At the end of February we, with 6000 other ocean scientists, headed across to Glasgow for the biennial American Geophysical Union, The Oceanography Society & Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography Ocean Sciences Meeting. OceanCANDY was joined by a large contignent from The Lyell Centre and wider Heriot-Watt.
Frontrow: Ben Fisher, Ben Gustafson, Jennifer Scott, Lola Wagner, Nair Eguibar, Rosie Ashworth.
This was the first time the Ocean Sciences Meeting had left the U.S.A. and to have it in Scotland was an amazing opportunity for not only Scottish marine scientists but British and European based researchers making travel far easier, particularly for us with our ~1 hr train journey! And the attendance appears to agree with this the largest OSM to date!
The conference was held in the Scottish Event Campus – due to the large size of the halls a ‘silent disco’ style presentation happened for many of the sessions. In the large hall 8 sessions happened simultenously with audience members wearing headphones colour coded based on the session they were tuning into. The week kicked off with a plenary by Professor Brittany Schmidt from Cornell University, linking work at the Earth’s poles using robotic tools to other ocean world’s like Jupiters moon Europa. This was followed by a drinks reception at the Science Centre.
With over 5000 presentations and posters happenning across five days there was something for everyone, the Marine Carbon Cycle Past, Present and Future session dominated much of Day 1 for most of us but also sessions on plankton variability, polar nutrient cycles and marine microbial interactions were attended. OceanCANDY members presented across the week.
What were your highlights of OSM?
Ben G: “Chatting to other people studying calcifiers”
Nichole: “having good debates”
Ben F: “the jam session!”
Alex P: “the carbonate session!”
Ben C: “getting to know OceanCANDY team before officially starting a few weeks later”
Sarah: “reconnecting with colleagues and friends”
Next Stop: BIO-Carbon Data Workshop
Building on the fact that thousands of scientists had descended onto Glasgow many meetings and workshops were planned pre or post OSM. This included a BIO-Carbon led Data Workshop on advancing ocean carbon modelling, co-sponsored by MASTS. Scientists from across the globe gathered at the University of Strathclyde for three days of intense debate surrounding 10 themes. Alex, Sarah and Ben G all attended with Alex co-leading the calcification theme.
Marine organisms play a vital role in helping the ocean store carbon, yet current climate models struggle to consistently predict how this capacity may change in the future. Pooling global expertise of modellers, observationalists and experimentalists each theme identified three processes or characteristics that should be incorporated into global biogeochemical models. These outputs will form the basis of a planned publication summarising the workshop’s findings and policy brief.
The 103 in person participants and a further 80 online attendees allowed global experts to come together and marks an important step towards improving predictions of the ocean’s role in global carbon cycling.
