Final Meeting of the
U.S. JGOFS Scientific Steering Committee
Holiday Inn Select, Old
Town Alexandria, Virginia
Attendees
SSC members: M. Abbott
(chairman), R. Anderson, M.E. Carr, S. Doney, M. Follows, G. Jackson, K.
Johnson, C. Lee, A. Michaels, W. Smith, R. Wanninkhof
Time-series programs: A.
Knap, BATS; D. Karl, HOT
U.S. JGOFS Planning
office: M. Bowles, K. Buesseler, C. Chandler, D. Glover, M. Zawoysky
Department of Energy: J.
Summers
National Science
Foundation: S. Metz, D. Rice, P. Taylor, J. Yoder
National Aeronautics and
Space Administration: C. Trees
National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration: M. Conkright
Guests: J. Kleypas,
National Center for Atmospheric Research; E. Urban, Scientific Committee on
Oceanic Research
Introduction
Chairman Mark Abbott
welcomed members of the U.S. JGOFS Scientific Steering Committee (SSC),
planning office staff and guests to the final meeting of the SSC and urged
those attending to focus on the transition to future programs.
Antarctic Environment and Southern Ocean Process Study
(AESOPS)
Bob Anderson reviewed
both national and international activities in the Southern Ocean and noted that
the third and final AESOPS special issue of Deep-Sea
Research II is currently with the publisher. He picked three papers from
this volume to discuss as examples of the first round of synthesis of Southern
Ocean results. DSR II volumes are
coming out of the various Brest symposia on the Southern Ocean as well. He also
mentioned several iron-enrichment experiments (EisenEx, SOFEX) that have been
conducted in the Southern Ocean during the transition from the JGOFS era.
Bob noted that there was
much confusion about what is to be done for the regional and topical poster
sessions to be held during the JGOFS Open Science Conference (OSC) in May 2003.
Should contributions be encouraged, particularly of synthesis posters? Ken
Buesseler agreed that this topic needed to be discussed. General discussion
ensued on how to encourage international Southern Ocean synthesis, given the
lack of JGOFS funds.
Synthesis and Modeling Project (SMP)
Scott Doney listed the
final five SMP projects funded during FY 2002 and discussed the 2002 summer
workshop, held in Woods Hole in July. Some 90 persons attended, including 18
students. Presentations included posters as well as talks.
Scott reviewed some of
the highlights from four day-long sessions that focused on the Southern Ocean
past and present, food webs, global-scale synthesis of the carbon cycle, and
SMP goals and accomplishments. Participants have broadly addressed the first
two goals set at the beginning of the SMP, he said, referring to global and
regional mass balances and mechanistic controls on local carbon balances. The
project is not as far along on extrapolation and prediction, he conceded.
John Dunne of Princeton
University conducted an informal survey of opinions about the main
contributions of JGOFS to ocean biogeochemical modeling. Among these
contributions were high-quality data sets for model evaluation and enhanced
interactions among field investigators and modelers. Major changes in thought
since the SMP Implementation Plan was published include a growing appreciation
of the role of biological complexity in ocean carbon cycling. The most pressing
uncertainties in biogeochemical modeling include the role of remineralization
and dissolution in the twilight zone, the role of the Southern Ocean and the
ocean margins, and limitations on predictive capability.
Most of the 65 studies
funded as part of the SMP are finished, Scott said. Only 26 are still active.
The project comes to an end in 2004.
Turning to data
management, Scott said that U.S. JGOFS data is currently available via two live
access servers (LAS), one for gridded data and one for non-gridded data. In
short order, the LAS site in Woods Hole will be serving both forms of data.
Thanks to the valiant efforts of Joanie Kleypas, great advances in SMP data and
code submission have taken place. Barriers to the submission of results include
the reluctance of investigators to release models in progress, Scott said.
Cindy Lee asked about
getting coastal data into the system. Modelers should say what data they want,
even if no funds are as yet available to collect and work with them, she said.
