In this edition:
- Welcome Note from our Coordinator Richard Sanders
- Featured Article: Royal Society Event Summary for Impact
- Good Reads
- Notable News
- OceanICU Outreach
- Upcoming Events
OceanICU is a five-year project that seeks to gain a new understanding of the biological carbon pump and its processes to provide fundamental knowledge and tools to help policy makers, regulators and Ocean industry—fishing and mining, along with the wider blue economy—manage and understand the impact of their actions on Ocean carbon. This will ultimately lead to a better approach for addressing climate change in alignment with the EU Green Deal to reduce the net emissions of greenhouse gases to Zero by 2050.
Welcome Note
Hello Everyone and Welcome to 2026
OceanICU has achieved a lot but still has more to do! We recently met with the Scientific Advisory Board and presented the current status of the whole project. The main message that came out of this was a need to focus now on bringing together the key elements of the project, and at the same time, shifting the emphasis from mainly focussing on pure and applied science to delivering impact. Fortunately, these twin challenges are pretty closely linked: our impact plans that we worked so hard on through 2025 are built on activities that provide a bridge across the work packages. We have a big opportunity at our annual meeting in Bergen (Norway) later this year in April to build on this work and start knitting it all together. Hopefully the weather will be kind, but rain or shine I’m looking forward to an intense and fruitful week of discussions that will really set OceanICU up for the last 18 months of the project.
Richard Sanders,
OceanICU Project Coordinator
NORCE
Royal Society Discussion Meeting Marine Biodiversity, Loss, Fishing and Climate Change
Big thinking and knowledge sharing was on tap at the Royal Society in London when some of the world’s leading experts in marine science brought forth insightful research and new ideas to address key challenges facing biodiversity and climate. Co-chaired by OceanICU colleagues Richard Sanders (NORCE), Stephanie Henson (NOC), Alex Poulton and Alessandro Tagliabue (University of Limerick) as well as Emma Cavan (Imperial College London), the two-day event held in early December 2025, focussed on the gap preventing the recognition of the role of ocean biodiversity loss in regulating climate and delivering food security. The programme featured presentations, and a panel discussion on how models and meta-analyses can be used to address the interconnected challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and food security across different ecosystem services, impacts and exposure.
In addition to hearing from the chairs, there were other OceanICU colleagues among the esteemed presenters, including Sophie Clayton (NOC), Natayla Gallo (NORCE) and Ken Anderson (DTU) and Rebecca Millington (PLM).
Impact of baleen whales on ocean primary production across space and time
Carla Freitas and Morton Skogen (Institute of Marine Research), explore the impact of Baleen Whales on ocean primary production in a new paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) as part of the OceanICU investigation. It has long been suggested that whales enhance ocean productivity by recycling essential nutrients, yet their quantitative impact on primary production has remained uncertain. The study quantifies nutrient release via feces and urine by baleen whales in high-latitude feeding grounds, and evaluates its impact on primary production using ecosystem models
The combined impact of fisheries and climate change on future carbon sequestration by oceanic macrofauna
What are the impacts of fishing and climate change on carbon export and sequestration by commercial fish? Using a marine ecosystem model, OceanICU colleague Gaël Mariani (WMU) and his co-authors estimate that each degree of warming reduces fish biomass by 4.2% leading to a reduction of 2.46% in carbon export. Fishing further amplifies this reduction, already decreasing commercial fish carbon export by 47% compared to the 1950s. This study was recently published in Nature.
Micronekton Indicators and Ocean Change
Micronekton, small marine organisms such as crustaceans, fish, molluscs and gelatinous species play a vital role in marine food webs as the main prey of tuna and other commercially important species. They also impact global carbon exports by transporting carbon from the surface to the deep ocean through their daily vertical migrations.
A new paper published in the 9th edition of the Copernicus Ocean State Report, co-authored by OceanICU colleague Patrick Lehodey (Mercator Ocean International) reveals how micronekton distributions are shifting.
