1/23/15 OCB-SSC Teleconference
Participants: Arnosti, Benway, Buck, Burd, Brzezinski, Carlson, Church, Ducklow,
Hofmann, Jenkins, Lomas, Martz, Neuer, Roman, Siegel, Van Mooy, White, Zawoysky
Action items
OCB PROJECT OFFICE UPDATE
Welcome new SSC members – Debbie Steinberg, Angel White, Mike Lomas, Ben Van
Mooy, Nikki Lovenduski
Ocean Acidification PI Meeting
 June 9-11, 2015 (NSF PI meeting), June 12, 2015 (NOAA PI meeting, NSF PIs
welcome to participate) (Woods Hole, MA)
 Registration open (www.whoi.edu/workshops/oapi2015)
CLIVAR/OCB Workshop Ocean’s Carbon and Heat Uptake: Uncertainties and Metrics
(December 12-14, 2014, San Francisco, CA)
 Culminating activity of two working groups jointly funded by OCB and US CLIVAR
2012-2014
o Ocean carbon uptake in the CMIP5 models – Goal: Identify common
metrics of physical ocean/climate forcing (primarily wind strength, mixedlayer stratification, and ocean mixing), compare metrics in the various
models and in the observations for the North Atlantic and the Tropical
Pacific, and coordinate model evaluation of the climatic influence on CO 2
uptake at different time scales.
o Southern Ocean carbon and heat uptake – Goal: Identify observational
targets and develop data/model metrics to improve understanding of the
role of winds and ocean physics (mesoscale eddies, stratification, etc.) in
the heat and carbon uptake by the Southern Ocean.
 Talks posted at https://usclivar.org/meetings/2014-ocean-carbon-workshopagenda
 Agenda – 4 mini sessions with panel discussions
o Model Biases and Uncertainties in CMIP5 Models – eddies, winds,
biogeochemistry, sea ice, NPP, NCP (C export/biological pump),
continental shelf processes
o Observational Gaps and Uncertainties – investment in data synthesis,
calibration critical, measurements under ice, ocean heat measurements,
higher time/space resolution of atmospheric gas measurements, more
deep ocean measurements, atmospheric observations (winds, esp. in
Southern Ocean)
o Process Studies: Gaps, New Measurements, and Parameterizations –
eddies, winds, convection, coastal upwelling, biological pump

o Southern Ocean: Circulation and Carbon Cycle – role of wind forcing vs.
buoyancy forcing vs. eddies; biological pump requires assessment of orgs
present, stoichiometric ratios, Fe, etc.; winds just not well constrained
Outcomes
o Southern Ocean WG developing white paper summarizing key outcomes
of their work to submit to J. Climate
o US CLIVAR and OCB will publish a brief summary of the meeting (written
up by the WG leaders) in their respective newsletters and possibly joint
science features based on WG findings and the discussions at the
workshop
Next OCB Scoping Workshop Trait-based Approaches to Ocean Life (October 5-8, 2015,
Waterville Valley, NH)
 Lead organizer: Andrew Barton (Princeton Univ.)
 Website/registration page under development
Carbon Cycle Science Program White Paper (Craig)
 Over past 2 years, OCB has worked to highlight ocean topics/activities for Carbon
Cycle Scientific Steering Group (CCSSG)/Carbon Cycle Interagency Working
Group (CCIWG) meetings
 Ocean members of CCSSG are developing a white paper to highlight the
importance of the oceans in global C budget – currently in the outline phase
 Dan Brown (CCSSG Chair) will help shepherd white paper through agencies
Ideas for OCB to engage more with OOI
 OCB workshop/short course on use of OOI data
 Include OOI scientist on OTC (Schofield?)
 Panel discussions at OCB meetings
 Decadal survey report might provide ideas for building a longer-term link
2015 OCB SUMMER WORKSHOP

Paleo-Carbon Cycle - past changes in biogeochemical fluxes/cycles and marine
ecosystems (partner session with PAGES new working group Ocean Carbon
Cycling and Climate) (full day or half day)
o Potential co-chairs: H. Benway (WHOI/OCB), B. Anderson (LDEO), A.
Schmittner (OSU)? Someone from PAGES (http://www.pagesigbp.org/workinggroups/oc3/intro)? Benway will work on identifying cochairs and potential speakers
o Recent papers:
 Climate change decouples oceanic primary and export
productivity and organic carbon burial (Lopes et al., 2014 PNAS)


Persistence of deeply sourced iron in the Pacific Ocean (Horner et
al., 2015 PNAS)
Centennial changes in North Pacific anoxia linked to tropical trade
winds (Deutsch et al., 2014 Science)

Investigating Temporal and Spatial Variability in Ocean Biogeochemistry with
Shipboard and Autonomous Platforms – highlighting science (and technology to
a lesser extent, primary focus should be science) that benefits from integrating
autonomous and shipboard platforms (likely a full day session)
o Highlight science that brings together different space/time scales,
shipboard and autonomous
o Include SOCCOM talk within this session
o Include talk on LEAUVs (new technology AND scientific applications) from
workshop proposal submitted to OCB in December (Ruhl)
o Chairs: Susanne Neuer, Angel White, Mike Lomas also contribute

Blooms - interdisciplinary theme that ties together many of the other session
topics, including bio-optics, paleo, etc. (full day or half day)
o Talk topics could include bloom phenology, timing, impacts of sea ice
changes, HABs, etc.
