The 11th annual Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry summer workshop, sponsored by NSF and NASA, convened 186 participants from July 25-28, 2016 at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, MA.

This year’s summer workshop featured the following six plenary sessions:

Plenary 1. EXport Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing (EXPORTS)
Plenary 2. The biology of carbon export – New processes and approaches
Plenary 3. Recent advances in quantifying ocean carbon uptake
Plenary 4. Quantifying ocean carbon, oxygen, and nutrient cycles
Plenary 5. The Indian Ocean – Monsoon-driven biogeochemical processes
Plenary 6. Marine ecosystem thresholds and regime shifts

Day 1 kicked off with a presentation on the projected instrumentation and scientific capabilities of the NASA Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, and ocean Ecosystems (PACE) Mission, which segued into the first plenary session on the proposed NASA EXport Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing (EXPORTS) field campaign. Speakers in this session provided an overview of both the EXPORTS Science Plan and the Implementation Plan. The session also featured three scientific overview talks on the EXPORTS science questions, the first of which highlighted the influence of ecosystem characteristics such as plankton community structure on organic matter export from the euphotic zone. The second talk focused on key processes in the mesopelagic zone that affect vertical transfer of organic matter to depth.

The third talk focused on how data generated by EXPORTS will reduce uncertainties in current and future estimates of export, including an overview of current modeling capabilities for different export pathways. The second plenary session of Day 1 was convened by  organizers of a recent NSF workshop and white paper on novel biological processes and pathways regulating organic matter export and degradation. Speakers in this session explored potential contributions of mixotrophs, marine microgels, and episodic events (e.g., jelly falls) to biological pump function, and provided an overview of our current observational capacity to quantify carbon export and monitor changes in the biological pump over a range of temporal and spatial scales. The plenary session closed with a community-sharing presentation describing the Carbon Flux Explorer, an autonomous float that can quantify and photograph particulate carbon fluxes. After the plenary sessions, graduate students provided short presentations about their research interests and then all participants convened for a welcome reception and poster session.

Day 2 opened with agency updates from NSF, NASA, and NOAA representatives. Speakers in plenary session 3 then described data- and model-based approaches for studying internal variability (interannual to decadal) and anthropogenic change in ocean carbon uptake, and explored the role of physical processes (e.g., subduction, mesoscale and submesoscale processes, etc.) in modulating ocean carbon uptake. A presentation on the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) provided an overview of CMIP5 simulations of the ocean carbon cycle and how well these simulations reproduce anthropogenic CO2 uptake and natural variability in ocean CO2 associated with  the biological pump. To provide a broader range of spatial and temporal perspectives, the session included talks on land-ocean exchanges of dissolved carbon across coastal, estuarine, wetland, and riverine systems and differences in ocean carbon storage during the last ice age, as constrained by paleo-proxies of ocean ventilation and deep-sea oxygen concentrations. This session concluded with a community-sharing presentation on Carbon Hot Spot, a nascent process study to characterize biophysical interactions and quantify ocean carbon uptake in Western Boundary Current regions such as the Kuroshio Extension.

During the afternoon of day 2, speakers in plenary session 4 provided an overview of the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling (SOCCOM) project and newly emerging seasonally resolved ocean carbon data sets from biogeochemical sensor-equipped Argo floats, which are providing unprecedented constraints on wintertime air-sea CO2 dynamics in the Southern Ocean. The session concluded with a presentation on the rationale and plan for a global biogeochemical observing network based on Argo floats equipped with biogeochemical sensors to more effectively monitor changing ocean conditions. Immediately following the plenary session, communication professionals from COMPASS led interactive communication training workshops to help participants share their science across a broad range of audiences using various tools, outlets, and communication strategies. Participants reconvened in the evening hours for the inaugural OCB ocean festival, featuring recent documentaries on the Palmer LTER in Antarctica and the CARIACO time-series.

After a morning poster session on day 3, participants enjoyed a presentation and Q&A session on the 2015 UN Climate Conference in Paris. Then speakers in plenary session 5 delivered a series of talks on the complex physical oceanographic and climatic drivers that influence biogeochemistry and biological processes in the Indian Ocean, where scientists are amidst planning for the second International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE2). The session opened with an overview presentation on key physical oceanographic features and observing resources in the Indian Ocean. Speakers then addressed links between physics, climate, and biogeochemical processes such as dissolved organic carbon (DOC) distribution and dynamics, iron limitation, trace metal cycling and measurements from GEOTRACES, nitrogen fixation, and oxygen deficiency in different parts of the basin and associated effects on biology. The final presentation of the session focused on seasonally variable Indian Ocean boundary currents and their impacts on local ecology and biogeochemistry. Day 3 wrapped up with a presentation by the new US SOLAS (Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study) representative to initiate discussion and brainstorm ideas to facilitate scientific exchanges and new collaborations on topical areas of interest to both OCB and SOLAS.
The final day of the workshop opened with a presentation on the proposed NASA field campaign Arctic-COLORS. The Arctic-COLORS science plan is undergoing revisions, so authors were seeking input from the OCB community. The final plenary session of the workshop, plenary 6, featured a series of talks on marine ecosystem thresholds and regime shifts. In this session, speakers explored phytoplankton response to natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change (phenology, biogeography, community composition, etc.), implications of climate-driven changes in bloom phenology for higher trophic levels, ecological changes and associated shifts in benthic communities of the Pacific Arctic, and the development of tools such as early warning systems to identify and predict nonlinear shifts in ocean ecosystems. A separate 1.5-day meeting on Arctic-COLORS immediately following the OCB workshop provided an opportunity for more in-depth discussions and opportunities to gather feedback.

