Mapping of Sea Surface Nutrients in the North Pacific: Basin-wide Distribution and Seasonal to Interannual Variability

Monthly maps of sea surface nutrient (phosphate, nitrate and silicate) concentrations were produced for the North Pacific (10-60°N, 120°E-90°W) for the years 2001 to 2010 using a self-organizing map trained with temperature, salinity, chlorophyll-a concentration and mixed layer depth. Nutrient sampling was carried out mainly by ships of opportunity, providing good seasonal coverage of the surface ocean. Using the mapping results, we investigated the spatio-temporal variability of surface North Pacific nutrient and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) distributions on seasonal and interannual time scales. Nutrient and DIC concentrations were high in the subarctic in winter and low in the subtropics. In the summer, substantial amount of nutrients remained unutilized in subarctic and the northern part of the subarctic-subtropical boundary region while that was not the case in the southern part of the boundary region. In the subtropics, nutrients were almost entirely depleted throughout the year, while DIC concentrations showed a north-south gradient and significant seasonal change. Nutrients and DIC show a large seasonal drawdown in the western subarctic region, while the drawdown in the eastern subarctic region was weaker, especially for silica. The subarctic-subtropical boundary region also showed a large seasonal drawdown, which was most prominent for DIC and less obvious for nitrate and silicate. In the interannual time scale, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation was related to a seesaw pattern between the subarctic-subtropical boundary region and the Alaskan Gyre through the changes in horizontal advection, vertical mixing and biological production

Marine Plastics EOV and common sampling protocol

This deliverable describes the process of establishing global coordination for sustained observations of marine plastics litter as a new type of Essential Ocean Variable (EOV) addressing the aspect of observing human impacts on the ocean. The document reports on the EuroSea efforts to implement a community vision for an Integrated Marine Debris Observing System (IMDOS) as a new element of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). First version of the Marine Plastics Litter EOV Specification Sheet is included. Progress towards establishing common sampling protocols for marine plastic litter in Europe and beyond are described

Report of the workshop on the Implementation of Multidisciplinary Sustained Ocean Observations (IMSOO)

To date, largely independent observing systems have evolved to meet the needs of particular disciplines and end users – many of these still measure only ocean physical variables routinely. The Implementation of Multidisciplinary Sustained Ocean Observations (IMSOO) workshop was held to identify priority steps to further multi-disciplinary collaborations in coordinating continuous and long-term ocean observations for the benefit of better understanding of the ocean and its ecosystems, as well as human impacts and vulnerabilities. The workshop was designed to follow the approach of the Framework for Ocean Observing (FOO), within which societal and scientific requirements for measurements as well as the feasibility of making such measurements combine to prioritize Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs). With the goal of supporting the global implementation of the FOO, an international and multi-disciplinary group of experts in ocean observations and modelling successfully addressed the three major aims of the workshop which were: To build on the established societal and scientific requirements expressed in EOVs and identify the key applications and phenomena that will benefit from co-located multi-disciplinary sustained observations; To identify near-term innovation priorities for observing platforms and sensors to enable multi-disciplinary observations; and To identify programmatic and professional connections between existing and emerging observing networks and modelling efforts that will increase multidisciplinary observations and analyses. To provide an innovative mechanism fostering convergence across the ocean disciplines, the workshop focused on three “demonstration themes”, chosen because they represent global and challenging problems that are best addressed through collaboration of physical, biogeochemical and biological observations and analyses

Initial AtlantOS Requirements Report

Initial description from ongoing work of the societal imperatives for sustained Atlantic Ocean observations, the phenomena to observe, EOVs, and contributing observing network

The Ocean is Losing its Breath: Declining Oxygen in the Worlds Ocean and Coastal Waters

