Das Projekt "SO-JGOFS: Gemeinsame Studie zu Stroemungen im suedlichen Ozean" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Stiftung Alfred-Wegener-Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung e.V. (AWI) durchgeführt. During the first five years of the IGBP Work Plan of 1994-1998, the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) goals were aimed at understanding the biogeochemical processes affecting the time-varying fluxes of carbon and associated elements within the ocean and across its boundaries. The primary objective is to assess more accurately and to understand better the processes controlling regional-global and seasonal-interannual fluxes of carbon between the atmosphere and the upper ocean, the ocean interior in order to assess their sensitivity to climate forcing and change. By the end of 1998, most JGOFS field programs will have been achieved, which are now reported in various scientific products. Southern Ocean JGOFS e.g. has published 3 Special Issues of Deep-Sea Research besides various articles in Nature and other scientific journals. The diverse JGOFS ocean data sets are comprised of biological, chemical and physical observations, according to standard protocols for the JGOFS core measurements (Report No. 19), and are being managed and archived by many large national programs and subsets of these large diverse data sets are provided to all scientists in the form of CD-ROMs and off the Internet. Initial biogeochemical models are being developed and evaluated, which reflect our basic understanding of the processes controlling carbon fluxes (see JGOFS Report Nos. 23 and 24). By the end of 1999, with few exceptions, the international JGOFS will have completed its 10-year fieldwork plan and will enter its global synthesis plan of the field results, which will be completed by the Year 2004.