For more information, including links to plenary talks and webcast footage, please visit the workshop archive page or contact Heather Benway.

Eileen Hofmann (Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA)
Lisa Maddison (IMBER IPO, Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway)
Ingrid van Putten (CSIRO, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia)
Javier Arístegui (Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Islas Canarias, Spain)

The Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research Project (IMBER) is developed around four research themes, which include: Key interactions in marine ecosystems; sensitivity to global change; feedbacks to the Earth system; and responses of society. When IMBER was initiated in 2005, the responses of society theme represented a new direction for global environmental change programs because it explicitly acknowledged the role of humans as both drivers and recipients of change in marine ecosystems. IMBER project-wide activities, regional programs and working groups have advanced the science associated  with each research theme. However, the strength of these activities has been in the identification of theoretical and methodological overlap among the themes, facilitating integration of ideas and synthesis of research outcomes, and highlighting new research directions.

The biennial IMBIZO (Zulu word for a gathering) is an important IMBER-wide activity for assessing current understanding of theoretical and empirical research at the local, regional and global scale, and pointing to future research needs. IMBIZO IV, held in October 2015 in Trieste, Italy, addressed linkages between marine ecosystems and human systems (Fig. 1). In particular, emphasis was on current systems understanding and approaches to predict the effects of multiple stressors, at multiple scales, on marine ecosystems and dependent human populations. A novel aspect of this IMBIZO was the focus on exposing the need for human systems to respond to changes and for governance systems to adequately guide these responses.

IMBIZO IV was developed around four workshops (Fig. 1) that addressed i) marine ecosystem-based governance, ii) upwelling systems as models for interdisciplinary global change studies, iii) integrated modeling to support marine socio-ecological systems under global change, and iv) regime shifts and their socio-ecological implications. Although each workshop had distinct objectives, all addressed aspects of climate, ecosystems and societies with a view towards integrating and synthesizing current understanding and highlighting approaches for developing innovative societal responses to changing marine ecosystems. The workshops were supplemented with plenary presentations that provided overviews of the state of understanding and research needs and joint sessions and debates that allowed cross-workshop interactions (Fig. 2).

Within the context of each workshop, questions were addressed that considered the challenges of multiple stressors, pressures, and drivers,  existing knowledge gaps, and the type of expertise needed to move forward. Some workshops also evaluated the need for paradigm shifts to adequately address particular research questions. The overall goal of each workshop was to determine how integration of the diverse array of knowledge and different  research outcomes for marine systems could be done to provide useful advice for policy and management.

The results of the individual workshops are being summarized in a variety of ways including white papers, synthesis papers, short communications, and special issues. However, the workshop results have common components with perhaps the clearest message being the need for continued conversations and exchange of information between scientists from different disciplinary backgrounds. To enable this dialogue to take place collaboratively and ultimately to develop workable solutions will mean that a common understanding of language will need to be developed and that jargon be avoided. Facilitating cross-disciplinary communication by domain experts will also help crucially important communication to management authorities and decision makers.

Aside from the need for good communication between scientists that straddle the physical, ecological and human domains, the different workshops considered the linkages and interactions between the driving forces (pressures-state-impacts-responses, DPSIR) and how these are understood and represented. For most marine systems, the system state, how much of what is present and where, can be described with differing degrees of certainty depending on location and factors such as monitoring intensity and accessibility. The connectivity and linkages between marine system components and driving forces are known from a theoretical perspective and for many systems these have been described quantitatively using different modeling approaches. However, there is considerable empirical uncertainty about how marine systems might respond to continued and cumulative anthropogenic stresses and how in turn, this may feed back to the human domain and affect, for instance, future food security.

Marine systems may not be generalizable, sometimes cannot be simply scaled up, or may not respond linearly to anthropogenic stressors. Regime shifts may occur that are not easily (or not at all) reversible, thus requiring adaptation by resource users. The governance system is crucially important in this context as it provides links to management, policy and regulatory systems that influence use of and access to marine resources. Governance institutions are ultimately responsible for the sustainable management of marine resources and any necessary reduction in the pressure exerted on the resources. These governance systems in essence close the loop between the natural and human systems. Natural, socio-economic, and governance systems need to be central to continued research efforts and inform all levels of decision making to ensure informed steps are taken.

Global environmental change is happening and will continue to affect ecosystems and alter the ecosystem services provided to humanity. The need for timely detection and attribution of these changes remains, especially where change is irreversible. Human systems and society at large are both creators of the many stressors that drive change in marine ecosystems as well as recipients of these changes. Human systems can drive positive changes through good governance aimed at reducing vulnerability, and enhancing adaptive capacity and resilience. It is clear that many knowledge gaps remain, in particular the way in which multiple drivers and stressors interact. Much work also remains to be done in further detailing and modeling the crucial dependencies between human and ocean systems. All of these uncertainties place limitations on the predictability of governance outcomes and risk unintended consequences and maladaptation if not addressed adequately. Outcomes from IMBIZO IV will provide guidance for these important research efforts for the next decade of IMBER research.

IMBER gratefully acknowledges the support provided by the OCB Program for IMBIZO IV and its ongoing support of IMBER activities.