Keynote Speakers


More information on the scientific careers, research interests, and conference abstracts of our keynote speakers below.



(in alphabetical order by last name)
 

Jonathan Abbatt
University of Toronto, Canada


Jon Abbatt is an atmospheric chemist interested in multiphase processes that occur between gases, aerosol particles,
and environmental surfaces. He has a longstanding interest in polar chemistry, starting with halogen activation
processes in both the stratosphere and troposphere. Most recently he has been the principal investigator of a large
Canadian project (NETCARE) that has endeavored to assess the connections between the ocean, aerosol particles,
and climate in remote environments, such as in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

Session: Interconnections between aerosols, clouds and ecosystems

Connecting the ocean to aerosols and clouds in the summertime Canadian Arctic
The Arctic is warming at twice the global average rate and the extent of summertime sea ice is diminishing. How will the atmosphere respond to the increased levels of Open Ocean? In this talk, observational results from the NETCARE research consortium will be presented for icebreaker and aircraft field campaigns conducted in the Canadian Arctic in 2014. It was observed that the ocean is productive, releasing high levels of DMS and oxygenated VOCs. As well, ultrafine particles are frequently observed in marine boundary layer environments, with occasional growth to CCN sizes. The impacts of these particles on low-level cloud properties will be presented. These observations will be placed in the context of other high latitude measurements that together illustrate the tight coupling that exists in the summertime Arctic between sea ice extent and the chemical state of the atmosphere.

 

Ying Chen
Fudan University, China

Ying Chen's research focuses on marine aerosols and its biogeochemical and climatic effects. Specifically, her group
does long-term or cruise observations on physiochemical and optical properties of aerosols as well as abundance and
community structure of airborne microbes over the marginal seas and the western North Pacific. They do source
apportionment and study the effects of anthropogenic emissions and Asian dust on chemical composition, microbial
structure and light extinction ability of marine aerosols. The contribution of marine biogenic sources to the aerosol
components and microbes is also of interest. Her woorking group estimates the atmospheric deposition fluxes of
nutrients and trace elements to the ocean using the dry deposition velocities corrected by the size distribution of each
component. The effects of aerosol deposition on phytoplankton growth and community structure is explored through
microcosm experiments and analysis of observational and remote sensing data.

Session: Atmospheric deposition and ocean biogeochemistry

Atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and trace metals affects marine phytoplankton and their feedback to aerosols
Atmospheric deposition is an important source of nutrients and trace metals to the surface ocean, which may affect the efficiency of biological carbon pump and the emission of marine biogenic gases and aerosols through changing the phytoplankton biomass and community structure. Marine aerosols influenced by dust storms and polluting air masses have very different chemical composition, size distribution, elemental solubility, etc., and thereby their impacts on phytoplankton growth are also distinct. Atmospheric deposition contains much more nitrogen relative to phosphorus, and increased anthropogenic emissions exacerbate this ratio. Affluent nitrogen may enhance the primary productivity in oligotrophic oceans, but atmospheric deposition may not be able to promote the phytoplankton growth in eutrophic coastal areas if phosphorus is in shortage. Iron in dust deposition can stimulate phytoplankton growth in high nutrient low chlorophyll oceans, whilst high copper deposition may show a toxic effect and induce the change of phytoplankton community structure. Its toxic threshold may vary under different nutrient conditions and trace metal concentrations such as iron and zinc. Nitrogen, iron and copper are probably the most important elements in the atmospheric deposition affecting marine phytoplankton. The change of phytoplankton biomass and community structure in turn can influence the composition and characters of marine aerosols by contributing to MSA, amines, ammonium, etc.

 
          


Marcela Cornejo

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile

Marcela Cornejo was born in Santiago de Chile. Her undergraduate studies were in Oceanography, at the Pontifical
Catholic University of Valparaíso, where she began research on the nitrogen cycle in sediments and water column in
central Chile subjected to the oxygen minimum zone.
Next, she moved to Concepción, where she completed her
postgraduate studies in Oceanography, working with the carbon and nitrogen cycle focused on the ocean-atmosphere
exchange of greenhouse gases, along the South Eastern Pacific Ocean.
Currently, she is an academic at the Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Valparaíso,  where she promoted the biogeochemical line of greenhouse gases. Her research
covers, among others, regions such as the  mesoscale eddies generation zone, the coastal upwelling zone, the Chilean
fjords and channels, and that Australian Ocean.