'The Ocean is Losing its Breath' presents a summary of scientific experiments, observations and numerical models addressing the following questions: How has the oxygen content in the open ocean and coastal waters changed over the past century and through geological time? What are the mechanisms behind this oxygen decline? How is ocean oxygen content predicted to change over the rest of the twenty-first century? What are the consequences of low and declining oxygen concentrations in the marine environment? This document was prepared by a group of concerned scientists from across the world, the IOC expert group, the Global Ocean Oxygen Network GO2 NE, established in 2016, which is committed to providing a global and multidisciplinary view on deoxygenation, with a focus on understanding its various aspects and impacts

Carbon dynamics of the Weddell Gyre, Southern Ocean

The accumulation of carbon within the Weddell Gyre and its exchanges across the gyre boundaries are investigated with three recent full-depth oceanographic sections enclosing this climatically important region. The combination of carbonmeasurements with ocean circulation transport estimates from a box inverse analysis reveals that deepwater transports associated with Warm Deep Water (WDW) and Weddell Sea Deep Water dominate the gyre’s carbon budget, while a dual-cell vertical overturning circulation leads to both upwelling and the delivery of large quantities of carbon to the deep ocean. Historical sea surface pCO2 observations, interpolated using a neural network technique, confirm the net summertime sink of 0.044 to 0.058 ± 0.010 Pg C / yr derived from the inversion. However, a wintertime outgassing signal similar in size results in a statistically insignificant annual air-to-sea CO2 flux of 0.002± 0.007 Pg C / yr (mean 1998–2011) to 0.012 ± 0.024 Pg C/ yr (mean 2008–2010) to be diagnosed for the Weddell Gyre. A surface layer carbon balance, independently derived fromin situ biogeochemical measurements, reveals that freshwater inputs and biological drawdown decrease surface ocean inorganic carbon levels more than they are increased by WDW entrainment, resulting in an estimated annual carbon sink of 0.033 ± 0.021 Pg C / yr. Although relatively less efficient for carbon uptake than the global oceans, the summertime Weddell Gyre suppresses the winter outgassing signal, while its biological pump and deepwater formation act as key conduits for transporting natural and anthropogenic carbon to the deep ocean where they can reside for long time scales

What we have learned from the framework for ocean observing: evolution of the global ocean observing system

The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and its partners have worked together over the past decade to break down barriers between open-ocean and coastal observing, between scientific disciplines, and between operational and research institutions. Here we discuss some GOOS successes and challenges from the past decade, and present ideas for moving forward, including highlights of the GOOS 2030 Strategy, published in 2019. The OceanObs’09 meeting in Venice in 2009 resulted in a remarkable consensus on the need for a common set of guidelines for the global ocean observing community. Work following the meeting led to development of the Framework for Ocean Observing (FOO) published in 2012 and adopted by GOOS as a foundational document that same year. The FOO provides guidelines for the setting of requirements, assessing technology readiness, and assessing the usefulness of data and products for users. Here we evaluate successes and challenges in FOO implementation and consider ways to ensure broader use of the FOO principles. The proliferation of ocean observing activities around the world is extremely diverse and not managed, or even overseen by, any one entity. The lack of coherent governance has resulted in duplication and varying degrees of clarity, responsibility, coordination and data sharing. GOOS has had considerable success over the past decade in encouraging voluntary collaboration across much of this broad community, including increased use of the FOO guidelines and partly effective governance, but much remains to be done. Here we outline and discuss several approaches for GOOS to deliver more effective governance to achieve our collective vision of fully meeting society’s needs. What would a more effective and well-structured governance arrangement look like? Can the existing system be modified? Do we need to rebuild it from scratch? We consider the case for evolution versus revolution. Community-wide consideration of these governance issues will be timely and important before, during and following the OceanObs’19 meeting in September 2019

A surface ocean CO2 reference network, SOCONET and associated marine boundary layer CO2 measurements

