Pan American Advanced Studies Institute (PASI): Toward a Sustained Operational River-To-Shelf Observation and Prediction System for the Amazon; Niteroi, Brazil, 2013.

Stevens Institute Of Technology, Hoboken NJ

Investigators

Abstract

A Pan American Advanced Studies Institute (PASI) entitled "Toward a Sustained Operational River-to-Shelf Observation & Prediction System for the Amazon" will be held in Niteroi, Brazil, in 2013. The Principal Investigator, Michael Bruno (Stevens Institute of Technology), will be joined on the organizing committee by Alberto Figueiredo (Universidade Federal Flumenense, Brazil), Belmiro Castro (Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil), Pedro Walfir (Universidade Federal do Para, Brazil), Christophe Proisy (Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, French Guiana), and Charles Nittrouer (University of Washington, Seattle). This workshop is intended to inform U.S. participants of the unique physical oceanographic, hydrodynamic, sediment transport, and coastal sedimentation that affect the ecosystems characteristics of the Amazon fluvial-coast-shelf region, and to build working relationships between the region?s scientists and engineers and their U.S. counterparts, as well as among scientists working in various disciplines. The PASI will lay the groundwork for sustained scientific exchange among the faculty and students of the participating U.S. and Latin American universities and organizations. The Amazon River system (river-to-shelf) represents an extraordinary opportunity for the scientific community to gain insights and understanding of the complex interactions among freshwater outflows, significant sediment loading, a complex coastline, and an energetic coastal ocean out to the shelf break. The Amazon River fluvial-coast-shelf system produces unique sediment transport processes (e.g., fluid muds in the river delta) and physical oceanographic dynamics (e.g., estuary-like phenomena that extend onto the continental shelf break and produce complex open-ocean dynamics). Lessons learned in the Amazon River system can be extrapolated to fluvial-coast-shelf systems elsewhere in the world, including those occurring in human-altered environments and those that have remained like the Amazon largely pristine. Enhanced understanding of the Amazon system will also support local efforts to manage and preserve this vital natural resource for future generations.