o Co-chairs: Matt Church, Hugh Ducklow

Bio-optics – Siegel and SSC agreed that this theme by itself could quickly devolve
into a highly technical methods-focused discussion and would be better if biooptical approaches/tools were integrated into the other science sessions

OCB-SOLAS joint science session on atmospheric nitrogen deposition and
impacts on ocean biogeochemistry (full day or half day)
o Chairs? Good to have SOLAS representative involved - Burd will talk with
Bill Miller (former US SOLAS rep), maybe Scott Doney since he has
published on this topic (Benway will contact)
o Potential speakers: Meredith Hastings (Brown Univ) (Jenkins will contact),
Kim et al. (2014) Science paper on anthropogenic N deposition in N.
Pacific

Other talks and program updates
o Agency updates
o Student ppts
o North Atlantic-Arctic science plan and outcomes (NSF DCL?)
o Relevant satellite/NASA activities: PACE, North Atlantic Aerosols and
Marine Ecosystem Science (NAAMES), EXPORTS
o OOI update – panel format again?
o SOLAS, IMBER, IOCCP Program Updates
o CLIVAR-OCB WGs
o SOCCOM update (incorporate into OTC session, see above)
o Talk summarizing results of Decadal survey report (Jim Yoder, WHOI?)
followed by community discussion
o CCARS science plan presentation
3/20/15 OCB-SSC Teleconference
Participants: Arnosti, Benway, Buck, Brzezinski, Carlson, Church, Daly, Ducklow,
Hofmann, Jenkins, Lomas, Martz, Neuer, Roman, Siegel, Steinberg, Zawoysky
OCB PROJECT OFFICE UPDATE
OCB is on twitter - https://twitter.com/us_ocb
Winter newsletter – http://www.us-ocb.org/publications/OCB_NEWS_WINTER15.pdf
OCB website – will rebuild and reorganize under new CMS, will include RSS feed and link
to twitter feed on front page
Ocean Acidification PI Meeting (www.whoi.edu/workshops/oapi2015)
 June 9-11, 2015 (NSF PI meeting), June 12, 2015 (NOAA PI meeting, NSF PIs
welcome to participate) (Woods Hole, MA)
 Registration #s have been low, will wait until end of March and if we don’t hit 80,
we’ll either cancel or reschedule for September
 Reasons for lack of registration include timing (fieldwork, family vacations) and
dissatisfaction with last PI meeting; this meeting will provide more opportunities
for PIs to share their research with a lot of ppts
OCB Scoping Workshop Trait-based Approaches to Ocean Life (October 5-8, 2015,
Waterville Valley, NH)
 Lead organizer: Andrew Barton (Princeton Univ.)
 Received extra $25K funding from Simons and Moore Foundations (meeting will
be larger than typical scoping workshop, ~100 people)
 Website: http://www.whoi.edu/workshop/traitworkshop2015/ (registration
opening soon)
International Biogeochemical Sensors Course
 Instrumenting our oceans for better observation: A training course on
autonomous biogeochemical sensors (Jun 22-Jul 1, 2015, Sven Lovén Center for
Marine Sciences, Kristineberg, Sweden) – OCB providing $25K of support for this
course (one of the OCB activity proposals selected in the 2013-2014 OCB activity
solicitation)
 Course goals:



o Teach best practices for biogeochemical sensors in general, and for
selected types of sensors in particular, with the aim of improving the data
currently generated by such sensors.
o Collate the collected wisdom of participants and instructors on best
practices of operation of biogeochemical sensors and distill this into a
document.
o Work on data reduction practices for sensor data, including reporting
format and requirements (e.g. meta-data, accuracy/precision estimates
etc.). Document this outcome for sensor data reporting and reduction.
Will focus on O2, pCO2, pH, nitrate, and bio-optics
Applicants (28) have been selected and invited, most of the lecturers have been
secured, as well as participation of sensor manufacturers
Draft agenda available (contact Benway if you want to see it)
2015 OCB Summer Workshop update
 Invitations sent out for blooms and time-series/autonomous sessions, most
speakers confirmed
 SOLAS/OCB session on atmospheric nutrient supply framed around Fig. 5 from
SOLAS paper, including talks on emission sources, wet/dry deposition processes,
marine biogeochemical effects, ecosystem response, modeling challenges.
 Student (and postdocs) ppts (early in meeting)
 Agency updates (early in meeting)
o NSF (Murray attending): North Atlantic-Arctic update (status/release of
Dear Colleague Letter based on science plan), response to Decadal Survey
report, OCE (CHEM/BIO) updates
o NASA: PACE, NAAMES, EXPORTS, OBB, etc.
