Networking the Infrastructure of Coastal Laboratories

How might the coastal laboratories organize to become a truly functional network? In answering this question we must first identify those elements of infrastructure, including facilities, services, and programs, that support the academic, research, and public service missions of coastal laboratories. Then we must identify mechanisms that will enable, where appropriate, the sharing of these infrastructural elements by the coastal labs and their user constituents. In this essay I also outline the siting and structuring of coastal facilities in the past, trusting that history will inform our efforts to meet current and future challenges and opportunities in coastal zone research. In the end I propose some specific activities at coastal labs that seem ripe for networking.