14-16 April 2026 - Bergen, Norway
Hosted by project coordinator NORCE, members of the OceanICU consortium gathered in Bergen for the third annual meeting under a volatile springtime sky. With three project years completed now, the agenda focussed on sharing results and creating the right pathways towards impact within the science, policy, industry and wider society communities. The event also featured guest talks and an excellent career retrospective from the legendary Andrew Watson.
Progress has been made across all the workpackages to achieve the following expected outcomes:
- Enhanced Ocean exploration around the role of biological groups in the sequestration of carbon by the Ocean.
- Increased understanding and predictability and reduced uncertainty in the Ocean carbon cycle.
- Improved understanding of new models and tools promoted by OceanICU.
Demonstrations of these were seen at the AM in the multiple science cases presented in talks and posters and in workshop discussions.
Science Talks
Highlights from important work were discussed as consortium members shared their recent results. Following are the presenters and titles of their talks, categorised in the Impact Cluster their work supports:
Cluster One: Biology in the Carbon Cycle
Aja Trebec (ULPGC) presented results of the work that took place last year on the CSIC Research Vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa during its cruise from Walvis Bay, Namibia to the Canary Islands. The research cruise focussed around an investigation of heterotrophic bacteria and phytoplankton response to dry and wet Saharan and Namibian desert dust deposition in the subtropical and tropical eastern Atlantic Ocean.
Nauzet Mendoza Hernández (ULPGC) presented a respiratory perspective of the biological carbon pump.
Filippa Fransner (UiB) gave a talk on the role of phytoplankton composition.
Bianca Thobor (GEOMAR) discussed the relationship between fluxes and elemental contents in her presentation titled, Global Patterns of Particle Size-Depth Distributions in the Mesopelagic.
Delon Earle (UiG) explored the question: Can modelling predict the impact of climate on the future distribution of reef-forming cold-water corals? A core thread in his work focussed on the impact of climate change on the ability of reef forming cold water corals to sequester carbon – using a conceptual model of carbon immobilization in reef forming cold-water corals (CWC) reef framework.
Eloïse Savineau (EXE) presented a comparison of the Underwater Vision Profiler (UPV5) and WP2 Bongo net to study mesozooplankton communities across the Atlantic Meridional Transect.
Biancamaria Farina (INOGS) presented her work concerning temperature dependent respiration warming impacts on ocean carbon storage.
Alex Poulton (HWU) shared work from Work Package 2 researchers, focussing on assessing alkalinity cycling and the carbonate pump and their biological controls.
Cluster Two: Global Carbon Cycle
Houda Beghoura (UiB) discussed work relating to Work Package 2 in a talk titled: Explicit quantification of the decadal ocean CO₂ sink using full-depth crossover analysis
Cluster Three: Ocean and Climate Policy
Anshul Chauhan (DTU) discussed his work on carbon export and ESM simulations and the architectural constraints associated with the methods.
Volkmar Sauerland (GEOMAR) shared the work going in Work Package 6 to improve models in a talk titled Model Spin-up and Calibration with the Anderson Acceleration.
Cluster Five: Industrial Impacts and Youth Engagement
Emma Dolmaire (US) discussed modelling the impact of fishing on the biological carbon pump in shelf-ecosystems with StrathE2E, an end-to-end shelf ecosystem model.
Ken H. Andersen (DTU) presented on fishing impacts of carbon injection and sequestration in the global ocean.
Posters
Back by popular demand after the success of the Poster Session at last year’s Annual Meeting, the walls at NORCE were papered with top-notch results, offering a platform for knowledge sharing and vigorous discussions.
Workshops
Nathalie Van Isacker (SSBE) and Rikke Bucholtz (DTU) led a workshop on connecting OceanICU to wider society through educational material and youth engagement, specifically working with Early Career Researchers interested in collaborating with teachers to create effective material to introduce students to the biological carbon pump.
Natalya Gallo (NORCE) led an Impact Workshop to help translate the work in OceanICU to messaging and policy briefs for policy makers.
Richard Sanders (NORCE) led a session providing insights into proposal development to ensure future funding for the continuation of important scientific research.
Guest Speakers
Peter Haughan, JPI Oceans Chair, provided a look at activity and initiatives going on at the EU and international level, and presented a good overview of the Ocean Pact.
A spotlight on data and data management including a discussion on the requirements of open data, a look at the European data repository landscape and a presentation on EMODnet and EDITO from Conor Delaney (SSBE).
Andrew Watson’s (EXE) career retrospective was not only a look at his highlights but also the history and evolution of ocean carbon research over the last four decades, and was both informative and inspiring. Stay tuned for an insightful interview blog with the legend himself coming soon.
In Summary
The Annual Meeting was scheduled to be remote and not in-person, but due to the successful connections and synergies achieved at last year’s event in Sopat, it was decided to convene in person again. The constant stream of discussion around results and synergies inspiring the next steps for important research proved it was the right decision.