Joanie said that some data sets have been sent to her. They present the same
problems of differing units and formats that the U.S. JGOFS Data Management
Office (DMO) has been wrestling with, she added.
Some SMP data are being
submitted through the Global Ocean Data Analysis Project (GLODAP), which will
handle quality control and so forth. Bob Key of Princeton University has
spearheaded the assimilation and quality control of carbon data, Scott said.
SMP contributions
include DSR II special issues,
contributions to the Bergen volume, general science articles, community
products such as the SMP LAS, synthesis and modeling advances that will help
shape future field studies, and intercomparisons of current ecosystem models as
part of the regional testbed project. The second SMP DSR II issue will be published in mid 2003, and a third volume of
papers is planned. Efforts at education and outreach include an expanded web
page with public curricula notes and a slide gallery. Workshops and summer
school programs for graduate students and post-docs are under discussion.
Science Minute: Interannual Variability in Nutrient Drawdown
and Availability from Satellite Altimeter
Mary-Elena Carr gave a
brief talk on satellite observations of interannual variations in nutrient drawdown
and availability as a method of estimating oceanic new production. Changes in
ocean heat storage, measured by the Topex/Poseidon altimeter, are inversely
related to changes in nutrient storage. Her conclusions indicate that the
global new production estimate from the altimeter (6.4 Gt C) is close to
estimates derived from in-situ
measurements, and that the estimate is within 5-10% of the climatological
drawdown for phosphate, the nutrient addressed in her study.
Midwater Processes Workshop
George Jackson presented
a report on the midwater processes workshop held last March in San Antonio,
Texas. The meeting provided a useful opportunity for dialogue between modelers
and field researchers and a chance to address the problem of scale, as well as
demonstrating the need for a comprehensive study of the fate of particles that
fall through the water column. A workshop report is available online, and
articles on it have been published in EOS
and in U.S. JGOFS News.
Iron Dynamics Workshop
Ken Johnson reported on
the workshop on iron dynamics in the ocean carbon cycle, held at the Monterey
Bay Aquarium Research Institute in June. Major recommendations of this workshop
include expanding the global database for iron, which is inadequate for
initializing models and for identifying the processes that control iron
distributions. External iron inputs must be characterized as well. A series of
open-ocean iron fertilization experiments have demonstrated the positive role
of iron in stimulating blooms, but the effects of iron levels on the
termination of blooms and on carbon export are not well studied, Ken said.
NATO Advanced Study Institute
Mick Follows made a
presentation on a NATO advanced study institute on the ocean carbon cycle and
climate that was held in Ankara, Turkey, in August. The two-week intensive
course for students attracted 90 participants from 22 countries. Among other
activities, students explored JGOFS and WOCE data with Ocean Data View and
worked on building ecological models with Simile. U.S. JGOFS funding provided
partial support for six U.S. students and one lecturer.
JGOFS SSC Meeting
Bob Anderson reported on
the penultimate JGOFS SSC meeting, which was held in Concepcion, Chile, in
September. Funding for the upcoming JGOFS OSC was a major topic of discussion.
Roger Hanson is trying to raise funds for scientists from eastern Europe, Asia,
Africa and South America.
Bob reviewed the work of
various JGOFS synthesis groups, focusing on the Global Synthesis Working Group
(GSWG), its objectives and its recommendations for future research. This group
may provide a transition to the next International Geosphere-Biosphere
Programme (IGBP) oceans project (then OCEANS, now IMBER). He also talked about
the future of the IGBP, which is pushing toward interdisciplinary science and
regional studies rather than the study of specific processes. The IGBP has
involved itself in an "earth system science partnership" with the
World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), the International Human Dimensions
Programme (IHDP) and Diversitas.
Asked about an IGBP
carbon project that was launched in Durham two years ago, Bob said that this is
being described as a "synthesis effort," not a research program. The
problem of future oversight and coordination of ocean carbon studies, both
organic and inorganic, stimulated considerable discussion at the JGOFS meeting,
Bob said.
