Basic Tenets for Coastal Ocean Ecosystems Monitoring

Describing and understanding how the coastal ocean works requires a systems science approach, including long-term observations and model simulations. These are prerequisites to predicting the outcomes of either natural or human-induced occurrences. Applications to societally relevant issues such as ecology, coastal resiliency, and alternative energy resources all have the coastal ocean circulation as their starting point. Ecology provides an example. The circulation is what unites nutrients with light, fueling primary productivity and higher trophic level interactions, and the circulation largely determines the water properties in which organisms reside. Ecology, in essence, integrates all processes responsible for organism success. A rationale and a design are developed for a comprehensive coastal ocean observing and modeling system off Florida\u27s west coast. Applications are provided demonstrating the utility of such a coastal ocean observing and modeling system for addressing problems of societal importance