Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry

2026 OCB Activity Proposals due Oct 24 + Sept 22 webinar

REGISTER for the proposal info webinar Tuesday, September 23, 3-4pm This webinar will feature recent successful OCB activities and their PIs and also provide opportunities for Q&A with Project Office staff on community building and what makes a successful OCB proposal and activity. The Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Program is soliciting proposals for OCB […]

2025 Call for OCB Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) nominations

OCB is seeking nominations for new Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) members, including a new early career member! The term begins in January 2026. The following SSC members are scheduled to rotate off at the end of 2025: Yige Zhang (formerly Texas A&M University) – paleoceanography and paleoclimatology; organic and stable isotope geochemistry; global biogeochemical cycles […]

OCB2025 recordings – a week of science, connection, community

Your watch recordings of the workshop on the OCB YouTube channel. Constraining the dark ocean carbon cycle: Implications for ocean carbon budgets? (Co-chairs: Anne Dekas, Anela Choy, Jeff Bowman, Randie Bundy) Rivers to coasts: Biogeochemical linkages and environmental resilience (joint with North American Carbon Program) (Co-chairs: Fei Da, Kanchan Maiti, Shaily Rahman, Libby Larson, David […]

Survey Request on mCDR

California Ocean Science Trust, in collaboration with a network of partners across the U.S West Coast and Alaska, is conducting a survey to assess the need for and inform the development of a regional marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) exchange/network. Building on existing networks and progress made by the Pacific Northwest and California Current Regional […]

NEW Report: Pathways Connecting Climate Changes to the Deep Ocean

Now published – workshop report from the Pathways Connecting Climate Changes to the Deep Ocean: Tracing physical, biogeochemical, and ecological signals from the surface to the deep sea A joint OCB-US CLIVAR scoping workshop This workshop will brought together observational oceanographers and modelers across physical, biogeochemical, and ecological communities to assess our understanding of pathways […]

METS RCN workshop recordings

Watch recordings from the METS RCN workshop held in April on the OCB YouTube Channel. International Workshop: FAIR Data Practices for Ship-based Marine Ecological Time Series April 22-25, 2025 (ASU/BIOS, Bermuda) Workshop report: https://www.us-ocb.org/fair-data-practices-for-marine-ecological-time-series/ More on METS RCN Workshop: https://www2.whoi.edu/site/mets-rcn/projects/fair-ship-based-ocean-time-series-international-workshop/

PAUSE on all bulk travel requests

Until further notice, OCB will not be able to consider bulk travel support requests. We will post an announcement if this changes.

New: Connecting Observations to Models

Ombres, E., H. Benway, K. Bisson, A. Larkin, L. Perotti, L. Wright-Fairbanks (eds.) (2024). Connecting Observations to Models: Biogeochemical Observing and Modeling Workshop, 2024 Summary Report and Suggested Steps Forward. Published Date: 2024 Series: NOAA technical memorandum OAR-OAP ; 6, DOI: https://doi.org/10.25923/wpdj-ja69

New workshop report: Ecological Forecasting

New workshop report from the joint OCB-US CLIVAR 2022 workshop Daily to Decadal Ecological Forecasting along North American Coastlines Capotondi, A., Coles, V. J., Clayton, S., Friedrichs, M., Gierach, M., Miller, A. J., and Stock, C. 2024. Daily to Decadal Ecological Forecasting Along North American Coastlines Workshop Report. 54pp. doi: 10.1575/1912/70991 Citable URI https://hdl.handle.net/1912/70991 Download here.

Recent Science Highlights

New software enables global ocean biogeochemical modeling in Python

Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you could write and run complex biogeochemical models easily and conveniently in Python? Wonder no more. In a paper published in J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., Samar Khatiwala (2025; see reference below) describes tmm4py, a new software to enable efficient, global scale biogeochemical modelling in […]

Migrating zooplankton increase N2 production in Oxygen Deficient Zones

Diel Vertically Migrating Zooplankton that spend their day in an Oxygen Deficient Zone to avoid predators are a previously ignored source of organic matter for N2 producing bacteria. A recent study in GBC, examined biogeochemical cycling in the offshore Eastern Tropical North Pacific Oxygen Deficient Zone. They found that the daytime maximum in backscattering, used […]

Giant iceberg meltwater supplies nutrients to upper ocean layers

Iceberg meltwater induces mixing which erodes upper-ocean layers. This supplies nutrients, both released from the iceberg and entrained from deeper waters, to surface waters which stimulates phytoplankton growth. Meltwater from the base, sidewalls and surface of giant icebergs influences upper ocean stratification and mixing. Containing a substantial micro-nutrient load, (incorporating nutrient-rich deep waters along with […]

Tracing the biological carbon pump across diverse export regimes

The ocean’s biological carbon pump (BCP) plays a crucial role in regulating Earth’s climate. But how efficiently does it transport carbon to the deep? It has been difficult to answer this question because observations are sparse, labor-intensive, and the uncertainties of the BCP’s magnitude, which are nearly equivalent to human emissions. Fortunately, autonomous vehicles unlock […]

New over-determined CO2 system solver QUODcarb

Do you work with over-determined datasets of seawater carbon dioxide system chemistry? QUODcarb (Quantifying Uncertainty in an Over-Determined marine carbonate system), a new over-determined CO2-system solver is described in the recently published “QUODcarb: A Bayesian solver for over-determined datasets of seawater carbon dioxide system chemistry.” The Bayesian formulation of the novel solver and demonstrates its […]

Photoacclimation by phytoplankton under clouds

Unlike most remote sensing products, Net Primary Production (NPP) is computed under clouds. Since satellites can’t see through clouds, NPP models rely on clear-sky observations, interpolate model inputs, and assume that phytoplankton behavior stays the same, regardless of light conditions. But phytoplankton are known to photoacclimate, adjusting their internal chlorophyll to carbon ratio in response […]