General context
The motivation driving oceanographic research traditionally stems from questions of a fundamental nature (for example, geochemical cycles or the functioning of ecosystems) or those arising from practical concerns (for example, marine pollution or food resources for commercial fisheries). Since the beginning of the 1970s, the rapid development of measurement techniques has allowed researchers to approach traditional questions using data from biological, chemical and physical observations obtained across a broad range of scales.

Some of the most important discoveries have been:

• identifying the importance of meso-scale processes (fronts, eddies) for oceanic circulation and the distribution of chemical and biological properties in the marine environment
• understanding the regional and planetary role of large-scale oscillations (for example, ENSO and NAO)
• quantifying the amount of dissolved organic material in the ocean (more than 90% of oceanic organic carbon)
• conceptualizing the major role played by marine microbial organisms in the cycling of elements in marine ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles

These discoveries, along with many others, have completely transformed oceanographic research.

The last decade of the 20th century has been marked by the emergence and acknowledgement of global environmental problems (for example, climate change, global pollution, and the collapse of resources that had previously been renewable). Large concerted research programs have arisen as a response from governments and the scientific community to address these global problems caused by human activity. The existence of these programs, since the late-1980s, has changed oceanography in as profound a way as the technological advancements during the 1970s and the major discoveries closing that decade.