进入21世纪，许多学科都对其以往的进展作了回顾，对其未来的发展作了展望；一些大型国际研究计划也在过去所取得的成就的基础上，在世界人口需求的框架下制定了新世纪的目标和研究内容；我国则确定了全面建设小康社会的宏伟目标，并就此制定了国家中长期科学和技术发展规划。结合海洋学科的发展趋势、我国未来社会经济发展的需求、重大国际研究计划的整合动向等3个方面，就我国海洋生态系统基础研究的发展作一些讨论。

As the world turns to the 21st century, new initiatives in marine scientific endeavors have been taken at several fronts. Many oceanographic disciplines have conducted workshops, reviewing their past advances and projecting their future development. Major international marine research programmes have updated their goals and research objectives, analyzing their past achievements and in light of the needs of the world humanity. China has also drafted a strategy study of the science and technology development for its longterm national plan, in response to the goal of “Building a Modest Prosperous Society in All Respects”. In this paper, we discuss the a new direction for China's research on marine ecosystems, based on considerations of the trends of the ocean sciences, the societal needs in view of China's economic development, and the integration steps taken by major international research programmes.