Contact: Dane Konop                FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  
                                   2/4/98

"NOAA will award $2.1 million over the coming year to university, NOAA and other government agency scientists to study unusual environmental conditions or impacts associated with El Nino, especially those having identifiable social or economic impacts," said D. James Baker, under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.

Daily measurements of ocean temperatures by NOAA's network of environmental satellites and climate buoys in the subtropical Pacific Ocean show that the current El Nino is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, El Nino event ever. But while this El Nino will certainly continue to have an enormous impact on the United States over the coming months, particularly as its effects propagate northward along the U.S. Pacific coast, scientists are not sure exactly what these impacts will be.

Will coastal storms be more intense and frequent? Will populations of fish be helped or hurt? Will coastal erosion be worse than normal, and by how much? What are El Ni¤o's effects on coral reefs, and can we differentiate between El Ni¤o's effects and local impacts on corals, such as pollution? The research NOAA is funding should go a long way toward answering these and other questions so important to American coastal residents and the nation as a whole.

The following are the funded research projects, by principal investigator:

A. Alldredge and M. Brzezinski, U. of Calif. at Santa Barbara, Impact of El Nino on Linkages Between Water Column Processes and Sedimentation in Santa Barbara Basin.
J. Bane, U. North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Synoptic Observations of the Coastal Atmosphere in the Southern California Bight During a Large El Nino Event.
M. Bushnell, NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Drifting Buoy Arrays in U.S. Coastal and Offshore Regions.
D. Crocker, D. Costa and B. Le Boeuf, U. of Calif. at Santa Cruz, The Effect of the 1997/1998 El Nino on Foraging Behavior and Reproduction of Northern Elephant Seals.
D. Croll, U. Calif. at Santa Cruz, El Nino Impacts on Trophic Links in Monterey Bay.
T. Hayward, Scripps Inst. of Oceanography, Technical Support for Monthly CalCOFI Monitoring Surveys.
A. W. Kendall and J. M. Knapp, NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Impacts of the 1997/1998 El Nino on the Ecosystem of the Coastal Gulf of Alaska: Augmentation of the Ongoing FOCI Monitoring.
O. Persson, U. Colorado, Airborne Measurement of Air-Sea Fluxes in the Eastern Pacific Ocean During an El Nino Winter.
F. Ralph, NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory, Improved Measurement and Prediction of Severe Coastal Weather in Winter Storms in California During the 1997/1998 El Nino.
D. Rogers, Scripps Inst. of Oceanography, The Response of the Coastal Ocean and Atmosphere to an ENSO event.
M. Shapiro, NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory, Enhancement of Upper Air Measurements During El Nino for Research and Operations.
J. D. Schumacher and P. J. Stabeno, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Impacts of the 1997/1998 El Nino on the Ecosystem of the Coastal Gulf of Alaska: Augmentation of the Ongoing FOCI Monitoring.
P. Smith, G. Moser and J. Hunter, NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center, CalCOFI Monitoring of the 1997-98 El Nino: Technical Support for Measuring Reproductive Response of Fishes.
W. Sydeman and N. Nur, Point Reyes Bird Observatory; D. Bertram, Simon Fraser U.; V. Byrd, U.S. F.W.S.; S. Hatch, U.S.G.S.; J. Parrish. U. Wash.; E. Murphy, U. Alaska at Fairbanks, El Nino 1997-1998 and Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Productivity for the California Current, Gulf of Alaska, and Bering Sea Coastal Marine Ecosystems.
M. Tegner, P. Dayton and J. Largier, Scripps Inst. of Oceanography, Nutrient Effects on Primary and Secondary Productivity in Kelp Forest Communities.
J. Wilczak, NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory, Upper Ocean Thermal Structure and its Influence on Land Falling Storms.