A nationwide research organization that studies the potential effects of global climate change on animal populations in the sea has placed its headquarters at the University of California, Davis. GLOBEC -- Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics -- is a research initiative including scientists at approximately 15 institutions throughout the United States. Coordinating the group is Thomas M. Powell, a professor of environmental studies at UC Davis and chair of the U.S. GLOBEC scientific steering committee. As a component of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, GLOBEC focuses on studies of the basic mechanisms that influence the abundance of animal populations in the oceans. Many scientists believe that long-term global climate changes will result in worldwide warming, changes in rainfall patterns and a rise in sea levels. Marine environments would then experience secondary physical effects ranging from large-scale changes in freshwater flows into the Gulf of Alaska to smaller-scale changes in water turbulence and stirring. Since plankton -- the tiny animals and plants that float in the ocean -- are the most abundant marine life forms and the most likely creatures to be affected by physical changes in their watery environment, GLOBEC researchers will concentrate on how plankton and the early life stages of fish would be affected as individual organisms and as populations. Researchers at UC Davis are currently involved in two GLOBEC research projects, both housed in the campus's Center for Population Biology. Marc Mangel, a professor of zoology, is collaborating on a research program intended to develop a model that will predict how patches of small fish and their predators will respond to global climate change. Louis Botsford, a professor of wildlife and fisheries biology, together with Powell, Assistant Professor Mark Patterson, Associate Professor James Quinn, and Professor Alan Hastings, all of environmental studies, are part of a team developing a model and analysis of how animals like the Dungeness crab and sea urchins will be affected by physical variations in the ocean resulting from global climate changes. Noting the irony of headquartering a marine research project at an inland university, Powell stresses that UC Davis, which administers the Bodega Marine Laboratory, has a strong core of researchers involved in marine studies. In particular, the campus is nationally recognized for its population biology research and scientists involved with quantitative modelling in ecology. "The location of the U.S. GLOBEC administrative offices at UC Davis will allow the campus to apply its strengths in ways that have not been done previously," Powell said. The U.S. GLOBEC headquarters will bring $1.2 million to UC Davis to pay for administrative costs, according to Powell. He anticipates that GLOBEC's current annual research budget of $4 million, will grow to $15 million in the next two years to support research nationwide. U.S. researchers will participate in four major GLOBEC international field projects that are currently under way or in the planning stages, according to Powell. These projects will focus on the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Coast waters, the Arabian Sea and the oceans surrounding Antarctica. GLOBEC, which was established in 1988 and is now locating its first administrative headquarters, is cooperatively funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.