How will the key science questions be addressed?

Plankton

How will microbial/phytoplankton components of the marine food web respond to variation in environmental forcing including global change?

How will zooplankton components of the marine food web respond to variation in environmental forcing including global change?

What has caused the dramatic decline in silicate concentrations and changes in the phytoplankton community?

These questions will be partly addressed through the local observations of pCO2 at the Maria Island National Reference Station and other observations.

Mid-trophic levels

How will nekton components of the marine food web respond to variation in environmental forcing including global change?

How will commercial fish stocks respond to variation in environmental forcing including global change?

How does the environmental variability affect regional primary, secondary and tertiary productivity?

What is the role of mesoscale variability in regional and local productivity?

How interconnected are our populations of mobile species?

These questions will be partly addressed through the local observations of pCO2 at the Maria Island National Reference Station and other observations.

Benthos

How will benthic communities respond to variation in environmental forcing including global change?

These questions will be partly addressed through the local observations of pCO2 at the Maria Island National Reference Station and other observations.

What are the long term impacts of climate variability on benthic ecology?

What determines the variation in Centrostephanus rodgersii and of Macrosystis pyrifera?

Ocean Chemistry - nutrients

What are the relations among biodiversity, structure, function, and stability of marine ecosystems?

This will be addressed through modelling based partly on IMOS observations.

Can we make this marine science properly quantitative and thus provide ongoing and timely advice to governments to aid the stewardship of the planet and the marine ecosystems?

This will be addressed by the Node members with assistance from a range of IMOS supported observations.

How does the environmental variability affect regional primary, secondary and tertiary productivity?

What is the role of mesoscale variability in regional and local productivity?

How interconnected are our populations of mobile species?

Can we make this marine science properly quantitative and thus provide ongoing and timely advice to governments to aid the stewardship of the planet and the marine ecosystems?

This will be addressed by the Node members with assistance from a range of IMOS supported observations.