In this edition:
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
Dear All,
We have had a good first quarter, highlighted by a vast array of excellent science that was presented in Glasgow during the Ocean Sciences Meeting by members of our consortium. OceanICU was also well represented at an important international workshop focussed on the roles of marine biology in helping the Ocean store carbon. You can read about both of these events in this newsletter.
With 18 months to go, the OceanICU project finishing line is firmly in view, and our focus is shifting towards how we use the great science we have done, and are still doing, to deliver real world impact. One of the major activities we are engaged in now is mapping this work to the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) we set up to measure progress towards the project’s expected outcomes. This will be a big part of the Third Annual Meeting, taking place in Bergen next month; it will require everyone in the consortium to put on his and her thinking caps.
We look forward to updating you on this progress and other activities as we head towards that project finish line.
Richard Sanders,
OceanICU Project Coordinator
NORCE
Ocean Sciences Meeting 2026
During the last week of February, Glasgow, Scotland became the epicenter for science when OSM26 brought researchers from around the world to the banks of the River Clyde for a week of learning, sharing and networking about all things Marine Science.
From marathon poster discussions and mad dashes to the next relevant session, over 6,500 attendees from around the world kept the pulse racing through the halls of the Scottish Event Campus. Among them were a large congregation of OceanICU team members who disseminated project work and results across a wide spectrum of topics and themes aligning with the project’s investigation into Ocean carbon.
Read more
The first quarter of 2026 has delivered several new publications of exciting and insightful work from across OceanICU disciplines. Congratulations to all the authors.
Challenging one-way fish modelling: two-way coupling reveals critical marine ecosystem dynamics
Helen Powley, Rebecca Millington (PML) and Jorn Bruggemen (BB) along with their co-authors demonstrate how two-way coupling should be used in all future implementations of end-to-end marine modelling systems in this article recently published in Science Direct.
Decadal and spatially complete global surface chlorophyll-a data record from satellite and BGC-Argo observations
Featuring work partially funded by OceanICU, this article published in Earth System Science Data presents an observation-based approach to fill gaps in the polar wintertime chl-a satellite data using BGC-Argo profiler observations, addressing the need for spatially complete data in support of global climate studies. Authors include OceanICU colleagues Daniel J. Ford and Jamie D. Shutler.
Distinct contributions of suspended and sinking prokaryotes to mesopelagic carbon budget
Most studies of ocean carbon cycling have focused on surface productivity or deep-sea carbon storage. Yet the mesopelagic zone is where these two worlds intersect, and where much of the carbon budget is reshaped by microorganisms.
Ocean dynamics add another layer of complexity. They modulate nutrients and biological activity at the surface. But, are they also shaping microbial metabolism in the twilight zone? Find out in this new paper led by Pauline Le Coq (MIO) based on results of research conducted on the APERO cruise in the Northeast Atlantic. The full paper is behind a paywall until July. Find it here
An open-access article based on the paper is available here.
The biogeochemical transport by the Gulf Stream
Recently published in Nature and including OceanICU work, this article shows how the Gulf Stream does more than transport warm water. Beneath the surface, it also carries a “biogeochemical stream” of nutrient rich water that has low concentrations of anthropogenic carbon. Colleagues Elaine McDonagh (NORCE) and Peter Brown (NOC) are among the authors.
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Confessions and Impressions of OSM First-Timers
Ocean Sciences Meeting 2026 (OSM) in Glasgow offered hundreds of science talks and town hall events, and had the added benefit of spontaneous networking opportunities while waiting in the epic-long queues for the coat check and food trucks. It would seem that sore feet and hoarse throats are a small price to pay for such an extravaganza. And yet, with over 6,500 attendees and the array of desirable, consecutive activities, this scale of magnitude begs the question: how does one navigate through it to maximise the experience? We asked some of OceanICU’s early career researchers what their inaugural OSM experience was like and what advice they would offer to future first-timers.
The Roles of Marine Biology in Helping the Ocean Store Carbon
With the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting drawing scientists from around the world to Glasgow, an international workshop was organised to take advantage of stakeholders coming to the city.
With the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting drawing scientists from around the world to Glasgow, an international workshop was organised to take advantage of stakeholders coming to the city.
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Integrated Ocean Carbon Research (IOC-R) Report
The recently launched IOC-R report is the most comprehensive assessment to date of the uncertainties shaping the ocean carbon sink. OceanICU is pleased to have contributed to this landmark report, including a customised version of the project infographic. Richard Sanders had this to say: “The IOC-R report highlights many of the key questions we are tackling within OceanICU. This is the first time that the report has explicitly recognized the human influences on the Ocean carbon cycle aside from the uptake and storage of anthropogenic CO₂.The section on industrial impacts highlights how far we have to go to achieve the understanding we need and this is something OceanICU is well on the way to delivering, in both the key science and system aspects”.
Read the report
Celebrating Girls and Women in Science
On the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we spoke with some of our awesome colleagues to learn what inspired them to pursue their career in Ocean science. Check out what Stephanie Henson (NOC), Natalya Gallo (NORCE), Carla Freitas (IMR) and Nathalie Van Isacker (SSBE) had to say.
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OceanICU Surveys Fish in the Celtic Sea
Despite some rough December weather, the SCOOP survey on the Marine Institute’s RV Tom Crean was a success. OceanICU scientists Paula Silvar (MI) and Fiona Culhane (FEAS, MI) and Angela Martin (NE) were among the researchers collecting samples to improve the understanding of how fish, specifically in the shelf seas, contribute to the ocean carbon cycle.
The team hopes this information will be used with an ecosystem model to explore how fishing might impact the ocean carbon cycle in the Celtic Sea.
OceanICU 3rd Annual Meeting
Bergen, Norway 14-16 April 2026
ICOS International Workshop
Lund, Sweden, 15-17 September
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