Let us know if you are interested in the upcoming OCB Workshop on Extreme Events (learn more here).
Let us know if you are interested in the upcoming OCB Workshop on Extreme Events (learn more here).
The US Carbon Cycle Science Program and the North American Carbon Program are in the midst of planning a workshop on research opportunities, partnerships and investments of Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR). The intended workshop participants include funders, scientists, policy-makers and practitioners with expertise, resources and/or capabilities to inform federal CDR research opportunities, partnerships and investments related to air, land, coasts and societal dimensions of CDR.
This virtual workshop will be conducted on Monday August 1, 2022; Tuesday August 2, 2022; and Thursday August 4, 2022. (Friday August 12, 2022 – hold for work sessions if needed).
If you are interested in participating, and/or would like to provide input into the workshop planning, please complete this Expression of Interest Form.
SOCATv2022 is now available via www.socat.info!
The ocean absorbs a quarter of the global CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions from human activity. The community-led Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (www.socat.info)is key for the quantification of ocean CO2 uptake and its variation, now and in the future. SOCAT version 2022 has quality-controlled in situ surface ocean fCO2(fugacity of CO2) measurements made on ships, moorings, autonomous and drifting surface platforms for the global ocean and coastal seas from 1957 to 2021. The main SOCAT synthesis and gridded products contain 33.7 million fCO2values with an estimated accuracy of < 5 μatm. A further 6.4 million fCO2 sensor data with an accuracy of 5 to 10 μatm are separately available. SOCAT is used for quantification of ocean CO2 uptake and ocean acidification and for evaluation of climate models and sensor data. The SOCAT synthesis products are a crucial step in the value chain based on in situ inorganic carbon measurements of the ocean, which provides policy makers with vital information in climate negotiations. The need for accurate knowledge of global ocean CO2 uptake and its variation makes sustained funding of in situ surface ocean CO2 observations and their synthesis imperative.
A massive thank you to everyone who has contributed to the timely, annual release of SOCATv2022!
No single program has been as transformative for ocean science over the past two decades as Argo: the fleet of robotic instruments that collect measurements of temperature and salinity in the upper 2 km of the ocean around the globe. The Argo program has been instrumental in revealing changes to ocean heat content, global sea level, and patterns of ice melt and precipitation. In addition, Biogeochemical Argo—the branch of the Argo program focused on floats with additional biological and chemical sensors—has recently shed light on topics such as regional patterns of carbon production and export, the magnitude of carbon dioxide air-sea flux in the Southern Ocean (thanks to the SOCCOM project), and the dynamics modulating ocean oxygen concentrations and oxygen minimum zones. While Argo data are publicly available in near-real-time via two Global Data Assembly Centers, there tends to be a steep learning curve for new users seeking to access and utilize the data.
To address this issue, a team led by scientists at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory developed a software toolbox available in two programming languages for accessing and visualizing Argo data— OneArgo-Mat for MATLAB and OneArgo-R for R. The toolbox includes functions to identify and download float data that adhere to user-defined time and space constraints, and other optional requirements like sensor type and data mode; plot float trajectories and their current positions; filter and manipulate float data based on quality flags and additional metadata; and create figures (profiles, time series, and sections) displaying physical, biological, and chemical properties measured by floats. Examples of figures created using the OneArgo-Mat toolbox are given below (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Example figures created using the OneArgo-Mat toolbox: (A) the trajectory of a float deployed in the North Atlantic from the R/V Johan Hjort in May of 2019, (B) a time series of dissolved oxygen at 80 dbars from that float, and (C) a vertical section plot of nitrate concentrations along the float track from the surface to 300 dbars. The black contour line in panel C denotes the mixed layer depth (MLD) based on a temperature criterion and the red line denotes the depth of the time series shown in panel B. The effects of seasonal phytoplankton blooms are evident in panel C, with mixed layer shoaling in the spring followed by drawdown of nitrate in the surface ocean. Panel B shows that, as the mixed layer deepens through the winter, the oxygen concentration at 80 dbars increases as a result of the oxygenated surface waters reaching that depth. The MATLAB code to download the required data and create all of these plots is shown (D).