 GEOTRACES-OCB activity (Anderson, 15 to speak, 30 to discuss) – gathering
feedback in advance of joint OCB/GEOTRACES workshop on internal trace
element cycling (selected in 2014/2015 OCB activity solicitation)
 OOI update – from science and programmatic perspective - Schofield (already
attending to speak in plenary session), Larry Atkinson (UNOLS/OOI committee),
time for Q&A (don’t necessarily need a panel)
 CCARS science plan
 Report out on joint OCB/US CLIVAR WGs, December workshop and outcomes
 Programmatic updates
o SOLAS (Boyd)
o IMBER and FUTURE EARTH (Hofmann)
o IOCCP (Lorenzoni)
 Networking lunch
 Student mentors?
OCB RENEWAL PROPOSAL TO NSF (AUGUST 2015)
OCB-relevant Decadal Survey Science Questions
 How are the coastal and estuarine ocean and their ecosystems influenced by the
global hydrologic cycle, land use, and upwelling from the deep ocean?
 How have ocean biogeochemical and physical processes contributed to today’s
climate and its variability, and how will this system change over the next
century?
 What is the role of biodiversity in the resilience of marine ecosystems and how
will it be affected by natural and anthropogenic changes?
 How different will marine food webs be at mid-century? In the next 100 years?
Current OCB Research Priorities
 Climate- and human-driven changes in ocean chemistry (e.g., acidification,
expanding low-oxygen conditions, nutrient loading, etc.) and associated impacts
on biogeochemical cycles and marine ecosystems
 Ocean carbon uptake and storage
 Estuarine and coastal carbon fluxes and processes, including exchanges with
open ocean, terrestrial, and atmospheric reservoirs
 Water column and seafloor ecological and biogeochemical processes and
associated effects on carbon export and the biological pump
 Molecular-level responses of marine organisms (primarily lower trophic levels,
including plankton, mollusks, etc.) to their changing environment
 Impacts of evolutionary changes on plankton community structure, function and
biogeochemical cycling in the face of global change
OCB Science Foci
 Higher trophic levels and their roles in biogeochemical cycling; to date, OCB has
largely focused on plankton without much emphasis on top-down control (this
will be a major focus area for IMBER in the next decade and current activities like
CLIOTOP are already looking at connectivity of higher trophic levels to
biogeochemical cycles)
 Increased emphasis on the mesopelagic ocean
 Scenario testing (biogeochemical cycles all the way up to human systems) –
marine biogeochemical/food web models
 Biodiversity – Biodiversity Observing Networks (BONs), will be ripe for
development in the next 1-2 years
 Does OCB need a science plan? Have been working from the Doney et al. (2004)
OCCC implementation plan; perhaps time to update?
OCB Activities





Summer workshop - a hallmark of OCB and should continue; brings a different
crowd every year, chance to entrain new disciplines
Scoping workshops - successful model, particularly those from which proposals
and/or collaborative initiatives have emerged (e.g., GEOMICS)
Training courses - positive contribution, OA course very successful (a lot of work,
so only one per proposal cycle); next course will focus on working
with/processing/visualizing large data sets
Working Groups – joint WGs with CLIVAR fairly successful, leading to new tools
and recommendations to benefit the broader community; they require solid
leadership, enthusiastic participants, and a clear set of goals and
outcomes/products
Increasing international collaboration – joint working groups and other activities
(IMBER? SOLAS? IOCCP? US CLIVAR?); e.g., IMBER has a stronger human/social
science focus, so it might be fruitful to collaborate on a HD-focused activity to
start building and strengthening that community within OCB
Engaging early career scientists and other disciplines
 Perception, particularly among early career scientists, that OCB is exclusive
 OCB successful b/c of individuals’ energy/leadership, which could be perceived
as exclusive when it really isn’t
 One way to help is to increase visibility (e.g., social media) and transparency
(e.g., SSC minutes)
 Ideas for engaging students/postdocs
o Panels of SSC members to talk with people about what OCB does, how to
get involved
o Include student member on SSC?
o Increase early career travel support for OCB meetings so travel funds not
limiting factor
o Getting them involved in working groups and scoping workshops – early
career scientists should be involved in the proposal/planning/leadership
of these activities
o Include panels/tutorials at OCB meetings on academic job search,
proposal writing, writing/publishing scientific papers (IMBER does
publishing workshops)
o Mentoring programs – especially minority students
o Networking luncheon or message board to facilitate
interactions/meetings between students/postdocs and more senior-level
scientists
OCB TRAVEL SUPPORT REQUESTS
SSC members discussed requests for travel support submitted in March. Detailed SSC
comments are reserved for the PIs. Please contact the OCB Project Office if you have
questions.
