The state of ocean CO2 uptake

The ocean is an important sink for anthropogenic CO₂. From the beginning of the industrial revolution to the mid-1990s roughly 30% of our emissions have been absorbed by the oceans. This process is an important moderator of climate change, but can we count on it to remain as strong in the future? Gruber et al. calculated the ocean uptake of anthropogenic CO₂ for the interval from 1994 to 2007, which continued as expected. They also observed clear regional deviations from this pattern, suggesting that there is no guarantee that uptake will remain as robust going forward

Marine heatwaves (MHW) are periods of above average temperatures (above the expected 90th percentile) that persist for more than 5 days in a region. They provide an unwanted look at how the ocean might respond to temperatures that exceed the 2C target for limiting global warming. A study by an international team of researchers including IMBeR SSC member Alistair Hobday published a global review of the impact of MHW on species and habitats. damage marine heatwaves are causing to the marine environment wherever they occur. The research in Nature Climate Change demonstrates periods of extreme temperatures can cause rapid loss of marine habitat, local extinctions, reduced fisheries catches and altered ocean food webs. Regardless of where MHW had occurred, they had negative and often detrimental effects on all kinds of marine organisms, including plankton, seaweed, coral, fish, birds and mammals. Impacts on marine life were more severe at the warm part of the species range, as heatwaves elevate already relatively warm temperatures. Studies like this one contribute to addressing IMBeR Grand Challenge 1 – understanding and quantifying the state and variability of marine ecosystems. Learn more about MHWs at www.marineheatwaves.org

IMBeR and the East China Normal University (ECNU) jointly established a regional office, the IMBeR Regional Project Office (IMBeR RPO), to promote IMBeR in the Asia-Pacific region and support the implementation of the IMBeR Science Plan. IMBeR and ECNU are looking to appoint an enthusiastic, organised, Administrative Assistant to work at the IMBeR RPO located at ECNU, Shanghai, China.

The Surface Ocean CO₂ Atlas  (SOCAT) that was developed by the international marine carbon research community, celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2017. It provides a synthesis of quality-controlled, surface ocean fCO₂ (fugacity of carbon dioxide) observations, and is a milestone for biogeochemical and climate research and in informing policy. SOCAT data is readily available and can be used to quantify ocean carbon sink and ocean acidification, and to evaluate ocean biogeochemical models.

SOCAT data are released in versions, with each succeeding version containing new data sets and updates of the previous one. SOCAT version 1 was released in 2011. The most recent, version SOCAT version 6, comprises 23.4 million global oceans and coastal seas observations from 1957 to 2017, as well as calibrated sensor data.

A team led by Siv Lauvset (Bergen, Norway) recently released an updated “cookbook” of quality control procedures for SOCAT data. This update will be used from SOCAT version 7 onward. The revised quality control criteria will not be retrospectively applied to data sets in SOCAT versions 1-6. The “cookbook” is useful for quality control and to give those who wish to submit data to SOCAT an indication of what is required to achieve the highest quality rating. New data can be submitted at any time, and will be included in the next SOCAT release. The deadline for quality control of SOCAT version 7 is 31 March 2019.

Carol Robinson, University of East Anglia

This paper synthesis of current knowledge of microbial plankton respiration in relation to deoxygenation, including the drivers of its variability and possible constraints to our ability to project future scenarios.

Microbial plankton respiration is key to the balance between the storage of organic carbon in the oceans or its conversion to CO2 with accompanying consumption of dissolved oxygen. Many areas of the world´s oceans have experienced reduced dissolved oxygen concentrations for the past 50 years, and this ocean deoxygenation trend it seems set to continue. Despite its central role in ocean deoxygenation, microbial respiration is one of the least constrained microbial metabolic processes. There is thus the need for improved understanding of the magnitude and variability of respiration, and the attribution to component plankton groups. This, together with the quantification of the respiratory quotient, would enable better predictions, and projections of the intensity and extent of ocean deoxygenation and of the integrative impact of ocean deoxygenation, ocean acidification, warming, and changes in nutrient concentration and stoichiometry on marine carbon storage

Deadline for the fully funded international Master programme in Water and Coastal Management is January the 15th, 2019 at 12:00 Central European Time (CET)

https://wacoma.unibo.it/