Abstract
DURING the past several years there has been increasing interest in oceanographic research in the United States, which led to the foundation of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and a special department of the University of Washington, both with well-equipped vessels. From these, and the already established laboratories, there has come very real contributions to our knowledge of the oceans— the nature and causes of the current systems on one hand, and, on the other, studies in the varying productivity of the waters in plant and animal life. It is gratifying that Great Britain is now engaging in active co-operation with the Woods Hole Institute in a survey of the fluctuations from year to year in the current system of the north-west Atlantic, for which the Royal Society is now fitting out a vessel. The annual crop of scientific papers dealing with oceanography has grown rapidly. American contributions appear in rather many and diverse journals, both American and European, so the birth in November last of the Journal of Marine Research comes at a time when its growth is likely to be rapid. It is published by the Sears Foundation, Oceanographic Laboratory of Yale University, and its scope includes articles on physical meteorological theory, owing to the “intimate connection between hydrospheric and atmospheric events in nature, and to the virtual identity of dynamic methods and theory in Meteorology and Oceanography”. The six contributions appearing in the first number are equally divided between physical and biological subjects, and include an article on evaporation from the oceans by H. U. Sverdrup, now director of the Scripps Institute, on seasonal variations in the water of San Juan Channel, and on a survey off the mouth of the Mississippi, showing effects of river water and the distribution of phytoplankton.
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Journal of Marine Research . Nature 141, 548–549 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141548c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141548c0