In this edition:
OceanICU is a five-year project, funded by Horizon EU and UK Research and Innovation, 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 gasses to Zero by 2050.
A Note from our Coordinator Richard Sanders
Hello! Welcome to the first newsletter of the OceanICU project and thank you for your interest!
OceanICU takes place against a backdrop of extreme interest in the climate system as we see almost daily reports of extreme anomalies in surface land and Ocean temperatures and the extent of sea ice, among other diverse indicators. Our investigation on the Ocean carbon cycle is particularly timely given the Ocean’s capacity to store CO₂ and to slow the rate of climate change.
As the project rolls into its first summer, we can look back on a productive start-up phase laying down the tracks towards achieving the project goals: recruitment into multiple roles is now firmly underway, knowledge sharing workshops have taken place across our partners and teams, we are making important contributions on the international stage and observations at sea are beginning.
In this newsletter, we are pleased to share some highlights from our first 8 months. Read about our Kick Off Meeting in Copenhagen and how inspiring it was to see a strong multi-discipline team of scientific experts form and commit to a shared goal; check out how we celebrated World Ocean Day with the launch of our first scientific poster and a video to create awareness for the project and read the first science paper featuring OceanICU investigative work.
As we approach autumn and the end of our first project year, we are planning a series of webinars and workshops linked to key activities in the Ocean carbon world, which will take place every second month. To launch the series, I will host a discussion session around challenges in the Ocean Carbon cycle and how projects like OceanICU can address these in collaboration with our peer projects elsewhere in the Ocean. I look forward to seeing many of you at this Online event on September 20th. Details will be available on our website.
Please help us spread the news about this important project and share this newsletter with your contacts and follow us on social media.
Best Wishes,
Richard Sanders
OceanICU Project Coordinator
NORCE
Bergen, Norway
Do you work in a blue economy industry such as fishing, mining, offshore renewable energy, tourism or oil and gas? Are you a manager, decision-maker, scientist or policy-maker? Or are you a citizen interested in climate change and its relationship with a sustainable blue future? If any of these apply to you, why not join us on our mission to improve carbon understanding for a healthy and resilient Ocean and sustainable blue economy? Get in touch via the sign-up form to join our stakeholder panels where you can get the opportunity to take part in workshops, consultations or receive notifications about forums, webinars and other events. If you are already involved, please help us spread the word.
On the 28th of February 2023, OceanICU team members from the 30 partner organisations making up the consortium gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark for the first time to discuss the opportunities and challenges of meeting the objectives of the OceanICU project.
While every day is Ocean Day at OceanICU, we recognised the UN’s official day by launching a video of project coordinator Richard Sanders introducing the concept of the OceanICU project.
Our first OceanICU scientific poster was created by Pieter Torrez of Seascape Belgium to offer a focal point for outreach activities by our OceanICU colleagues.
Copernicus Marine Annual Meeting
Copernicus Marine Annual Meeting
The poster premiered at the Copernicus Marine Annual Meeting in Brussels where Jorn Bruggeman of Bolding & Bruggeman talked about OceanICU with attendees, focusing on the numerical models and how the needs of Industry, Science and Policy will guide the design and development of OceanICU’s Decision Support Tools (DSTs).
Outreach with European Youth
Outreach with European Youth
Nathalie Van Isacker of Seascape Belgium engaged with many enthusiastic young scientists at the EU4Ocean Coalition’s event at the Talk CEC Gallery in Brussels. “It was a wonderful way to celebrate Ocean Literacy on World Ocean Day and share information about projects and initiatives. It was great to see the interest of young researchers for the OceanICU project!” Nathalie reported.
UNESCO Integrated Carbon Research Workshop
OceanICU investigators had the opportunity to contribute to the conversation of defining key priorities in Ocean Carbon cycle research during the UNESCO Integrated Carbon Research workshop, hosted by the European Commission in Brussels this past May.
OceanICU partners Judith Hauck and Are Olsen, along with their colleagues, have published the paper: Sparse observations induce large biases in estimates of the global ocean CO₂ sink: an ocean model subsampling experiment which features OceanICU investigative work.
Since September is traditionally back to school time and you are never too old or qualified to learn or share or play (collaborate) with others, OceanICU is launching its informative webinar and workshop series tailored for general audiences and/or specific stakeholder groups, to share knowledge and skills and discuss various themes associated with Ocean carbon and the project’s pursuit of enhancing our understanding of its processes.
The Future is Fish Carbon
There are many facets to the OceanICU investigation, one of which is understanding the potential role that fish play in the global carbon cycle, how their role may have changed as a result of fishing, and how fishery activities might be managed to maximise climate and fisheries benefits. Coming to you this autumn, OceanICU will launch its first thematic campaign: The Role of Fish Carbon.
Sep 13-20
Ocean Twilight Zone: Biodiversity, Ecology & the BCP in the Ocean Twilight Zone
Sep 20
Webinar: Overview of OceanICU
Sep/Oct
Virtual Interactive Model Workshop
Nov 2023
Fishing Impact on Carbon Cycle Webinar
Nov 2023
OceanICU Newsletter: Issue 2