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 Readers,
As we slide into summer, we are looking back at a highly productive spring. Our annual meeting in Sopot, Poland was a major success with OceanICU colleagues coming from all across Europe to join us on the scenic banks of the Baltic. The time and energy that went into planning a worthwhile programme paid off with a week of meaningful workshops, sessions, poster talks, presentations, a thrilling debate, and a lot of knowledge sharing and insightful dialogue. But this was not the only highlight of the past quarter…
Scroll on down to learn about the impressive work that has been recently published in high-impact journals and see how two papers informed a guest article in Carbon Brief. In addition, we have tales from field work at sea and an update on outreach at significant events such as UNOC in Nice, ESA’s Living Symposium in Vienna and more.
We’d like to take this time to thank you for your subscription to this newsletter and for your interest in OceanICU.
We wish you a safe and pleasant summer with lots of moments to appreciate our seas and ocean.
We are pleased to highlight two important papers that were recently published in Nature.
Third Annual Annual Meeting: The OceanICU Janus moment!
Janus: the mythical Roman legend symbolising beginnings, transitions, time and duality was the guiding theme for the OceanICU third annual meeting held in Sopot, Poland at the headquarters of our partner IO PAN. For the first time since the kick-off meeting, members of the 30 partner consortium gathered in person for a robust programme of science presentations, poster talks, work package updates, a look at project results, a thrilling debate and important discussions around supporting and mentoring early career researchers.
The event marked the mid-point of the project, and as the theme of Janus implies, it was the ideal time to look back and take stock of the excellent work that has been achieved to date, synthesise our findings and determine how to carefully pivot towards achieving a meaningful impact through the dissemination of our results for the benefit of the science community, the blue economy industry, policy and wider society.
For your summer read list…
OceanICU funding has contributed toward the research and development of a series of exciting papers recently published in high impact journals, two of which were combined for a special feature in Carbon Brief.
Pour yourself a nice cold glass of something and tuck into one or all of these page-turning expeditions into new scientific insights.
Carbon Brief Guest Post
How marine life provides climate benefits worth billions of dollars
By: Damien Couespel (NORCE), Fabio Berzaghi (WMU), Jerry Tjiputra (NORCE), Richard Sanders (NORCE), Dagmara Rusiecka (NORCE).
This guest post draws on two recent studies published in Nature Communications that were partly funded by OceanICU and argue that the contribution of ocean biology to climate regulation is more complex than previously thought. Read it here
If the Carbon Brief post whets your appetite, you can find the scientific papers partly funded by OceanICU that it was based on:
Marine ecosystem role in setting up preindustrial and future climate, Nature Communications
Jerry F. Tjiputra, Damien Couespel & Richard Sanders
Global distribution, quantification and valuation of the biological carbon pump, Nature Climate Change
Fabio Berzaghi, Jérôme Pinti, Olivier Aumont, Olivier Maury, Thomas Cosimano & Mary S. Wisz
The Value of Plankton
Plankton might be tiny organisms but they play a big role in regulating aquatic life and contributing towards sustaining life on Earth. Learn more about the immeasurable value of plankton to humanity in this new article published in BioScience, co-authored by OceanICU partner Alex J. Poulton (Heriot Watt), alongside 45 other experts.
We asked Alex to share some thoughts on this monumental achievement: “It’s nice to see this collective effort from plankton enthusiasts published, highlighting the importance of plankton to the planet we live on and how they have influenced science, the arts and technology. The paper is also an important step towards recognising how their diversity is a vital component of our biosphere, and highlights that we need to consider the plankton when thinking about climate change, biodiversity loss and enhancing natural processes to mitigate rising atmospheric CO₂.”
Biogeochemical-Argo Floats Reveal Seasonality of the Biological Carbon Pump Influenced by the Lofoten Basin Eddy
Can an ocean eddy influence how carbon is captured and stored in the Ocean?
New research investigates the Lofoten Basin Eddy, a powerful and persistent ocean feature in the Norwegian Sea, revealing a distinct biogeochemical profile and what that means for the Biological Carbon Pump.
Using 12 years of data from BGC-Argo floats, the authors uncovered how this eddy differs from surrounding waters, offering rare insight into ocean carbon cycling.
OceanICU colleague and co-author Sophie Clayton (National Oceanography Centre) reflects: “This study really highlights the power of the sustained, autonomous ocean observations made by BGC-Argo floats. Here we were able to interrogate around 12 years of continuously collected, depth-resolved data to show that the Lofoten Basin Eddy, a distinct and persistent dynamical feature in the Norwegian Sea, has a very different biogeochemical signature to its surrounding waters. We know that this kind of patchiness in the ocean is widespread and likely important in modulating the biological carbon pump, but long-term sustained data from within an eddy like this one are exceedingly rare.”
