity. The "pole-to-pole" assessment will be done with the help of scientists from Canada, the United States, Mexico and South America. Researchers at Kyoto University's Seto Marine Biological Laboratory in Japan will coordinate a similar marine survey around the Equator. SFOS researchers Dr. Katrin Iken and Dr. Brenda Konar will lead the Alaska research for the NaGISA program. Iken and Konar received a share of a $310,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to conduct planning efforts related to the surveys, and to solicit collaborators. Part of the grant went to help establish the Kyoto University center. Funding to conduct fieldwork in Alaska is being provided by a two-year $480,000 grant from the Gulf Ecosystem Monitoring Program (GEM), a long-term monitoring program established by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council. "The nearshore environment is important to more fully understand because this is the area that people interact with most, and impact the most," said Katrin Iken. "There are a lot of species we don't know about that live in nearshore habitats. This project will help us to better understand just how diverse our coastal waters are, because species diversity is often a good indicator of environmental health." The global surveys will use standardized methods and protocols so that results can be discussed and compared by researchers doing the same work in other parts of the world. "Biodiversity studies have been done in the past," said Konar, "But global comparisons cannot be made because widely varying methods were used. That's the unique and important element of these new efforts. We will all use the same protocols, so our results can be compared and discussed." Konar and Iken will begin field surveys along Alaska's coastline next summer. The GEM-funded studies will catalog nearshore marine life in Alaska's Kachemak Bay, Kodiak Island and Prince William Sound. Future work with other funding agencies will survey coastal biodiversity in the Beaufort Sea, the Aleutian Islands and Antarctica. The Census of Marine Life is a program within the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE). CORE is a Washington, D.C., based association of U.S. oceanographic research institutions, universities, laboratories and aquaria. Its 68 members represent the nucleus of U.S. research and education about the ocean. Funding for the Census of Marine Life comes primarily
from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the National Oceanographic Partnership
Program, the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Web LinksAlaska NaGISA ContactsDr. Katrin Iken, Assistant Professor of Marine Biology Dr. Brenda Konar, Assistant Professor of Marine Science |
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