Planning Office Activities
Executive scientist Ken
Buesseler presented a list of workshops that the planning office is supporting
and noted considerable demand for publications such as the special issue of Oceanography and the U.S. JGOFS
brochure. He reviewed the names and talks in the OSC brochure and said that
speakers have agreed to submit their
talks to commentators ahead of time. Planners are expecting between 300
and 500 attendees.
Ken sought advice on
picking students to support for travel to the OSC. Chuck Trees said that NASA
is interested in encouraging young scientists and will be able to help.
Post-OSC activities will
include newsletters through 2004, continued development of the U.S. JGOFS web
site, SMP meetings during 2003 and 2004 and possibly another steering committee
meeting. All agreed that the SSC could remain available to make decisions as
needed without holding another meeting.
Materials collected by
the planning and data management offices can be archived at Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). The list includes JGOFS reports, issues of
U.S. JGOFS News, brochures and other publications. A selected set of letters
and emails could be included as well. The web site could continue for a time in
static form.
Ken also stressed the
importance of taking advantage of the lessons learned during JGOFS in setting
up planning and data management activities for future ocean carbon programs.
Data management should be the responsibility of a centralized DMO that brings
in data in a timely manner, conducts quality control procedures, facilitates
data assimilation, and provides consistent information, metadata and methods,
public access, a regularly updated user interface. A centralized planning
office is essential for meeting support, cruise planning and organization,
information via publications and coordination of outreach activities.
Data manager Cyndy
Chandler emphasized the need for people to keep a web site up to date and
effective. WHOI personnel can serve the web site in static form but cannot
update it.
Southern Ocean Iron Experiment
Ken Johnson reviewed
results from the SOFEX experiments carried out in different locations in the
Southern Ocean earlier in 2002. The study involved three ships (RV Melville, RV Revelle and RVIB Polar Star),
drifters and sites north and south of the polar front. Iron was released in two
different patches and followed up over a period of weeks. Ken Buesseler
followed with a brief discussion of the effort to determine whether iron
fertilization enhanced carbon sequestration via sinking particles, the focus of
efforts aboard the icebreaker Polar Star.
Agency Reports: National Science Foundation
Jim Yoder began the NSF
agency report with a discussion of plans for the development of an integrated
carbon cycle research fund that he hopes will involve other agencies and
possibly other nations. He mentioned two key committees involved in this
effort, the Ocean Carbon Cycle Research (OCCR) planning group headed by Cindy
Lee and the Carbon Cycle Science Program (CCSP) Ocean Interim Implementation
Group headed by Scott Doney. The NSF has to have a clear hypthesis-driven role
in the national effort to address carbon questions, Jim said. The effort to put
together a new pot of money for carbon cycle research is entirely separate from
the NSF biocomplexity program, which has funded some interesting ocean
proposals.
Mark asked about future
support for program planning and data management, and Cindy reminded the group
of the previous discussion about the absence of coastal data from an ocean data
system. Another question raised and discussed was whether a new large-scale
program would focus on anthropogenic carbon as well as on the natural carbon
cycle. Jim acknowledged the need to address this question but did not have an
answer at that moment.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Chuck Trees spoke on
behalf of NASA. He and several other managers are trying for new funds for a
coastal mission for carbon cycle research. He also described remote-sensing
instruments that are currently in the pipeline and their contribution to the
collection of coastal data, both terrestrial and aquatic. NASA is moving toward
coastal research because of the administration's North American carbon program,
he said.
Mark asked about the
status of SeaWiFS. NASA has found an extra $1.1 million and has proposed one
more year to Orbimage, Chuck said, noting that there will be a data crunch next
November as the MODIS instruments try to absorb all the ocean color work. NASA
is committed to maintaining a quality remote-sensing data record and hopes to
move the SeaWiFS and SIMBIOS people into the MODIS program.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Rik Wanninkhof
represented NOAA in the absence of ocean carbon program officer Kathy Tedesco.
