Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry

Seeking nominations for new OCB Subcommittee Ocean Carbonate System Intercomparison Forum (OCSIF)

We are currently seeking nominations for members of a newly established OCSIF topical subcommittee of the OCB SSC – the Ocean Carbonate System Intercomparison Forum (OCSIF). This subcommittee has its origins in the OCB OCSIF working group focused on identifying and addressing uncertainties in the seawater carbonate system and increasing measurement inter-comparability, with goals of […]

OCB Elects Four New SSC Members

OCB is excited to welcome the following new members to the Scientific Steering Committee: Angela Knapp (TAMU) – marine biochemistry, nitrogen fixation, dissolved organic nutrients, marine nitrogen stable isotope geochemistry Elaine Luo (UNC Charlotte) – microbial ecology, computational biology, metagenomics David Harning (CU Boulder) – paleoclimatology, geochemistry, carbon burial, Arctic climate change, carbon dioxide […]

New BECS publication!

The BECS WG paper Elucidating the Role of Marine Benthic Carbon in a Changing World was just published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles. Schultz, C., Luo, J. Y., Brady, D. C., Fulweiler, R. W., Long, M. H., Petrik, C. M., et al. (2025). Elucidating the role of marine benthic carbon in a changing world. Global Biogeochemical […]

OCB turns 20! Please share how OCB has impacted your career trajectory

OCB turns 20! Please share how OCB has impacted your career trajectory Tell us how OCB has impacted you

OSM26 OCB + community events

Events & Workshops (full list) – includes lots of early career support! Demystifying the Tenure Track Pathway (Sunday) Ocean Science Education and Outreach: Broadening the Reach of Your Science (Sunday) #ResearchLifeHack: Building the Ocean Data FAIR Essentials (Discovery, Interoperability, Excellent Documentation, Open Licensing) (Sunday) NSF Ocean Sciences Forum (Tues. @ 16:00) NASA Ocean Programs […]

PAUSE on all bulk travel requests

Until further notice, OCB will not be able to consider bulk travel support requests. We will post an announcement if this changes.

Recent Science Highlights

A Microbial Conveyor Belt Beneath the South Pacific

Global overturning circulation is a planetary conveyor belt: dense waters sink around Antarctica, spread through the deep ocean for centuries, and eventually rise elsewhere, redistributing heat, nutrients, and carbon. But how does this slow, pervasive movement of water impact marine microbes? To find out, researchers collected over 300 water samples spanning the full depth […]

Marine plant metabolites give marine microbes gas

A recent study in Nature Geosciences observed high concentrations of methane overlying permeable (sand) sand sediments in bays in Denmark and Australia. These environments are not one would expect to see methane because they are highly oxygenated and the high concentrations of sulfate in seawater typically inhibit methanogenesis. The authors showed that the methane was […]

From smoke to sea, how wildfire ash reshapes ocean microbial life

When wildfire smoke drifts over the ocean, what happens beneath the waves? As wildfires change in nature and become more frequent, it’s increasingly important to understand how ash deposition affects the ocean’s smallest, yet most essential, inhabitants. In a recent study, the authors investigated how wildfire ash leachate influences coastal microbial communities. Through field incubations […]

How does a persistent eddy impact the biological carbon pump?

The Lofoten Basin Eddy (LBE) is a unique and persistent anticyclonic feature of the Norwegian Sea that stirs the water column year-round. However, its impact on biogeochemical processes that influence region carbon storage, including carbon fixation, particle aggregation and fragmentation, and remineralization, has remained largely unknown. Using 12 years of data from Biogeochemical-Argo floats and […]

New software enables global ocean biogeochemical modeling in Python

Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you could write and run complex biogeochemical models easily and conveniently in Python? Wonder no more. In a paper published in J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., Samar Khatiwala (2025; see reference below) describes tmm4py, a new software to enable efficient, global scale biogeochemical modelling in […]

Migrating zooplankton increase N2 production in Oxygen Deficient Zones

Diel Vertically Migrating Zooplankton that spend their day in an Oxygen Deficient Zone to avoid predators are a previously ignored source of organic matter for N2 producing bacteria. A recent study in GBC, examined biogeochemical cycling in the offshore Eastern Tropical North Pacific Oxygen Deficient Zone. They found that the daytime maximum in backscattering, used […]