Establishment of CeROS. CeROS is a new research center that was established in 2003 with support from Tulane University and the Lallage Feazel Wall Fund. CeROS builds upon our existing strengths: ideal geographic location; a strong existing nucleus of respected scientists; and, a proven track record in river-ocean research and education. Our specific focus on major rivers is an important niche within global change research, which extends beyond the Mississippi River and coastal Louisiana to comparative examinations of other major rivers throughout the nation and world. Altogether, the key individuals within our partnership have research experience in 7 of the top 10 major world river systems and have research pending in others. As a result, we are collectively an experienced, diverse and active group in the field of river-ocean studies. We were instrumental in initiating and leading an NSF-sponsored workshop (RiOMar: River-dominated Ocean Margins; www.tulane.edu/~riomar). As part of the US Global Change Research Program (www.usgcrp.gov), the focus of the workshop was on the transport, transformation and fate of carbon in river-dominated ocean margins and the role of RiOMar environments in the global carbon cycle and global change. A workshop report (McKee et al., 2003a) was published in July 2003 and is also available to the scientific community on the RiOMar web site. CeROS builds upon the ideas developed during this community workshop.

Rationale for CeROS. Understanding, and coping with, global change is one of the largest science/technology and societal challenges of this century. It is through the global carbon cycle (atmospheric CO2 levels) that human activities, such as CO2 emissions and deforestation, influence changes in global conditions (e.g., temperature, rainfall, sea-level). Major River systems play an important role (via the carbon cycle) in the natural self-regulation of Earth’s surface conditions by serving as a major sink for anthropogenic CO2. Approximately 90% of global carbon burial occurs in ocean margins, with the majority of this thought to be buried in river-dominated margins. Rivers and associated ocean margins are extremely important environmental features in terms of direct impact on humans (providing drinking water; permitting transportation, agriculture, and fisheries) and the impact produced by human activities (pollution, eutrophication, coastal hypoxia, land-use practices, diversions and dams). There is a clear need for the promotion, facilitation and coordination of interdisciplinary research in nationally and globally important river-ocean environments, and to bring this “best available science” to students of all levels, the general public, and to managers and policy makers. Important management issues on water use, river diversions, coastal hypoxia and fisheries production, require such information. CeROS was established to be the nexus for these important research and education/outreach issues. Our vision is to develop an integrated, inter-disciplinary understanding of major river-ocean environments; to build partnerships with governmental, business and academic institutions so that this understanding is effectively applied; and to develop strategies for implementing scientific understanding on a practical level through aggressive knowledge transfer and strong education initiative.

Research. In addition to our research activity in World Rivers outside the U.S., we have taken a leadership role, during the past 5 years, in several multi-investigator river-ocean research projects associated with the Mississippi River. These include: (1) The MiRIR Program (Mississippi River Interdisciplinary Research; www.lumcon.edu/mirir), a multi-investigator study of the lower Mississippi River and the adjacent continental shelf; (2) The LEAG program (Long-term Estuarine Assessment Group; www.leag.org), under which initial steps are underway to establish a long-term observatory station on the Mississippi River near New Orleans; and, (3) A five-year NASA-EPSCoR project, which is establishing vital baseline information about biogeochemical cycles in the coastal zone of the Mississippi River, and is facilitating satellite observation of Mississippi River impacts in the coastal zone. We have had a number of other 1-3 PI projects (funded by NSF, ONR, NOAA, DOE, NASA and USGS) during the past five years that focused on various aspects of river-ocean research. Over the next 10 years, the Mississippi River (the largest river in North America) and its vast drainage basin (41% of the conterminous US) will be an important focus of The North American Carbon Program (www.carboncyclescience.gov), and as part of the initial phases of this program, members of our team have received funding from the NSF-sponsored Integrated Carbon Cycle Program to examine organic carbon signals in the ocean margin adjacent to the Mississippi River.

Tulane River Scholar in Residence. We have initiated a CeROS Scientist-in-Residence Program to be entitled “the Tulane River Scholar in Residence”. We are recruiting a senior, high-profile, world-class scientist to join our team for a year (via partial support of sabbatical leave or leave of absence). Wee seek a prominent senior scientist, with high credibility and visibility in the national and international community, to be a valuable mentor to students and faculty.