A Partnership for Modeling the Marine Environment of Puget Sound, Washington

Our long-term goals are to develop quantitative understanding of the Sound's circulation and marine ecosystem, and of the sensitivity of the physical and the biological system to natural and human perturbations; and to develop models of Puget Sound that can aid agencies with responsibilities for environmental management in making informed decisions and serve as marine science education tools. Our partnership will develop, maintain and operate a suite of flexibly linked simulation models of Puget Sound's circulation and ecosystem, a data management system for archiving and exchanging oceanographic data and model results that are accessible to all members of the partnership as well as to the regional and oceanographic community, and an effective delivery interface for the model results and observational data for research, education and policy formulation. Our partnership will conduct scientific research aimed at developing fundamental understanding of the Sound's working, as well as addressing practical questions raised by the regional community concerning management of the Sound and its resources. Our partnership will function as an estuarine research node within the NOPP Ocean Information Commons.
A National Oceanographic Partnership Program Award. Prepared in cooperation with University of Washington, Dept. of Education, Seattle, WA; Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego, CA; Ocean Inquiry Project, Seattle, WA; Washington Dept. of Ecology, Olympia, WA; and King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks, Seattle, WA.