Researchers measure carbon cycling at continental shelves

The first results of the European Union Shelf Edge Exchange project, a 3-year research program approved by the European Community in 1996, were presented this spring at a workshop entitled “Exchange Processes at the Continent/Ocean Margins in the North Atlantic.” Results presented at the workshop covered a range of topics from the effects of topography on transport processes, to mass balances and fluxes of sediments and particulates, to the carbon cycle. Early results show the importance of filaments in transporting upwelled water offshore, the effects of seasonality in benthic communities, and the infrequent but massive destruction of continental margins that can be caused by sediment instability. Four speakers from North America were invited to the workshop to provide links with North American projects.