Session: Integrated topics

The dynamic of the nitrous oxide in the Humboldt Current System
Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas in the troposphere, and it is involved in the ozone destruction in the stratosphere. The Global Ocean is a source of atmospheric nitrous oxide with a high spatial, seasonal and temporal variability. A critical ecosystem in the marine nitrous oxide dynamic contribution is the Humboldt Current System in the eastern South Pacific, which acts as a net source to the atmosphere, but sink regions are also present. The magnitude of this contribution is subject to the occurrence of different physical and biogeochemical processes. Thus, the presence of coastal upwelling events, upwelling fronts, El Niño, mesoscale eddies, the variability of the oxygen minimum zone, contributions of fluvial waters, among others, determine a large part of the temporal and spatial dynamics of the coastal region in both subsurface and surface layer. Additionally, the oxycline variability is influencing the gas diffusion from the subsurface layer. In situ biogeochemical processes are also affecting the sub or over saturation of nitrous oxide in the surface layer through the presence of the aerobic (e.g., nitrification, nitrous oxide fixation) and anaerobic (by denitrification) processes. These processes have been measured in experiments with seawater and with particles, such as a faecal pellet, showing an important contribution to the surface nitrous oxide budget. Additionally, there are some efforts to establish the nitrous oxide cycling in microorganisms living associated with the surface microplastic, known as plastisphere. These results allow to estimate a direct impact of the plastic pollution in the ocean on the surface nitrous oxide inventories.


 

 

Siv Kari Lauvset
NORCE - Norwegian Research Centre, Norway


Siv Kari Lauvset is interested in increasing the overall understanding we have of the carbon cycle in the ocean and how 
human perturbations to the atmosphere affects the ocean. She focuses especially on carbon cycle changes in recent 
decades, but also how this may change in a future with or without emission mitigation efforts. While she focuses
mostly on observational studies she finds Earth System models a useful and valuable tool. It is very important that we
have good observational data and she is engaged in global data syntheses and quality control of large datasets such
as GLODAP and SOCAT. She is currently coordinating the Norwegian node of the European distributed research
infrastructure ICOS, and on the steering committee for the Norwegian BGC-Argo network. She started her career by
focusing on the waters around Norway, but in recent years has worked more and more with global issues.

Session: Greenhouse gases and the oceans

The Carbon Cycle: The role of oceans and humans
One of the fundamental unanswered questions in climate science is: where does the carbon go? Humans are perturbing the natural carbon cycle by burning fossil fuels and we need to be able to quantify the movement of anthropogenic carbon in nature in order to verify the self-reporting of emission reductions pledged under the Paris Agreement. Quantifying the magnitude of these carbon fluxes is non-trivial, and identifying where carbon goes is further complicated by the large internal variability in Earth’s carbon cycle. The ocean currently remove ~25 % of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, and the ocean carbon sink has considerably less variability than the terrestrial carbon sink. Nevertheless, recent research has shown that fully accounting for the interannual and multidecadal variations in the ocean carbon sink significantly reduce the estimated cumulative ocean uptake. The ocean carbon sink is a key element in understanding future climate change because the retention time of carbon in the ocean is vastly longer than that in the terrestrial sink, making the ocean the only long-term removal option for anthropogenic carbon. To properly quantify this removal large amounts of data with high spatial and temporal coverage is necessary. This is beginning to become available through networks such as ICOS, SOCONET, and BGC-Argo and already a transformation in our understanding of both the magnitude and dynamics of the ocean carbon sink is taking place. This presentation will focus on the role of oceans and humans in Earth’s carbon cycle, including how these roles might influence the future ocean and the future climate.

 

Andrew Lenton
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia

Andrew Lenton is an ocean carbon cycle and earth system modeler with Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organisation’s (CSIRO’s) Climate Science Centre, the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC, and the
Centre for Southern Hemisphere Oceans Research, based in Tasmania, Australia. His research focuses on key three
key impact areas: (i) Quantifying the past, present and future role of the of the global carbon cycle focusing primarily
on the ocean; (ii) Exploring and understanding the impact of the carbon cycle and feedbacks changes on both climate
and the marine environment; (iii) The potential role of geoengineering in ameliorating or reducing climate change, both
globally and locally. He initiated and now leads the Carbon Dioxide Removal Model Intercomparison Project (CDRMIP)
and continues to be part of the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP), as well as serving on the
international Working Group on Marine Geoengineering (GESAMP WG41).

Session: Geoengineering

Geoengineering, the Ocean and SOLAS
At present even rapid decarbonization through emissions reduction is unlikely to be sufficient to stabilise climate at the global temperature thresholds of the Paris Agreement. Consequently, keeping warming to well-below 2 degrees will almost certainly require some form(s) of climate geoengineering, either through solar radiation/reflection management (SRM) and/or negative emissions technologies (NETs). Despite the potential of geoengineering to limit warming, and its inclusion in many IPCC low-emissions pathways, the efficacy and potential impacts on the ocean, and the ecosystem services that it provides remains poorly known.
Therefore it is urgent that we fully understand the degree to which geoengineering could help mitigate climate change, and what may be the associated potential positive and negative impacts at the global and regional scale. This knowledge is needed if we are to weigh up the risks between the deployment of climate scale geoengineering and the projected impacts of climate change.
In this talk, I will discuss the current proposed SRM, and oceanic NETs approaches, how they differ, the domain and time-scales over which they act, and the ongoing challenges associated with geoengineering research. I will conclude by highlighting the potential role SOLAS, and its associated research community could play in geoengineering research.

