Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry

SSC nominations due November 19

Call for SSC nominations OCB is seeking nominations for new Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) members, including a new early career SSC member. To qualify for the early career slot, a nominee must have completed a PhD within the last 4 years; both postdoctoral researchers and faculty members are eligible. For the early career nominees who […]

Submit your plenary session ideas for OCB2022!

OCB2022 will take place June 20-23, 2022 in Woods Hole, MA. We want to hear your ideas on plenary sessions for this meeting – please submit here.

The ephemeral and elusive COVID blip in ocean carbon

The global pandemic of the last nearly two years has affected all of us on a daily and long-term basis. Our planet is not exempt from these impacts. Can we see a signal of COVID-related CO2 emissions reductions in the ocean? In a recent study, Lovenduski et al. apply detection and attribution analysis to output […]

Bacterial fingerprints as a tool for large-scale functional ecology

Unravelling the relationship between biological diversity and ecosystem functions is a timeless question which dates back to the expeditions of Alexander von Humboldt in the early 1800′. At the base of the marine foodweb, marine prokaryotes are essential for ecosystem functioning. Measuring their biogeography and functional traits therefore merits investigation as alterations in their alpha […]

pH: the secrets that you keep

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines ocean acidification as “a reduction in pH of the ocean over an extended period, typically decades or longer, caused primarily by the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere” (Rhein et al., 2013, p. 295). Does this mean that a greater change in pH at the ocean surface relative […]

Exploiting phytoplankton as a biosensor for nutrient limitation

In the surface ocean, phytoplankton growth is often limited by a scarcity of key nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron. While this is important, there are methodological and conceptual difficulties in characterizing these nutrient limitations. A recent paper published in Science Magazine leveraged a global metagenomic dataset from Bio-GO-SHIP to address these challenges. The […]

2022 OCB Activity Solicitation

2022 OCB Activity Solicitation The Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Program is soliciting proposals for OCB activities that will take place or begin during the 2022 calendar year. Due to ongoing COVID-related uncertainties, in-person activities should include contingency plans in case delays or cancellations are necessary. We seek proposals for OCB-relevant workshops and activities as […]

SAVE THE DATE: Virtual Community Meeting on pre-Arctic-COLORS Data Synthesis

SAVE THE DATE: Virtual Community Meeting on pre-Arctic-COLORS Data Synthesis As NASA prepares for the Arctic-COLORS large-scale field campaign (https://arctic-colors.gsfc.nasa.gov/) in the near future, it is imperative to identify and characterize existing field data sets, modeling activities, and remote sensing capabilities within the coastal Arctic region that make up the Arctic-COLORS study domain. To work […]

Save the Date: Daily to Decadal Ecological Forecasting along North American Coastlines Workshop

Daily to Decadal Ecological Forecasting along North American Coastlines Workshop, a joint workshop between OCB and US CLIVAR will take place April 12-14, 2022. Currently the plan is to host the workshop in person in Woods Hole, MA with virtual participation options. Coastal areas share unique intersections of large-scale climate variability and local hydrology, wetland, […]