He discussed a number of topics, including reorganization, new managers, organizational
separation of observations and research, and research themes. A new global
carbon cycle announcement will be split between ocean research and
observations, he said.
The CO2/CLIVAR
repeat hydrography program is being supported under ocean observations, Rik
noted. Cruises are underway for this program, which receives support from both
NSF and NOAA. An underway pCO2
workshop took place in Miami in October with the goal of designing a
community-based system, he added.
Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study
Turning to SOLAS, Rik
described the international summer school in Corsica that is planned for next
July. Its purpose is to expose graduate students and young scientists to recent
developments and methods in the study of interactions and feedbacks between
biogeochemistry and physics in the ocean and atmosphere. Rik also listed U.S.
SOLAS focus areas, the status of the program and plans for the near future.
Ocean Carbon Cycle Research report
Cindy Lee provided an
update on the activities of the OCCR committee since the last SSC meeting a
year ago. She stressed the importance of workshops as a mechanism for getting
people together to address complex questions, pointing out that only one of the
initiatives that received support under the last NSF announcement of
opportunity had done so (RIOMAR). She also observed that continued discussions
made it apparent that an NSF committee was not the right entity to plan a
multi-agency effort. The future role of the OCCR committee is yet to be
determined, she said, mentioning serveral possibilities.
CCSP Oceans report
Scott Doney, head of the
CCSP Ocean Interim Implementation Group (CCSP Oceans), explained the origin,
composition and functioning of this committee. It is currently preparing an
ocean implementation plan for the U.S. Carbon Cycle Scientific Steering
Committee and the Interagency Working Group. Scott listed the guidelines for
this project, noting that there are important biogeochemical questions that
will not be addressed under CCSP.
The focus of the CCSP is
on the integration of ocean, atmosphere and terrestrial carbon system research.
Five overarching questions are: the ocean anthropogenic CO2
inventory, the magnitude and variability of the air-sea CO2 flux,
feedback mechanisms and climate sensitivities for ocean carbon storage, marine
ecosystem response to climate and global change, and the scientific basis for
mitigations studies.
After Scott's
presentation, discussion ensued about the role of the OCCR committee, as an NSF
committee, in this larger, multi-agency effort. A component of the discussion
was how to fold hypothesis-driven science into CCSP, at least for oceans.
JGOFS Data Management
Margarita Conkright of
NOAA brought the SSC up to date on efforts to preserve JGOFS data on the international
level and to make sure that data management is an integral part of planning for
future large programs. The World Data Center in Germany (WDC-MARE) is putting
the international data into a common format on a voluntary basis, using the
German system called Pangaea, and the data will be archived at WDC
Oceanography. Given the diversity of data collection methods, the metadata will
be particularly important, and data sets will not be merged, Margarita said.
International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
Ed Urban discussed the
new Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR)/IGBP project called OCEANS
(now IMBER). Overlapping the "oceans" box in the new IGBP scheme are
existing programs such as SOLAS, LOICZ and GLOBEC. Julie Hall from New Zealand
and Patrick Monfray from France are chairing the OCEANS transition team. An
OCEANS open science conference will be held in Paris in January 2003 with
invited presentations, poster sessions and working groups; Ed listed topics and
speakers and encouraged a good turnout from U.S. JGOFS participants.
The center of gravity of
the new project will be in ocean biogeochemistry with links to GLOBEC, Ed said.
It will focus on little-known components of the food web, such as viruses, and on
the mesopelagic zone as well as on "hot spots" and "choke
points," including deep water formation, ENSO triggering and the
instability of Antarctic ice sheets.