Ocean Sciences Meeting Sessions
The Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM) is the flagship conference for the ocean sciences and the larger ocean community. In February of 2026 it will be held in Glasgow, Scotland. With a rich maritime history and bold vision for sustainability, Glasgow is the perfect home for this year’s programme focussed on championing sustainability. OceanICU colleagues are chairing sessions outlined below as well as presenting posters and orals throughout the week.
🔹 Marine carbon cycle: past insights, present patterns, and future perspectives → Session Co-Chaired by Siv Lauvset (NORCE) – Read More
🔹 Climate Change in the Deep Sea: Impacts, Interventions, and Cumulative Stressors Chaired by Natalya Gallo (NORCE) – Read More
🔹 The Open Ocean Carbonate Pump: From Alkalinity to Ecology (and Back Again) → Chaired by Alex Poulton (Heriot-Watt University) – Read More
🔹 Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR) Interactions with Fish, Fisheries, and Aquaculture I Poster → Co-chaired by Fiona Culhane (MI) – Read More
Unpacking the IPCC - Webinar Wrap Up
OceanICU’s first joint webinar with sister project TRICUSO was held on the 6th of November. The event brought together former, current and newly elected IPCC authors to unpack its process and provide personal insights. The webinar was moderated by Richard Sanders (NORCE) and featured Peter Landschützer (VLIZ), Sandy Thomalla (CSIR), Stephanie Henson (NOC) and Alessandro Tagliabue (University of Liverpool).
Check out the webinar digital swag bag for a summary of the Q&A, the presentation slides and a link to the video recording.
EuroGO-SHIP Project Finale
Our associate project EuroGO-SHIP, coordinated by Elaine McDonagh (NORCE), has returned to harbour after its three year voyage to shape a new research infrastructure in support of the ship-based hydrography community in Europe. Successes and project summaries were presented at a Final Event on Wednesday, the 5th of November in Brussels, and encapsulated in a legacy video and a glossy impact brochure. Find them on the project website.
EuroGO-SHIP Project Finale
The UK Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR), National Committee has a new chair! Professor Alex Poulton (Heriot-Watt University) has recently taken up the post for a three year run. SCOR is the leading international non-governmental organization for the promotion and coordination of international oceanographic activities.
WMO G3W Observations Task Team Meeting in Geneva
OceanICU colleagues Maciej Telszewski (IO-PAN), Richard Sanders (NORCE), along with sister project TRICUSO’s Dorothee Bakker (UEA), joined experts from different scientific communities to discuss what a greenhouse gas observing network for the WMO G3W needs to look like to reach the initiative’s main goal: the creation of a sustained infrastructure that delivers monthly CO₂ flux estimates for the whole Earth.
Integrating Ocean Carbon Observing into the core G3W workstreams as they mature and take shape will be a challenge that will require many countries to work together and jointly implement this ambitious plan, which will definitely include more CO₂ measurements in the Southern Ocean. OceanICU was happy to be a participating project in this endeavour.
EMODnet Open Conference
Brussels, Belgium: 25 – 26 November 2025
Maria Angel (SSBE) shared the OceanICU story with attendees visiting the Seascape Belgium stand and passed out stickers to help spread awareness about OceanICU.
OceanICU at the Digital Ocean Forum (DOF)
Brussels, Belgium: 27 – 28 November 2025
Jorn Bruggeman (BB) presented at DOF25 in Brussels on 27 November, demonstrating how the EDITO platform enables the OceanICU decision support tool to predict the impact of natural processes and industry action, which will lead to better environmental planning. It was a great opportunity for OceanICU to be part of this landmark event
Ocean Sciences Meeting
Glasgow, UK 22 – 27 February 2026
The Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM) is the flagship conference for the ocean sciences and the larger ocean-connected community. Register here
OceanICU 3rd Annual Meeting
Bergen, Norway 14-16 April 2026
International Workshop: The Role of Marine Biology in Helping the Ocean Store Carbon
Glasgow, UK 2 – 4 March 2026
OceanICU colleagues will be co-chairing this significant event. Registration has closed. We will provide an update in the next newsletter.
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