The Surface Ocean CO2 NETwork (SOCONET) and atmospheric Marine Boundary Layer (MBL) CO2 measurements from ships and buoys focus on the operational aspects of measurements of CO2 in both the ocean surface and atmospheric MBLs. The goal is to provide accurate pCO2 data to within 2 micro atmosphere (μatm) for surface ocean and 0.2 parts per million (ppm) for MBL measurements following rigorous best practices, calibration and intercomparison procedures. Platforms and data will be tracked in near real-time and final quality-controlled data will be provided to the community within a year. The network, involving partners worldwide, will aid in production of important products such as maps of monthly resolved surface ocean CO2 and air-sea CO2 flux measurements. These products and other derivatives using surface ocean and MBL CO2 data, such as surface ocean pH maps and MBL CO2 maps, will be of high value for policy assessments and socio-economic decisions regarding the role of the ocean in sequestering anthropogenic CO2 and how this uptake is impacting ocean health by ocean acidification. SOCONET has an open ocean emphasis but will work with regional (coastal) networks. It will liaise with intergovernmental science organizations such as Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW), and the joint committee for and ocean and marine meteorology (JCOMM). Here we describe the details of this emerging network and its proposed operations and practices

A multi-decade record of high quality fCO2 data in version 3 of the Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT)

The Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT) is a synthesis of quality-controlled fCO2 (fugacity of carbon dioxide) values for the global surface oceans and coastal seas with regular updates. Version 3 of SOCAT has 14.7 million fCO2 values from 3646 data sets covering the years 1957 to 2014. This latest version has an additional 4.6 million fCO2 values relative to version 2 and extends the record from 2011 to 2014. Version 3 also significantly increases the data availability for 2005 to 2013. SOCAT has an average of approximately 1.2 million surface water fCO2 values per year for the years 2006 to 2012. Quality and documentation of the data has improved. A new feature is the data set quality control (QC) flag of E for data from alternative sensors and platforms. The accuracy of surface water fCO2 has been defined for all data set QC flags. Automated range checking has been carried out for all data sets during their upload into SOCAT. The upgrade of the interactive Data Set Viewer (previously known as the Cruise Data Viewer) allows better interrogation of the SOCAT data collection and rapid creation of high-quality figures for scientific presentations. Automated data upload has been launched for version 4 and will enable more frequent SOCAT releases in the future. High-profile scientific applications of SOCAT include quantification of the ocean sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide and its long-term variation, detection of ocean acidification, as well as evaluation of coupled-climate and ocean-only biogeochemical models. Users of SOCAT data products are urged to acknowledge the contribution of data providers, as stated in the SOCAT Fair Data Use Statement. This ESSD (Earth System Science Data) “living data” publication documents the methods and data sets used for the assembly of this new version of the SOCAT data collection and compares these with those used for earlier versions of the data collection (Pfeil et al., 2013; Sabine et al., 2013; Bakker et al., 2014). Individual data set files, included in the synthesis product, can be downloaded here: doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.849770. The gridded products are available here: doi:10.3334/CDIAC/OTG.SOCAT_V3_GRID

Accurate monitoring of the North Atlantic air-sea CO2 flux from a network of voluntary observing ships

Ocean Sciences Meeting, March 2-7, 2008, Orlando, FloridaSince the start of 2005 under the EU’s Carbo-Ocean project, we have participated in co-ordinated observations of sea surface pCO2 and related variables from a network of commercial vessels in the North Atlantic. Typically five vessels are operating at any one time. The observations can be used to reconstruct the sea-surface pCO2 field, and thence estimate air-sea fluxes, with unprecedented resolution and accuracy. Using the observations for the calendar year 2005, we use a variety of geostatistical methods to derive the precision with which regional fluxes can be obtained. The observations are generalized to the entire N Atlantic from 10N to 65N by exploiting relations between surface pCO2, SST and mixed layer depth. Using semi-variograms or an empirical technique of selective data deletion applied to the residuals, we obtain a 1-sigma uncertainty of 6% on the annual flux into the region as a whole. This is very much more precise than has been possible for any comparable region of the world (land or ocean) up to nowN