4/17/15 OCB-SSC Teleconference
Participants: Arnosti, Benway, Buck, Burd, Church, Daly, Ducklow, Hofmann, Jenkins,
Roman, Siegel, Steinberg, Van Mooy, Zawoysky
OCB PROJECT OFFICE UPDATE
New global carbon cycle interactive (Benway and Cooley):
http://www.whoi.edu/feature/carboncycle/
Ocean Acidification PI Meeting (www.whoi.edu/workshops/oapi2015)
 Registration #s have increased (75-80)
 Draft agenda and speakers identified by OCB OA on 4/14 teleconference
(contacts: Mathis and Benway)
OCB Scoping Workshop Trait-based Approaches to Ocean Life (October 5-8, 2015,
Waterville Valley, NH)
 Application/registration open:
http://www.whoi.edu/workshop/traitworkshop2015/apply
OCB Summer Workshop update
 Website/registration live at
http://www.whoi.edu/workshops/ocbworkshop2015/
 Speakers confirmed for all sessions
 Benway will circulate draft agenda
OCB Ocean Time-series Committee
 Neuer co-chaired a session and presented poster on OCB OTC and recent OCB
time-series activities at EGU meeting in a special session entitled Advances in
open ocean water column observations at fixed locations
North Atlantic-Arctic
 Don Rice (NSF) and Terry Schaefer (NOAA) spoke at an international meeting The
Atlantic – Our Shared Resource: Making the Vision Reality (April 16-17, 2015,
Brussels, Belgium) about ongoing and planned US efforts to address key
questions outlined in the science plan and increase international collaboration in
compliance with Galway Statement (view their talks:
http://livestream.com/accounts/7113441/events/3956257/videos/84122368 (T
erry's talk starts at ~2:28 and Don's at ~2:39)
 NSF expects to release a Dear Colleague Letter (based on content of science
plan) later this spring
 North Atlantic-Arctic science plan will be finalized in May
EXPORTS
 Plan has revised based on panel comments
 Panel will respond/finalize by 1st week of May
 In hands of NASA HQ – if plan is finalized (comments accepted), will set up SDT
with DCL in ~June, formed by late summer, 6-12 months to write
implementation plan
OCB RENEWAL PROPOSAL TO NSF (AUGUST 2015)
OCB-relevant Decadal Survey Science Questions
 How are the coastal and estuarine ocean and their ecosystems influenced by the
global hydrologic cycle, land use, and upwelling from the deep ocean?
 How have ocean biogeochemical and physical processes contributed to today’s
climate and its variability, and how will this system change over the next
century?
 What is the role of biodiversity in the resilience of marine ecosystems and how
will it be affected by natural and anthropogenic changes?
 How different will marine food webs be at mid-century? In the next 100 years?
Current OCB Research Priorities
 Climate- and human-driven changes in ocean chemistry (e.g., acidification,
expanding low-oxygen conditions, nutrient loading, etc.) and associated impacts
on biogeochemical cycles and marine ecosystems
 Ocean carbon uptake and storage
 Estuarine and coastal carbon fluxes and processes, including exchanges with
open ocean, terrestrial, and atmospheric reservoirs
 Water column and seafloor ecological and biogeochemical processes and
associated effects on carbon export and the biological pump
 Molecular-level responses of marine organisms (primarily lower trophic levels,
including plankton, mollusks, etc.) to their changing environment
 Impacts of evolutionary changes on plankton community structure, function and
biogeochemical cycling in the face of global change
OCB Science Foci
 Higher trophic levels and their roles in biogeochemical cycling; to date, OCB has
largely focused on plankton without much emphasis on top-down control (this
will be a major focus area for IMBER in the next decade and current activities like
CLIOTOP are already looking at connectivity of higher trophic levels to
biogeochemical cycles)
 Increased emphasis on the mesopelagic ocean
 Scenario testing (biogeochemical cycles all the way up to human systems) –
marine biogeochemical/food web models



Integration of observations with models through data assimilation or other
techniques (added post-teleconference) - will allow more thorough testing and
evaluation of models that are then being used for prediction or improved basic,
mechanistic understanding
Biodiversity – Biodiversity Observing Networks (BONs), will be ripe for
development in the next 1-2 years
Does OCB need a science plan?
o Examples from other programs? E.g., IMBER science plan benefit =
national programs use it to argue for funding within funding agencies but
OCB doesn’t need to argue for anyone to be funded
o Beauty of OCB is its flexibility in responding to evolving needs of
community
o More important to document OCB’s scientific evolution and
accomplishments through time (timeline, review process, NSF proposal)
o Would be better to have a mission statement instead of science plan –
identifies who/what you are (Benway draft and circulate for comment)
OCB Activities
 Summer workshop - a hallmark of OCB and should continue; brings a different
crowd every year, chance to entrain new disciplines
 Scoping workshops - successful model, particularly those from which proposals
and/or collaborative initiatives have emerged (e.g., GEOMICS)
 Training course on manipulation and visualization of large data sets: Kendra,
Adrian, Bethany and Carol leaders
o Timely, funding contingent upon renewal proposal (plan for 2017/2018)
o TARA-Oceans – French project focused on developing new techniques for
analyzing large data sets; collected data on cruise track around globe,
trying to assemble and analyze the disparate data sets; interested in
participating/contributing; informational article ~5 papers to be
published (in Science)
o Group of interested SSC members will get together for preliminary
discussions of the course at summer workshop
 Working Groups – joint WGs with CLIVAR fairly successful, leading to new tools
and recommendations to benefit the broader community; they require solid
leadership, enthusiastic participants, and a clear set of goals and
outcomes/products
 Increasing international collaboration –
o Collaborate with ICES/PICES (includes HD communities and higher
trophic levels) – recent meeting on climate change effects on ocean C
cycle included high profile HD people, IPCC authors, etc.; included a
session on biological pump and PICES now considering initiating a PICES
WG on biological C pump; if it goes forward, OCB should try to have a
o
o
o
o
o
representative in the WG - Adrian will get in touch with PICES contact
person for this WG)
IMBER – has been leader in international community in bringing together
natural and social sciences communities; also focused on higher trophic
levels and biodiversity (e.g., CLIOTOP)
Facilitating these conversations at international meetings like ASLO
Ocean Sciences (next meeting in Feb. 2016 in New Orleans, science
session proposal deadline 4/29; Neuer and organizer!)