 

Anoop Mahajan
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, India


Anoop S. Mahajan received his PhD in atmospheric chemistry at the University of Leeds, UK and after working as a
postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate, CSIC, Spain, he has been working
at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology since 2012. His research group focuses on the measurement and
modelling of trace gases in the atmosphere. Most of his work has been on the emissions of halogens and volatile
organic compounds from the ocean surface and the impact they have on the atmosphere in terms of changing the
oxidising capacity and affecting the radiation budget through aerosol formation. He has co-authored more than 50
papers on halogen, dimethyl suphide and volatile organic carbon chemistry.

Session: Ocean biogeochemical control on atmospheric chemistry

Oceanic Regulation of Atmospheric Chemistry: Past, Present and Future
It has been more than three decades since the CLAW hypothesis, which suggested that ocean biogeochemistry could directly affect atmospheric chemistry and hence climate, was proposed. In this intervening period, significant research has investigated the links between different biogeochemical processes and their effect on the lower and upper atmosphere. We now know that the hypothesized processes are more complex than first proposed but it has also become clear that ocean biogeochemistry does significantly affect atmospheric chemistry. This happens through a range of processes such as changing the aerosol concentrations and hence cloud properties, as in the case of dimethyl sulfide or non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs); affecting oxidation chemistry and the ozone and hydroxyl radical budget, as in the case of halogens and NMVOCs such as acetone and isoprene; or impacting reactive chemistry in the troposphere and stratosphere, as in the case of halocarbons. Indeed, these processes can also have a feedback with changes in atmospheric concentrations affecting oceanic biogeochemistry and emissions. Proxies from ice cores have thrown new light on the extent of changes that have occurred in the past and the trends that can be expected in the future. New observations indicate that the impacts of ocean biogeochemistry on the atmosphere are not only important on climatic scales but that some of these processes are important on short timescales and need to be included in air quality models. This talk summarizes the major achievements, current state-of-the-art and new questions that need attention on this front, with a focus on oceanic emissions and its impact on atmospheric trace gas chemistry.


 

 
Kathryn Mengerink

Waitt Institute, USA


Kathryn Mengerink is Executive Director at the Waitt Institute, a U.S. nonprofit that partners with governments to
support sustainable ocean management. In particular, her work focuses on operationalizing science-based decision
making  through marine spatial planning, marine protected area development and fisheries management. In this
position, she leads a team of ocean experts through a process of assessment, legal and policy development and
management implementation. From 2006 -2016 Kathryn founded and directed the Ocean Program at the Environmental  Law Institute. Under her leadership, the Ocean Program launched law and policy projects related to regional ocean  management, coastal zoning, fisheries management and enforcement, aquaculture, ocean and coastal restoration,
offshore energy development, marine protection, Alaska Natives rights and ocean management, environmental DNA,
deep seabed mining and more. From 2007-2016, she also served as a lecturer for Scripps Institution of Oceanography
(SIO), where she taught ocean law and policy and served as an advisor to the Center for Marine Biodiversity and
Conservation. She holds a B.S. in Zoology (Texas A&M University), Ph.D. in Marine Biology from SIO (UC San Diego)
and a J.D. with a certificate of specialization in environmental law (UC Berkeley).

Session: SOLAS science and society

Marine spatial planning as a tool to advance science-based decision-making
Policymakers must make decisions about all aspects of society, economy and environment—decisions that sometimes align across these topics and other time conflict. In this framework, policymakers struggle with decisions related to ocean health, biodiversity, climate change, and how to achieve long-term sustainability. Clearly science is a core part of decision-making, but it is not the only issue under consideration.  There are many competing interests.  So how does science inform decision-making?   This talk will explore the interface between science and society, focusing particularly on marine spatial planning (MSP).  MSP is a science-based and participatory process that results in ocean plans that determine how the ocean will be used. MSP considers existing uses, as well as proposals for future uses such as deep seabed mining and geoengineering experiments. This talk with highlight existing work in South Pacific and the Caribbean where marine spatial planning efforts are underway. 


 

Daiki Nomura
University of Hokkaido, Japan

Daiki Nomura’s research focuses on the carbon cycle within the ocean-atmosphere system, especially in the polar
oceans. He has studied sea ice in the Southern Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, and the Sea of Okhotsk, in addition to
conducing laboratory experiments on sea-ice freezing processes.


Session: Air-sea interface and fluxes of mass and energy

Gas exchange process in the ice covered oceans
Sea ice has until now rarely been considered in estimates of global biogeochemical cycles, especially gas exchanges,  because of the assumption that, in ice-covered oceans, sea-ice acts as a barrier for atmosphere–ocean exchange. In order  to understand the effects of sea-ice growth and decay processes on the biogeochemical cycles in the polar oceans,  field observations in the Arctic, Antarctic, and Sea of Okhotsk as well as laboratory experiments were carried out.  Observations over recent decades suggest that sea ice plays a significant role in global biogeochemical cycles, providing  an active biogeochemical interface at the ocean-atmosphere boundary.




 

 
 
last modified: February 2019