names using general knowledge of ocean and global geography. The oddly rectilinear
boundaries are an artifact introduced by Longhurst’s boundary selection algorithm;
real ocean boundaries are often extensive gradients, are generally smoothly curved,
and move about substantially.
(^) (After Longhurst 2006.)
(^) Longhurst’s province analysis has become the subject of recurring review by the
International Ocean-Colour Coordinating Group (IOCCG 2009), which posts its
reports on the worldwide web in the publications-and-reports section at
[http://www.ioccg.org/. The 2009 report is an extensive discussion of the modes of](http://www.ioccg.org/. The 2009 report is an extensive discussion of the modes of)
province identification from satellite data. One rationale for this work is to define
zones in which the parameters affecting primary production will be roughly the same
at least within seasons; that is, the subsurface profile of phytoplankton abundance and
the P vs. E relations (specifically Pmax and α) can be expected to be relatively
constant. In addition it is hoped that the full suite of food-web relations from nutrients
to whales will be consistent and, thus, somewhat predictable from satellite color
observations.
(^) Recent research in oceanic biological oceanography has been partly organized as
programs targeting specific biomes or ecosystems, or sometimes repeatedly crossing
several of them. As examples, the subarctic Pacific was approached by the SUPER,
SERIES and SEEDS programs (Miller 1993; Boyd et al. 2004; Uematsu 2009); the
North Pacific subtropical gyre by the Hawaii ocean time-series (HOT); the North
Atlantic subtropical gyre by the Bermuda Atlantic time-series (BATS) studies (e.g.
Siegel et al. 2001); the Antarctic by the US Southern Ocean JGOFS–AESOPS
Program (Smith & Anderson 2000a,b) and the Australian BROKE–West study (Nicol
2010); and the Atlantic from subarctic to subantarctic by the AMT project (Robinson