OCB booth at these meetings - Will include estimate in renewal proposal
Booths a lot of work to man a booth – partner with someone? People
time $$ (but still, the returns outweigh the costs)
UMD facility SESYNC (Margaret Palmer) – advance studies of research in
coupled natural-human systems (potential partner/co-sponsor of
workshops and inroad to social sciences communities in US?); they
provide travel $ for workshop, as well as postdoc $ to follow up on
meeting outcomes
Engaging early career scientists and other disciplines
 Perception, particularly among early career scientists, that OCB is exclusive
 OCB successful b/c of individuals’ energy/leadership, which could be perceived
as exclusive when it really isn’t
 One way to help is to increase visibility (e.g., social media) and transparency
(e.g., SSC minutes)
 Ideas for engaging students/postdocs
o Panels of SSC and other OCB folks to talk with students/postdocs about
what OCB does, how to get involved, talk about their lives, science, etc.
(Bethany, Matt, Adrian, Mike R., Kendra, Craig, Debbie S.? Eileen)
o Include student or postdoc member on SSC (require letters of support
from advisors to help evaluate and also make sure advisor supportive of
them pursuing a role like this)? If we want that perspective, then we
should bring someone aboard (Debbie, Adrian); ASLO board and meeting
org committees include students/postdocs
o Increase early career travel support for OCB meetings so travel funds not
limiting factor
o Getting them involved in working groups and scoping workshops – early
career scientists should be involved in the proposal/planning/leadership
of these activities
o Include panels/tutorials at OCB meetings on academic job search,
proposal writing, writing/publishing scientific papers (IMBER does
publishing workshops)
o Mentoring programs – especially minority students
o Networking luncheon or message board to facilitate
interactions/meetings between students/postdocs and more senior-level
scientists
6/19/15 OCB-SSC Teleconference
Participants: Arnosti, Benway, Burd, Church, Daly, Hofmann, Martz, Jenkins, Roman,
Siegel, Steinberg, Zawoysky
Action items in red
OCB PROJECT OFFICE UPDATE
NASA Ocean Color Research Team Meeting (Siegel)
 PACE: PACE is moving ahead. The “memo” from NASA HQ states that PACE will
be built as “cost-capped” mission at $805M. The directives from the memo are
to follow the PACE SDT requirements as best as they can be met and to include if
all possible a polarimeter to measure cloud and aerosol optical properties. The
PACE team at Goddard is now running trade studies to address how to meet the
objectives that fit within the cost cap. The hope is that by early next year the
PACE mission is in Phase A of the NASA mission process. Launch readiness date is
2022 (+/- a year).
 EXPORTS: NASA HQ will be sending out a Dear Colleague letter shortly asking for
people to apply to be on the Science Definition Team (SDT) for EXPORTS. Due
date for the SDT applications will be 45 days after it appears (after the OCB
meeting). Object of the SDT will be to create a concise (<100 pp.) experimental
plan (similar to the ABOVE Experimental Plan) within the next 12 months
describing how science will be implemented with available resources. Target SDT
size is ~20 people; NASA HQ will pay for all travel for US participants (no salary,
etc.). It is important that there be a strong response to the Dear Colleague letter
demonstrating broad community interest in EXPORTS and in NASA pursuing and
investing in ocean carbon objectives
OCB Media and Products
 Joint special issues of newsletter with US CLIVAR (spring/summer and fall 2015)
 OCB website redesign (forthcoming, hopefully by fall)
Carbon Cycle SSG/IWG Meeting (May 2015)
 2nd State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR-2) in the works – AGU special
session
 McKinley et al. paper coming out in Eos (co-authored by other CCSSG ocean
members) on importance of addressing global C cycle across all reservoirs; those
in OCB community have a pretty good understanding of importance of the
oceans in the C cycle but many C cycle/climate scientists that do not study the
oceans do not understand the extent to which the oceans impact the C cycle –
OCB will work with paper authors and in-house graphics team to develop a
telling image/tool/animation for OCB scientists to use in their talks/interactions
with broader audiences
Ocean Acidification PI Meeting
 A little over 100 attended
 9 themed plenary sessions with discussions at the end, each day started with
broad tutorial talk related to that day’s plenary themes
 Agenda and talks - http://www.whoi.edu/workshop/oapi2015/agenda
 PI meeting report will be published in next issue of OCB newsletter; no other
products planned at this time
 Oceanography special volume from 2013 OA PI meeting published
http://www.tos.org/oceanography/issues/current.html
North Atlantic-Arctic
 North Atlantic-Arctic science plan finalized in May, still awaiting NSF Dear
Colleague Letter
Coastal CARbon Synthesis (CCARS) Science Plan
 2 chapters away from a full working draft – please email Benway if you want to
see and/or discuss the plan
OCB SUMMER WORKSHOP AND SSC MEETING



>200 people registered – meeting is outgrowing our capacity at WHOI – do we
cap it to a reasonable size or move it to accommodate growing interest (costs
rise if we move)? Item for discussion at SSC meeting in July (Cap it at capacity first come, first served)
O First come, first served registration process; set a maximum number and
close registration
O Meeting survey – Add questions about why they chose to attend OCB
meeting, future policies on registration, and their views on meeting
philosophy/format/size (larger meeting = more inclusive vs. smaller
workshop = more focused, productive discussions)
O Space/venue limitations – consider fewer general plenary sessions
(requiring large room) and invest more time in smaller group
meetings/breakouts; e.g., IMBER IMBIZO format (3-4 concurrent
workshops, 30-40 each, with cross-workshop interactions)
Agenda: http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=139657 - please send talk titles if
giving a talk
Students (almost 40 students registered) – opportunities at 2015 OCB:
O Student research talks and networking lunch (Monday)
O Lunch panel/roundtable discussion with SSC members on being part of
the OCB community, playing a leadership role, interdisciplinary research




challenges, etc. (Tuesday) – please contact Benway if you are able and
willing to do this (should be open to both students and postdocs?)
