Geo‐Biosphere Proposal

An international, interdisciplinary program to study the closely coupled system of the terrestrial environment and the life that inhabits it has been proposed for later this decade. As currently outlined, the International Geosphere‐Biosphere Program (IGBP) would encompass at least a decade of research and would involve a host of nations. IGBP would embrace studies of physical, biological, and ecological processes. The program, which will focus on global change, will be one of the major topics of discussion this fall at the General Assembly of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU).Development of the concept for IGBP was spearheaded by Herbert Friedman, chairman of the National Research Council (NRC) Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Resources. Following an informal discussion of the program 1 year ago, Friedman publically suggested the international program in April 1983 at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences at a symposium marking the silver anniversary of the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Three months later, the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) gathered more than 40 scientists, government officials, and NRC staff at a workshop in Woods Hole, Mass., to consider the major problems for research in five areas that might be coordinated in IGBP: the atmosphere, oceans, lithosphere, biosphere, and the solar‐terrestrial system.