Other upcoming meetings
and activities include the Ocean Carbon Coordination Project, a collaboration
between the SCOR/IOC panel on CO2 and the IGBP, which will hold a
workshop after the Paris OCEANS conference. Later in 2003, there will be an
international symposium on the scientific issues involved in ocean carbon
sequestration, which will produce a special issue of DSR II.
U.S. JGOFS Data Management Office report
Cyndy Chandler
introduced her report on DMO activities with a review of the status of data
from various U.S. JGOFS field studies and the current set of priorities. These
include a data inventory, merged data products, a final media set of CD-ROMs,
software development and the SMP data.
Data submission is
nearly complete, Cyndy said, although a few AESOPS investigators have yet to
turn in their data. The production of merged data products has been hampered by
these late submissions. Cyndy has also created a parameter dictionary with all
renamed parameters noted.
Cyndy asked SSC members
whether she should attempt to generate a database for EqPac trace-metal bottle
data, a task that would take a fair amount of work. The consensus seemed to be
that this was worth doing.
The SMP LAS and J-LAS
will be combined, and the LAS version 6 will be installed at the DMO in January
2003. Key improvements in the new version are a richer metadata interface, data
subselection capability, multi-variable support, gridded versus in-situ differencing, and additional
products and views. The NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory has
assigned Joe McLean to support the serving of SMP data.
Volumes 1 and 2 of the
U.S. JGOFS data set will be available on CD-ROM by the open science conference
in May. They will include process study and merged data, a web browser
interface, general U.S. JGOFS documentation and a citation for use in
publications. Cyndy asked about the audience for this CD-ROM. The consensus
among SSC members was that the target audience was JGOFS scientists rather than
the public. Dave Glover noted the importance of including a reference list and
very clear information on how to use the U.S. JGOFS data for future scientific
audiences. Advance versions of the CD-ROM will be sent to SSC members in
January.
Time-series Programs: HOT
Noting that the epitaph
on his tombstone will say "how much time do I have?", Mark introduced
Dave Karl's HOT presentation. Dave announced the arrival of research vessel Kilo Moana, the new SWATH vessel
delivered to Honolulu in September. She will be used for most new HOT cruises.
He then reviewed the status of a number of HOT and ancillary projects, staff
changes and plans for the future. Data report number 12 is now online, with 13
and 14 to follow soon.
In his "science
second," Dave discussed advancing knowledge about the relationship between
carbon export and factors such as primary productivity, community structure,
nutrient loading and stochastic physical processes. Nitrogen fixation
ecosystems, such as have developed in the North Pacific gyre over the last
decade and a half, may be able to export more carbon to the benthos than
nitrate-based systems, he observed.
Time-series Programs: BATS
Tony Knap reviewed the
status of the BATS program and ancillary projects and expressed his hope that
efforts to bring ancillary data sets into the BATS database would prove
fruitful.
Ken Buesseler asked about
making time-series data available for the upcoming open science conference.
Time-series data are not included in the forthcoming CD-ROM, he noted, urging
the publication of new time-series data products. Long-term archiving of
time-series data is also an issue that needs to be addressed. Mark thanked Dave
and Tony for their presentations and noted the contributions of HOT and BATS to
the nurturing of young scientists who have moved on into research, teaching and
administrative positions.
On To The Future
The meeting concluded
with a discussion of the transition to future ocean biogeochemistry programs.
Scott's committee has a clear charge; Cindy's less so, Mark observed. Cindy
cited as critical issues the integration of modeling with experimental design
and commitment to data management from the beginning of future programs. George
raised the question of institutionalizing interactions between modelers and
field researchers.
Responding to concerns
about the creation of an international oceans program without U.S.
participation, Bob urged those present to go to Paris for the OCEANS open
science conference and provide guidance. Further discussion revealed that many
SSC members do, in fact, intend to particpate in that conference. Scott will
urge participation from the members of the CCSP committee. Rik observed that
written input into the document that is to emerge would be even more important
than attending the meeting.
Toasts and reminiscences
over champagne brought the final SSC gathering to a festive close.