O Panel with program managers on writing/submitting effective proposals
(Wed., for students and postdocs)
O Opportunity to participate in NASA OBB Decadal Survey of Earth Science
meeting (Thurs.)
O BCO-DMO tutorial, poster sessions (throughout week)
OCB will provide some level of travel support for students
O International student support - ways to obtain small student travel
awards - e.g., EU Commission flagship proposals and other smaller
organizations (Eileen will contact Lisa Maddison in IMBER IPO to provide
leads)
Networking lunch (Monday)
Post-OCB NASA OBB meeting on Decadal Survey of Earth Science – Benway will
email workshop participants early next week about OBB meeting
Burd et al. brainstorming session on short course during meeting with report out
at SSC meeting (Benway/Burd will contact interested SSC members)
OCB MISSION STATEMENT
Comments from SSC members:
 3 sections good (Who are we? What do we do? What is our impact?)
 Last section needs wordsmithing/clarification
Remove explicit mention of recent OCB activities (dates the mission statement)
 Benway will revise and send out for review (send additional feedback/comments
in MS Word track changes)
23 July 2015 OCB SSC Meeting (Woods Hole, MA)
In attendance: Arnosti, Benway, Bontempi, Brzezinski, Buck, Burd, Carlson, Church,
Daly, Doney, Ducklow, Garrison, Hofmann, Jenkins, Lomas, Martz, Metz, Miller, Neuer,
Roman, Siegel, Tedesco, White
Joined via teleconference: Steinberg, Lovenduski
Action items in red
Craig Carlson (SSC Chair) opened the meeting by describing the roles of the OCB SSC and
briefly summarizing the terms of reference (election procedures). Matt Church will take
over as SSC Chair in January 2016, at which point we will elect a new vice-chair.
OCB MISSION STATEMENT
The first order of business was to discuss the draft OCB mission statement. SSC
members provided input on the draft and Benway will revise/wordsmith and circulate
for final approval.
SUMMER WORKSHOP REACTIONS
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Perhaps worth increasing to full 4 day meeting with shorter days
Longer talks (35 min) better received, as speakers often went over time in the
shorter (20 mins) talks
SSC lunch with postdocs and students was well received, fostered many followup interactions between students and faculty that may not have happened
otherwise
Having agency reports and student presentations early in the meeting was good
Plenary sessions should be shorter with less content/talks, leaving more time for
participant interaction, poster sessions – people tired at day’s end, so best to
have poster sessions distributed throughout the day (coffee breaks, etc.)
Student poster prizes next year (one award per session theme), SSC members
judge, present awards at workshop dinner
Distribute program updates throughout meeting rather than putting them all at
the end
Consider mechanisms to save on hotel costs, adhere to registration deadline,
and cap attendance for target of 175 participants (set higher in anticipation of
last minute losses)
Automatically register SSC members (just have them let us know if NOT coming)
Networking lunch a good thing to mix up participants
More coordination among speakers in a plenary session so
overview/introductory content is not duplicated
OCEAN TIME-SERIES COMMITTEE
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The OTC plenary session at this year’s meeting really highlighted key
components of the OTC charge, including international
coordination/representation and integration of autonomous and shipboard
assets, and the community discussion that followed was meant to help inform
future OTC efforts.
Neuer and Benway will organize a Town Hall (with snacks) at the 2016 Ocean
Sciences Meeting to gather more community feedback for OTC, including topics
such as biology and biogeochemistry sensor development, leveraging
autonomous programs/arrays (Argo, OOI), more routinely integrating
autonomous measurements at ocean time-series sites, discussion of time-series
data management best practices, etc.
A side meeting on time-series data management was convened during OCB and
was attended by time-series representatives and ocean data managers. The
group determined that an interactive map (similar to the map that the timeseries network has already developed) that provides a direct link to data for all
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ocean time-series would be a valuable resource; this can be incorporated on the
ocean observations page of the new OCB website and should also include LTER
sites, OOI sites, and other key OCB-relevant observatories. Benway will work on
this in the Fall and will consult with BCO-DMO and other key data repositories to
avoid any duplication of effort.
