SOCCOM-relevant sessions at AGU Fall Meeting

June 30, 2015

There will be two SOCCOM-relevant sessions at the AGU Fall Meeting in December(Link is external) – “Observing open ocean biogeochemistry with profiling floats” (conveners Johnson, Hofmann, Claustre and Koertzinger) and “Trajectories of change in the Southern Ocean” (conveners Lancelot, Hofmann, Jaccard and Russell).

Full session abstracts are pasted below. The AGU site is now open for abstract submission, and the deadline for abstracts is August 5.

Observing Open Ocean Biogeochemistry with Profiling Floats

Submit an Abstract to this Session(Link is external)

Session ID#: 8581
Session Description: The annual and interannual variability of ocean biogeochemistry has been systematically observed at only a few ship-based, time series stations. Biogeochemical sensors on profiling floats now provide the opportunity to observe processes from the surface through the ocean interior with full annual resolution. Nearly 10% of the floats in the Argo array are equipped with biogeochemical sensors. These systems have enabled studies that are core to global science programs such as IMBER and SOLAS. Biogeochemical sensors on floats are used to study net community production, respiration, carbon export, nutrient supply, bloom initiation dynamics, gas exchange, and the dynamics of oxygen minimum zones. The sensor data are central to improving the representation of such processes in ocean biogeochemical models. Such studies are being conducted with profiling floats deployed throughout the world ocean. This session will focus on observational and modeling contributions based on floats and biogeochemical processes.

Primary Convener: Kenneth S Johnson, MBARI, Moss Landing, CA, United States

Conveners: Eileen E Hofmann, Old Dominion University, Gloucester, VA, United States, Herve Claustre, Laboratoire d’Oceanographie de Villefranche, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France and Arne Koertzinger, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany

Trajectories of change in the Southern Ocean

Submit an Abstract to this Session(Link is external)

Session ID#: 8669
Session Description: The Southern Ocean is a critical part of the Earth system and host to unique and diverse marine ecosystems. The region is experiencing rapid changes as the climate continues to warm: dynamic and thermodynamic processes are affecting sea-ice cover, oceanographic processes, atmosphere-ice-ocean interactions as well as the Antarctic ice sheet. How will these changes alter the Southern Ocean’s ability to absorb heat, carbon dioxide and support ocean productivity? Will the changes result in feedbacks that accelerate or slow the rate of climate change? This session will address such questions by assessing recent insights from contemporary and palaeoclimatic observations and models. We solicit integrative contributions that explore topics such as sea ice, ice-sheet stability, biogeochemical cycling, atmosphere-ice-ocean processes and marine food webs. We will also consider contributions that explore the current and potential value of Antarctic ecosystem services and how they can be safeguarded.

Primary Convener: Christiane Lancelot, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

Conveners: Eileen E Hofmann, Old Dominion University, Gloucester, VA, United States, Sam Jaccard, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland and Joellen L Russell, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States