Residual Currents and Long-term Transport

Growing public concern worldwide about our coastal bays and estuaries recently has focused attention on these ecosystems, but without a defensible, coherent scientific plan responsive research efforts are less efficient and less cost-effective than otherwise might be possible. The scientific community has both an opportunity and an obligation to respond to this renewed public interest. If the scientific response is neither immediately forthcoming nor cohesive, the governmental and public focus on these highly stressed environments will run its course without provision of adequate scientific input. Many physical studies of estuaries are local, focusing on small-scale issues rather than on fundamental physics or global truths. Emphasis on understanding of physics of basic processes has been neglected in favor of more descriptive, locallytuned models. The estuarine scientific community has a long history of independence and autonomy in research projects, lacking a coherent thrust (despite the preparation of many planning documents). Needed in the future is an improved balance between site-specific, local studies and process-oriented studies of basic physics that provide more general knowledge independent of site. Also required are institutional mechanisms for deriving a coherent, workable, and international estuarine research plan cognizant of both sitespecific and general needs, and for nurturing such plans through the increasingly competitive processes of funding. The individual researcher must accept increased responsibility for furthering the goals of the estuarine community, and in assuring the highest quality of scientific merit in estuarine programs. Without such scientific credibility, estuarine research cannot compete successfully with other oceanographic programs for increasingly tight funding.