OTC members also convened a meeting between NSF program officers and
CARIACO PIs at OCB, which resulted in a potential solution to keep the CARIACO
time-series funded and more actively engaged with the community
SSC members raised the possibility of having OOI and LTER representatives on
the OCB OTC, which will be discussed by the OTC during a future teleconference
Ocean time-series and NSF Earth Cube – facilitating cross-correlation of different
types of environmental data is a key objective of Earth Cube
o Many time-series collect -omics data but they have not typically been
part of the larger -omics data stream
o Jenkins is involved in Ed DeLong’s new Earth Cube RCN (-omics data) and
can serve as a liaison – there have been initial discussions about modeling
a genomics data system after the HOTDOGS interface
o Neuer will also contact DeLong about time-series participation in the omics RCN
o BCO-DMO also can serve as a link between Earth Cube and OCB
OCB DATA COURSE
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Daly, Burd, Jenkins, Arnosti, Benway and Matt Long (NCAR) met during the
summer workshop to discuss preliminary plans for the course
~10 day course, ~25-30 participants (targeting early career – mostly students,
postdocs)
Timing: Long will assess NCAR availability for course in summer 2016 and
summer 2017 and put in tentative reservations for dates
Venue: NCAR – free facilities, just need salary support for someone to
compile/curate the data sets in preparation for course and possibly serve in TA
capacity during course
Daly has drafted a course agenda, has been talking to multiple potential
contributors in the community for the past two years, and compiling a list of
OCB-relevant data sets to be included
Benway will incorporate course costs into the NSF renewal proposal; potential
contribution from NSF Earth Cube?
Possibility of a continuing series of courses, perhaps thematically focused, online
courses
Legacy = data synthesis products for use by community (research) and
educational/course materials posted online to share with other instructors
(education)
TRAVEL SUPPORT REQUESTS
No new travel support requests have been submitted since March, so SSC members
approved the request from IMBER IPO submitted in the previous cycle for $10K to
support US early career participation in IMBER IMBIZO IV. This request had been
delayed for consideration in July due to another, more time-sensitive request from
Adrian Marchetti to convene a post-cruise Fe synthesis data workshop in spring 2015,
which did take place.
The Fe synthesis data workshop was based on a cruise off California led by Ken Bruland.
The meeting took place at UNC and included a high level of early career participation. At
the workshop, participants formed working groups to help identify synergies between
data sets, potential publications, etc. The meeting really helped bring participants
together to ensure that the cruise resulted in tangible and valuable outcome for the
broader community. A full report will be published in an upcoming issue of the OCB
newsletter.
GEOTRACES/OCB WORKSHOP
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Bob Anderson gave update at OCB meeting
Early summer 2016 (3rd week of June?) = target timing
GEOTRACES has identified ~6 people to serve on organizing committee - need 6
members from OCB side, so SSC members discussed potential committee
members: Kristen Buck, Mark Brzezinski, Bethany Jenkins, Mak Saito, Keith
Moore, Ben Van Mooy; SSC members will think about this and reconvene to
discuss with Bob Anderson in August or September
OTHER ITEMS
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Garrison raised the possibility of another ocean acidification PI meeting in 2017;
Benway and Mathis will discuss the Ocean Acidification Subcommittee and
future activities on the next SSC teleconference
Galen McKinley, Craig Carlson et al. have coauthored an Eos paper (in press) on
importance of oceans in global carbon cycle and are working with Benway and a
WHOI graphic artist to develop a Powerpoint deck with animations of the timevarying carbon cycle and associated sources and sinks intended for broader
audiences (earth scientists, policy makers, educators etc.) – this will be posted
on website and announced via email when available for download
OCB may have an exhibitor’s booth at OSM 2016, which will require participation
of SSC members in attendance to help man the booth
9/30/15 OCB-SSC Teleconference
Participants: Benway, Burd, Brzezinski, Carlson, Church, Daly, Jenkins, Lovenduski,
Mathis, Neuer, Siegel, Steinberg, Van Mooy, Zawoysky
Action items in red bold
OCB PROJECT OFFICE UPDATE
OCB scoping workshop Trait-based approaches to ocean life
 Workshop website: http://www.whoi.edu/workshop/traitworkshop2015/
IMBER IMBIZO
 Benway ppt on OCB
 Potential OCB/IMBER partnerships
o Human dimensions activities
o North Atlantic-Arctic
o Joint newsletters on different topics
o Higher trophic levels and biodiversity (e.g., CLIOTOP)
o Share carbon cycle animations
NSF Biology of the Biological Pump meeting (Burd)
 Timing: Feb. 19-20, 2016 in New Orleans (weekend before 2016 Ocean Sciences
Meeting)
 Explore NSF contributions to NASA EXPORTS – focusing on new and emerging
ideas and technologies for examining the role of biological
processes/mechanisms/key species in driving the biological pump and flux
attenuation
 Target: ~30-35 participants (invitation only)
 Participants will develop a white paper (with input from broader community) to
inform future NSF calls
 Organizing committee: Adrian Burd, Heather Benway, Uta Passow, Matt Church,
Mike Landry, Debbie Steinberg, Andrew McDonnell, Alison Buchan (first planning