Global Carbon Budget 2024
OceanICU colleague Judith Hauck (AWI) is among the co-authors of this accurate assessment of human-induced carbon dioxide emissions and their redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere is essential for understanding the global carbon cycle, informing climate policy, and projecting future climate change. This study synthesises current datasets and methodologies used to quantify the five major components of the global carbon budget and their associated uncertainties. OceanICU contributed to the financing of this research.
It was fair weather and following seas for OceanICU partners during various research cruises this past spring!
Namibia to Gran Canaria aboard the Sarmiento de Gamboa
This OceanICU funded scientific cruise took place onboard the CSIC Research Vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa in April. The cruise departed Walvis Bay, Namibia, and headed for the Canary Islands with ten sampling stops along the West African coast before arriving in Gran Canaria on 17 April.
Javier Arístegui (ULPGC) was joined by seven fellow scientists from eight institutions to support an investigation into key processes of the biological carbon pump as well as the effects of climate stressors on surface plankton communities in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic. The team published regular updates about their amazing adventure.
Plankton is Ready for its Close-up
Dan Mayors (University of Exeter) recently travelled onboard the Royal Research Ship Sir David Attenborough and has shared his incredible photos of plankton and plankton sampling activities.
If you have an Instagram account, check it out here.
You can also hear Dan talking about his work in this stunning video from New Scientists here.
ESA Living Planet Symposium
Vienna, Austria: 23 – 27 June 2025
OceanICU was pleased to take part in a dedicated session on enhancing cooperation between EC and ESA Ocean Science projects. Jaime Shutler (University of Exeter) presented OceanICU’s mission to produce new data, knowledge and understanding of the ocean’s role in the global carbon cycle.
UNOC 2025
Nice, France: 9 -13 June 2025
Niels Krabbe (WMU) discussed OceanICU during several sessions at UNOC.
Richard Sanders and Natalya Gallo (NORCE) and Nathalie Van Isacker (SSBE) attended the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) event at UNOC, held onboard the Statsraad Lehmkuhl.
The event marked the launch of the new report: Integrated Ocean Carbon Research: A Summary of Ocean Carbon Research, and Vision of Coordinated Ocean Carbon Research and Observations for the Next Decade featuring a chapter and Infographic related to OceanICU. The report will be available soon.
Lyell Centre for Earth and Marine Sciences PhD Symposium
Edinburg, Scotland: 1 June 2025
Benjamin Gustafson (Heriot-Watt) presented his research on Pelagic calcifier diversity and their relative contributions to production and export of CaCO3.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
Tennessee, USA: 30 May 2025
Sreeush M.G (AWI) gave a talk presenting his OceanICU work on benchmarking global carbon cycle models: uncertainties in the estimation of anthropogenic CO2 uptake estimation and recommendations for improvement.
EGU 2025
Vienna, Austria: 2 April – 2 May 2025
Quantifying the Fish Contribution to On-shelf Carbon Sink: A Case Study of the Irish Sea
Paula Silvar (MI) presented findings from an OceanICU study at EGU25, advancing our understanding of the contribution of continental shelf species on carbon sequestration. The study, also featuring the work of our partners Emma L. Cavan (Imperial College) Angela Martin (Natural England), Jacob Bentley (British Antarctic Survey) and David Reid (ICES).
Anshul Chauhan (DTU) – Deep learning Models to Identify Seasonal Drivers of Chlorophyll changes in the Atlantic Ocean.
Philip Alexander (DTU) – Understanding Drivers of Phytoplankton Variability in the Black Sea Using Covolutional Neural Networks.
European Marine Science Educators Association Conference 2025 (EMSEA)
Oostende, Belgium: 17-19 September
EMSEA promotes ocean literacy across the marine education community by working with scientists, teachers, policy makers and the public. The EMSEA 2025 conference is endorsed as a UN Ocean Decade activity. OceanICU has a poster talk and a demo of the DST working on the EDITO prototype. More information and registration here.
7th World Conference on Marine Biodiversity
Bruges, Belgium 17 – 20 November 2026
This event, happening a little over halfway through the UN Ocean Decade, provides an opportunity to take stock of ongoing actions and initiatives and evaluate what still needs to be tackled. Learn more
The Royal Society Meeting – OceanICU Session – Marine Biodiversity Loss, Fishing, and Climate Change
London, UK: 1-2 December 2025
OceanICU will be organising a discussion meeting at The Royal Society in London. The link between biodiversity loss and climate change has often been overlooked when it comes to the ocean, this session will address this gap to recognise the role of ocean life in climate change mitigation and food security. The audience comprises a variety of interested stakeholders and fellow scientists at various stages of their career, we are expecting invigorating discussions. The event is Free to attend and both virtual and in-person attendance is available. Please register here.
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