Vision

COMPASS will help dramatically enhance predictive understanding of coastal systems, including their response to short- and long-term changes.

COMPASS-FME seeks to advance a scalable, predictive understanding of the fundamental biogeochemical processes, ecological structure, and ecosystem dynamics that distinguish coastal terrestrial-aquatic interfaces (TAIs) from the purely terrestrial or aquatic systems to which they are coupled.

To achieve the COMPASS vision, FME will focus on overarching long-term science questions:

  1. What fundamental mechanisms control the structure, function, and evolution of coastal TAIs?
  2. How do these fundamental mechanisms interact across spatial scales, and what interactions are most important to improving predictive models?

The two-year COMPASS-FME pilot study aims to develop predictive understanding of the causes, mechanisms, and consequences of the shift between aerobic and anaerobic conditions at both saltwater and freshwater TAIs.