teleconference is Friday, October 2)
OCB at 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting
 Benway ppt on OCB
 Co-chairing special ocean carbon session
 OTC town hall proposal submitted on time-series activities (see OTC update)
 Possible OCB exhibit booth ($650 nonprofit rate, 10’x10’ booth)
 SSC members agreed this is a good way to increase OCB visibility in the
oceanographic community and SSC members are willing to help staff the booth,
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but we will need a constant presence at the booth (Mary, Heather), should also
have an OCB giveaway
Heather will submit proposal, Heather and Mary will discuss staffing and
giveaway options
2016 Summer Workshop
 July 25-28, 2016 (Woods Hole, MA) – directly following Global Change Biology
Gordon Conference in NH
GEOTRACES/OCB meeting on internal cycling of trace elements
 Organizing committee: Bob Anderson, Kathy Barbeau, Greg Cutter, Keith Moore,
Alan Shiller, Alessandro Tagliabue, Maite Maldonado, John Dunne, Dreux
Chappell, Kristen Buck, Bethany Jenkins, Mark Brzezinski, Ben Twining
 Timing: Possibly first week in August, immediately following OCB to
accommodate people who want to attend both meetings, somewhere in the
Northeast (venue TBD – possibly LDEO or WHOI)
New OCB carbon cycle slide deck
 Oceans getting little attention in CCSSG/CCIWG meetings - this prompted the
need for information/resources on ocean carbon, which we have put together in
form of slide deck/animations
 Developed for communicating importance/role of oceans in global carbon cycle
for mixed scientific audiences (not ocean-centric)
 SSC feedback: Good for teaching, esp. slides 1 and 3; slide 2 may be difficult for
general audiences, better for a specialized/scientific audience; last slide has
mixed units, may be confusing; when put on OCB website, include accompanying
document or slide notes that include background information and references
OCB OCEAN TIME-SERIES COMMITTEE UPDATE (NEUER)
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September OTC teleconference
o Revisited scope of OTC and whether or not we were becoming too
broad/all-inclusive (coastal and open ocean, LTERs, OOI, etc.) – initial
focus of this subcommittee was the US time-series and facilitating
communication between agencies, time-series PIs, and the OCB
community
o Agreed that OTC coordination role of bringing time-series together was
an important one and need not be exclusive with regard to coastal vs.
open ocean
o Would like to provide central location for time-series information and
data access (map format) on OCB website
OTC developed and submitted Ocean Sciences Town Hall proposal The Future of
Biogeochemical Ocean Time-Series to 1) Introduce OCB OTC and its charge/goals;
2) Highlight recent community activities and coordination efforts (e.g, Bermuda
time-series methods workshop, biogeochemical sensor training course in
Sweden, Minimalist OceanSITES Interdisciplinary Network (MOIN), International
Group on Marine Ecological Time-Series (IGMETS)); and 3) Solicit feedback from
participants on new directions/next steps and coordination roles to help
strengthen international network of time-series; need to avoid overlap with
EarthCube ECOGEO town hall
OCB OCEAN ACIDIFICATION SUBCOMMITTEE SCOPE, MEMBERSHIP, NEXT
STEPS (MATHIS)
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OA PI Meeting (June 2015) – successful meeting, participants very satisfied, all
got a chance to present their work; we thought this would be the final PI
meeting but at SSC meeting Garrison mentioned potential interest in another PI
meeting
Jeremy updated SSC on status of Interagency Working Group on Ocean
Acidification (IWGOA) – they are still meeting on a regular basis and a draft
implementation plan is being circulated for comment, should be released soon
If we are going to continue this subcommittee, it’s time to rotate its membership
(see OCB OA terms of reference on OCB website)
The SSC recommended that if this subcommittee is to continue, that it develop
more of a multiple stressors focus, since that is the direction in which the OA
research community is moving (a theme that was prevalent at the 2015 PI
meeting)
Mathis will contact Garrison about another OA PI meeting (time horizon of ~1824 months); if yes, will transition to OCB multiple stressors subcommittee and
rotate membership accordingly
OCB SSC SOLICITATION FOR NOMINATIONS
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SSC members discussed the need for early career representation on the SSC and
agreed that we should have a dedicated slot for a postdoc or someone within 4
years of completing their PhD.
Once an early career nomination has been submitted, Benway will contact the
nominee to make sure they’re willing to serve and also ask for a letter of support
from their postdoc advisor.
To indoctrinate new early career members, we will provide an introduction on
the OCB Program and what the SSC is and what it does
This new early career member will lead a new OCB subcommittee focused on
identifying OCB-relevant opportunities for early career members of the
community and leading OCB professional development activities (e.g.,
student/postdoc luncheons and mentoring programs at OCB meetings, etc.)
Benway will draft the solicitation and run it by SSC leadership (Craig, Matt)
before releasing to OCB community; could also send solicitation information for
inclusion in next DISCCRS newsletter to attract more postdoc interest
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Benway will also update OCB SSC terms of reference to reflect new early career
SSC member and associated duties (to be circulated to full SSC for approval)