This Internation Project as it was granted by DETR (UK) in April 1999: one of the two projects wich looks suspicious for SBU (Ukrainian KGB)
1999/2000 DARWIN ROUND: PROJECT SUMMARY
Project name, including collaborating countries (not more than 10 words):
Plankton biodiversity and biovariability in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.
Name of organisation/individual and project leader:
Centre for Coastal and Marine Sciences Plymouth Marine Laboratory
R. Williams
No. of people involved:
UK - 1 Host, counties: Ukraine - 15, Kenya - 2. Panama - 2
Need for project:
The macro-scale variability of biodiversity (thousands of km, several months) and the synoptic variability of biodiversity (hundreds of km, several weeks) of the ocean are the most poorly studied ranges in the ecological continuum of spatial-temporal scales. There is a need to understand and quantify changes of biodiversity in marine ecosystems, throughout a wide range of spatial-temporal scales.
There is a great need to rescue now these archived data in the Institutes of the FSU.
Objectives:
a) A co-operation between five Institutes to rescue and compile the oceanographic data sets and releases them on CD-ROM.
The CD-ROM will be made widely available to scientists all over the world.
b) The processing and analyses of the above data should focus international attention on the biodiversity and biovariability of the tropical zones of the world's oceans.
c) To provide assistance (i.e. institutional capacity building) to local Institutes which need support because of insufficient financial resources (MHI and IBSS, Ukraine) and because of a lack of expertise (STRI, Panama and KMFRI, Kenya).
d) To focus on training in Britain (on-the-job training and workshops) for scientists from participating Institutes.
e) To improve the information base at the genus and species levels, and to focus on providing data from the archives in Ukraine, Panama and Kenya for evaluation, modern analysis and for long term study which may have wider impact.
f) New tools will be developed for historical information presentation, analysis and dissemination (CD-ROM, Internet).
Work programme:
a) Selection and rescue of archive data (10 months).
b) Transferring selected data to computer based format (8 months).
c) Data management, construction of data inventories and training programme (grant period).
d) The creation of database on CD-ROM (9 months).
e) Project meetings and preparation of publications (10 months).
f) Design and development of the web site and tools for online data dissemination (8 months).
Outputs, including legacy in place when Darwin funding ceases:
Presentations at Scientific Conferences and Symposia and published papers in international scientific journals, publication of the CD-ROMs, WWW-publishing through CCMS/PML-server.
Increase of the skill base in the participating countries and potential for further collaboration.
Provide environmental education and increased awareness of biodiversity and biovariability of tropical zones of the World�s Oceans.
Timetable (e.g. April 1999 for 3 years):
April 1999 � March 2002.
Monitoring & evaluation:
Full scientific, administrative and financial monitoring will be carried out by CCMS.