Research challenges
Habitats and their functional relationship to marine resources
The research community understands that a high-priority research challenge is to define the habitats and their functional relationships to marine resources. This can be described as the composition of habitats, their functionality, and structure. To keep pace with management needs, researchers not only need to provide information on more than the components and structure of habitats and ecosystems, but also the functional relationships between these components. For managers, habitats include the water column as well as the benthos. Thus the chemistry, hydrography and biology of the water column are as important as the benthic habitats and associated geology, chemistry, biology, and physics. Applying these oceanographic disciplines to fisheries management research is a major challenge. Funding is a major incentive, however if different disciplines cooperate toward a common goal, then integration is achievable.