The OneArgo-Mat and OneArgo-R toolboxes are intended for newcomers to Argo data, seasoned users, data managers, and everyone in between. For this reason, toolbox functions are equipped with options to streamline float selection, data processing, and figure creation with minimal user coding, if desired. Alternatively, the toolbox also provides rapid and straightforward access to the entire Argo database for experienced users who simply want to download up-to-date profile data for further processing and analysis. The authors hope these new tools will empower current Argo data users and entrain new users, especially as the US GO-BGC Project and US and international Argo partners move toward a global biogeochemical Argo fleet, which will create myriad new opportunities for novel studies of ocean biogeochemistry.
Authors
Jonathan Sharp – Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies (CICOES) & NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL)
Hartmut Frenzel – CICOES & NOAA PMEL
Marin Cornec – University of Washington & NOAA PMEL
Yibin Huang – University of California Santa Cruz & NOAA PMEL
Andrea Fassbender – NOAA PMEL
Ocean acidification research has grown over the past few decades. Much of recent research documents negative impacts of changing carbonate chemistry on calcifying marine organisms in laboratory experiments. At the 2018 Ocean Acidification PI Meeting, a group of us asked “Can these laboratory responses to ocean acidification be scaled up to accurately predict the responses of marine ecosystems?” To answer this research question, we developed a semi-quantitative synthesis of benthic calcifying algae responses to ocean acidification, recently published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science.
Figure 1. Comparing directional responses of individuals and communities to acidification in laboratory and field settings highlights mismatches. Specifically, field studies document higher proportion of negative responses compared to laboratory experiments. We provide a series of recommendations for future research to better bridge this gap of understanding in responses to ocean acidification. Figure modified from Page et al. 2022.
We detail in the paper how the proportion of positive, neutral, and negative responses in laboratory experiments often didn’t match field observations. Additionally, laboratory experiments mainly report short-term responses (days to weeks) across tropical and temperate locations. In contrast, field studies emphasize long-term responses (months to years) from fewer global locations. Using our synthesis, we developed nine recommendations that will enhance our ability to translate laboratory experiment results into actual responses of marine taxa to ongoing and future acidification in the natural environment. These future research directions are applicable not only to ocean acidification studies but can be directly applied to the broader field of climate change. We hope these recommendations will lead to greater confidence in our projections of climate change impacts at different ecological scales, and better inform the conservation and management of our valuable marine ecosystems.
Backstory
Initially, we set out to answer this research question through a meta-analysis comparing the effect size of the impacts of ocean acidification on benthic calcifying macroalgae in laboratory and field settings. We quickly realized this approach was not going to work because of the much smaller number of responses recorded in field settings, the different methods used, and response parameters measured between the laboratory and field; these differences made calculating and comparing effect sizes impossible. Therefore, we landed on the approach of conducting a semi-quantitative synthesis to compare directional responses in laboratory and field settings. The results of this synthesis and the process of developing a robust research approach to answer our question inspired us to discuss and develop the recommendations for future research presented in the paper.
Authors (affils and Twitter handles)
Heather N. Page (Sea Education Association) @heathernicopage
Keisha D. Bahr (Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi) @thebahrlab
Tyler Cyronak (Nova Southeastern University) @tcyronak
Elizabeth B. Jewett (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) @LibbyJewett
Maggie D. Johnson (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) @MaggieDJohnson
Sophie J. McCoy (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) @MarEcology
Dear NASA PIs – We wanted to bring an important topic to your attention: the NASA EOS era is coming to a close.
Terra and Aqua are aging spacecrafts, and while they are still collecting valuable data and producing critical products, the number of spacecraft anomalies is increasing, especially over the past year. The missions are also increasingly expensive to operate (~90 mil/yr; spacecraft operations; product team support); this is starting to cut into the execution of the future ESO missions, as directed to NASA for implementation by the 2017 NASEM Decadal Survey.
