The TRICUSO project and members of its consortium made a healthy splash in the heavily populated waters of OSM26. Held in Glasgow, Scotland, this was the first time the prestigious conference took place outside the United States, and it was a welcome setting for two town halls, a co-chaired session titled The Southern Ocean Carbon Sink: processes, observations, and change and a poster talk.
First up on Monday 23 February, the SOCONET Town Hall felt like a silent disco of sorts with a headset format to accommodate the many events taking place across the conference centre’s large hall. An audience of approximately 100 stakeholders tuned into SOCONET Beats – a catchy album about the importance of establishing a unified, structured Surface Ocean CO2 Reference Observing Network (SOCONET). The playlist included tracks about the formation of the network, almost a decade ago, its motivations and ambitions and how recently, thanks to TRICUSO and other funding programmes, it’s been able to pick up the tempo which has resulted in the delivery of the network’s implementation plan and the establishment of the Steering Committee, comprised of leading scientific and technical experts from around the world. Despite the headset/silent disco format, the Town Hall featured an interactive, open-mike session for members of the community to ask questions and provide feedback, while a mentimeter made it possible to get a snapshot of what the community needs from the evolving network. The event was chaired by Maciej Telszewski (IO PAN), Tobias Steinhoff (GEOMAR) and Louise Delaigue (Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche (LOV) CNRS-Sorbonne Université). To learn more about SOCONET – its objectives, implementation plan, and to see who is on the Steering Committee – visit the website.
Day two of the conference kicked off early with The Southern Ocean Carbon Sink: Processes, Observations and Change. This informative session was co-hosted by TRICUSO, with the PICCOLO project, to explore the mechanisms driving carbon cycling in the Southern Ocean. The session featured recent results from investigations covering areas across the spectrum of carbon processes, focussed in regions around the Southern Ocean. TRICUSO team members Jacqueline Behncke (GEOMAR) and Allison Schaap (NOC) were among the speakers in the programme, which was artfully curated by chair Cathy Wimart-Rousseau (NOC), with support from co-chairs and moderators Pablo Trucco-Pignata (NOC) and Louise Delaigue (Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche (LOV) CNRS-Sorbonne Université) on behalf of TRICUSO and Meredith Meyer (University of East Anglia) and Thomas Bell (Plymouth Marine Laboratory) on behalf of PICCOLO.
Bio-GO-SHIP: Establishing an International Program to Deliver Sustained Open-Ocean Biological Data
The Town Hall, partially funded by TRICUSO, took place in the middle of the lively Ocean Sciences Meeting week-long programme in Glasgow and brought together current and prospective contributors. Presentations included a history of International GO-SHIP and its ambitions going forward as it evolves into its third decade, as well as updates from regional representatives covering Australia, Japan, the U.S. and Europe. Zooming in on Bio-GO-SHIP, highlights of its successes, data and science contributions were conveyed in addition to promoting workshops that will be held to further develop the European branch of the programme.
The floor was then open for wider discussion among the audience to encourage new contributors, hear about activities currently going on in the landscape, learn from previous initiatives and work together to pave the way of establishing and strengthening an international Bio-GO-SHIP.
The programme ended on a celebratory note with members of the Bio-GO-SHIP programme receiving the 2024 Excellence in Partnership award from NOPP (The National Oceanographic Partnership Program) presented by Steven Thur (NOAA). The award was announced late last year, but this was the first occasion to honour the team in person in front of an audience of community stakeholders.
Receiving the award were Dr. Adam Martiny of the University of California Irvine, Harriet Alexander of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Jason Graff of Oregon State University, Nicole Poulton of Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, Luke Thompson of the Northern Gulf Institute and the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, and TRICUSO’s Sophie Clayton from NOC, UK.
Read more about the award here.
Read more about the award here.
Opportunities to Make Ocean Observations on Sailing Yachts in the Southern Ocean
Toste Tanhua (GEOMAR) presented a poster in support of TRICUSO’s ambitions to contribute towards the establishment of a sustainable observation system incorporating new technology and sailing boats to deliver measurements from the Southern Ocean. The poster displayed research from Jacqueline Behncke (GEOMAR), Richard Sanders (NORCE), Lucie Knor (GEOMAR), Peter Landschützer (VLIZ), and Michael Oellermann (AWI).
