MODELING MARINE ECOSYSTEMS AS A DISCIPLINE IN EARTH-SCIENCE

Faced with the imperatives of sustainable development, Earth Science m ust open to the study of ecosystems and their interactions with a mult iscale geophysical environment. The indispensable development of inter disciplinary Earth Science models requires that the crafts and skills of physicists, chemists and biologists merge and cross-fertilize, with often a long way to go for each discipline to win over the others. Th is paper contains the reflections, queries and suggestions of a marine hydrodynamicist trying to develop coupled physical, chemical and biol ogical marine models and negotiating admittance in the Biogeochemistry Club. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.