Thus, NASA HQ has been discussing when Phase F for Terra, Aura, and Aqua will start, which is their end of life. The current discussions put end of missions likely in 2023. Data collection is being anticipated to stop in the summer of 2023, and missions will likely not participate in the next senior review. This means there would not be an overlap between MODIS and PACE.
The SNPP and JPSS satellites are being looked to for continuity products, though it is not clear how long NOAA intends to operate SNPP; NASA will continue to support them until their end of mission, and the collaboration with future JPSS missions will continue.
We know the Earth observations and data products from MODIS are critical to our community, and we are working to ensure we continue to have stable data products between sensors on Terra, Aqua, SNPP, and JPSS platforms, so that continuity is not interrupted. However, it is critical that we know of issues that you as the community see with the end of MODIS. There may be room for discussion on which data products need to be continued/maintained during KDP-F. We ask that you please let us know your thoughts/concerns regarding the retirement of MODIS in 2023.
Please write directly to Joel/myself with your thoughts/concerns on MODIS datatermination in 2023. We want to make sure we understand all the impacts that the end of Terra and Aqua will have on our community in order to share these with our leadership.
Thank you,
Laura and Joel
Laura Lorenzoni, NASA – laura.lorenzoni@nasa.gov
Joel Scott, NASA – joel.scott@nasa.gov
The 2022 OCB Summer Workshop will be held in-person June 20-23, 2022 at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. We will live stream plenary sessions, and will share recordings after the event. Register for streaming (via Zoom) – one access link for all meeting days.
Follow and contribute to the workshop conversation on Twitter using #OCB2022
OCB2022 Plenary Topics
Closing the gaps in observation-based estimates of air–sea carbon fluxes (June 20)
Co-chairs: Galen McKinley (Columbia University, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory), Peter Landschützer (Max Planck Institute for Meteorology), Tim DeVries (UCSB)
Tidal Carbon Exports from Coastal Wetlands as a Significant Component of Blue Carbon Sequestration (June 22)
Co-chairs: Aleck Wang (WHOI), Jaime Palter (URI), Maria Tzortziou (CUNY/CCNY) Xinping Hu (TAMUCC), Jeff Bowman (SIO)
Extreme Ocean Events (June 20)
Co-chairs: Patrick Rafter (UCI), Victoria Coles (VIMS), Randie Bundy (UW)
Coastal Observing Systems to Understand and Predict Ecosystem Changes (June 23)
Co-chairs: Charlie Stock (NOAA GFDL), Dreux Chappell (ODU), Jeff Bowman (SIO), Susanne Craig (NASA GSFC)
Our Evolving Understanding of Biologically Mediated Carbon Export (June 21)
Co-chairs: Susanne Menden-Deuer (URI), Emily Osborne (NOAA AOML), Seth Bushinsky (UH)
Find more info on the workshop website
GO-BGC Science Webinar 2: Understanding ecological dynamics using BGC-Argo data
Please join us for the quarterly GO-BGC webinar, hosted by the US Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry program. This webinar will be focused on investigations of phytoplankton phenology and variability at regional to global scales using a range of chemical and bio-optical sensors on the BGC-Argo floats. We will hear 3 short presentations about exciting new work in this area, followed by a community discussion about best practices, challenges, and future perspectives of using BGC-Argo data to advance our understanding of ecological dynamics and the footprint of progressive climate change on the ocean. Recordings will be available on the OCB or GO-BGC website.
Agenda for June 29, 10 AM Pacific/ 1 PM Eastern
Yui Takeshita (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute): An update for GO-BGC program
Mariana Bif (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute): The impact of heatwaves on the northeast Pacific ecosystem
Nicholas Bock (Columbia University): Biogeographical classification of the global ocean from BGC-Argo Floats
Marin Cornec (NOAA Pacific Environmental Laboratory): Dynamics of the deep chlorophyll maxima at a global scale based on bio-optical measurements of BGC-Argo floats
Discussion
GO-BGC Webinar Series Overview
Hundreds of Biogeochemical (BGC) profiling floats have been deployed worldwide, and the number of floats is expected to continue to increase in the coming years. Specifically, the Global Ocean Biogeochemistry Array (GO-BGC) is a NSF Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure project that is funded to deploy 500 BGC floats globally over the next 5 years. We expect additional significant contributions from other US and international institutions, which will build towards a sustained global array of BGC-Argo floats.
