historyof marine animal populations（中海洋动物种群）.docVIP

History of Marine Animal Populations Proposal for Phase III, 2003-2004 Submitted to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation By Poul Holm, Andrew Rosenberg, David J. Starkey, Robert C. Francis, Tim D. Smith Executive Summary The Census of Marine Life (CoML) is a decade-long research program that aims to assess and explain what did, what does and what will live in the world’s oceans. Focusing on the historical dimension of this program, the History of Marine Animal Populations (HMAP) program is designed to illuminate the dynamic interplay of anthropogenic and natural factors in the evolution of marine ecosystems. Realizing this vision has so far involved the establishment of HMAP Centers at the universities of New Hampshire, Southern Denmark and Hull (UK), the engagement of over 50 historians and scientists from 18 different countries in seven case study research teams, the development of a sophisticated data management system, and the tuition of 58 research students at two HMAP summer schools and in a range of graduate programs. The research effort has already yielded a series of exciting findings which confirm that HMAP’s innovative multidisciplinary approach can deliver fresh, enlightening perspectives on the process of long-term change in the diversity, distribution and abundance of life in the oceans. In seeking to build on this substantial platform, the HMAP Steering Group now requests funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to support the first two years (2003-2004) of the third phase (HMAP III: 2003-2007) of the History of Marine Animal Populations project. The HMAP Vision Mankind has interacted with the marine and aquatic environments since the earliest times. While animals of all kinds have been harvested in lakes, rivers and estuaries, in coastal waters, and in the open oceans, the welfare of human communities has been influenced by changes in the marine environment. While the history of marine animal populations is today one of the great unkno