Regional Coastal Research--What Is It? Why Do It? What Role Should NAML Play?

Regional coastal (i.e., marine and Great Lakes) research is an increasingly popular, but still illdefined, activity. The purpose of regional research and monitoring is to help us understand how events and processes at higher levels of organization, over larger spaces and longer times, influence local ecosystems of interest or concern. Research at this scale will require us to work in larger multidisciplinary and multi-institutional teams than we traditionally have. A survey of papers published in Estuaries, Continental Shelf Research, and Deep Sea Research confirms the impression that estuarine studies are more commonly carried out by one or two investigators, and that those investigators are commonly from a single institution. However, the most important challenge facing coastal ecologists as they embark on largerscale research lies, not in increasing collaboration, but in their traditional approach to science. We marine ecologists too often indulge in elaborate post hoc explanations for the behavior of the complex systems we study, rather than focusing on the development and testing of falsifiable empirical theories. Moreover, we tend to describe our research priorities and accomplishments using fuzzy terms and concepts that seldom have clear operational definitions. As a result, we are in danger of losing the confidence and support of the public and the science funding agencies. It will not do to embark on regional research by simply trying to measure more things in more places more often. The coastal marine research community, perhaps through the National Association of Marine Laboratories (NAML), must reexamine the way it has been doing research. We will have to do smarter science if we are going to prosper in a future of diminished resources.