The quality-controlled, freely available data from these floats are transforming our capacity to observe, quantify, and understand ocean biogeochemical processes and how they are responding to anthropogenic pressures (e.g., acidification and deoxygenation). With improved constraints on the biological carbon pump and air-sea CO2 exchange, these data sets will also inform marine ecosystem management and decision making.
This webinar series, hosted by GO-BGC and the OCB Project Office, aims to build and support a growing community of biogeochemical float data users. As the BGC-Argo array matures and expands its global coverage, so will the potential for scientific discovery. We hope that the applications and research findings highlighted in this webinar series will demonstrate the potential for these globally distributed datasets and inspire the community to explore novel applications, scientific questions, and new collaborations in the use of BGC-Argo data.
Webinars will be hosted roughly quarterly. Subsequent webinars will focus on scientific or geographic themes. We will highlight emerging research results based on BGC-Argo data, and aim to promote early career researchers. All webinars will be recorded and made available through the OCB and GO-BGC websites.
Organizers
Yui Takeshita, MBARI; Alison Gray, U. Washington; Yibin Huang, NOAA PMEL; Channing Prend, SIO; Jonathan Sharp, NOAA PMEL; Lynne Talley, SIO
OCB Project Office - Heather Benway, Mai Maheigan, Mary Zawoysky
To learn more, visit these websites
GO-BGC l Biogeochemical Argo l SOCCOM
The first webinar of this series was held on March 30th, 10-11 am Pacific/1-2 pm Eastern. It will covered the current status of BGC floats worldwide, projected float deployment locations, and tools that we have developed to streamline data access, followed by community discussion and Q&A.
A community meeting (a repeat of a recent Ocean Sciences Town Hall Meeting to enable broader participation) to learn more about a new NSF EarthCube-funded Research Coordination Network for Marine Ecological Time Series (METS-RCN) tasked with bringing together members of the oceanographic, data science, and informatics communities to build consensus on key components of a FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data model for METS, including common vocabularies, metadata reporting standards, and data citation practices; engage broader METS data users (e.g., modelers, educators, decision makers) to facilitate broader applications of METS data; and build community capacity for METS data analysis, statistical methods, and data-model integration. This town hall meeting will also highlight a concurrent EuroSea-funded project led by members of the RCN leadership team focused on developing a pilot biogeochemical time series data product to help visualize spatial patterns and trends across ocean basins.
AGENDA: FAIR data solutions to support a global observing system of marine ecological time series
1) Overview of METS RCN (Heather Benway, OCB/WHOI)
2) What is FAIR and why do we need it in ocean science? (Adam Shepherd, BCO-DMO)
3) Shipboard time series use cases
3a) Carbon-relevant biogeochemical EOVs in a time series data product (Nico Lange, GEOMAR)
3b) Hawai’i Ocean Time-series (HOT) parameter mapping to Climate & Forecast (CF) vocabulary (Fernando Carvalho-Pacheco, UH)
3c) ENVRI-FAIR and Intelligent query dissolved oxygen use case (Justin Buck, NOC)
4) Q&A and open discussion
May 9, 2022 2:00-3:30 pm EDT
Learn more: https://www2.whoi.edu/site/mets-rcn/
Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal: Essential Science and Problem Solving for Measurement, Reporting, and Verification Workshop
September 27-30, 2022 (The University of Rhode Island)
The central goal of this workshop is to build the OCB community's capacity to conduct research to support the Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of marine CDR by identifying priorities, pathways and best practices in this relatively new area.
The workshop application will open soon. If this sounds interesting to you and you'd like to stay informed about the workshop, please fill out our expression of interest form to help us gauge community interest and ensure that you are notified when the workshop application opens.
Learn more about the dual activity, and the workshop.
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Funding for the Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry Project Office is provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The OCB Project Office is housed at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.