Session 1:New autonomous approaches to the measurement of biogeochemical rates

Conveners

Richard Lampitt, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK

Christoph Waldmann, Center for marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM), Bremen, Germany

Pascale Lherminier, Ifremer, Brest, France

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Scope 

Our understanding of ocean biogeochemistry has in the past been based on infrequent measurements, by research ships, of state and rate variables. More recently there has been considerable progress in our ability to measure autonomously and repeatedly over long periods of time some state variables such as chlorophyll and nitrate. Significant progress has been made over the past decade and many of the sensors for state variables have become smaller, less demanding in power, more reliable and with greater sensitivity. The number of rate variables such as primary production, zooplankton feeding or downward particle flux which can be measured in a time series autonomous manner is still however very small and the results often have high uncertainty. Major technical advances and validation by ship-based observations are required to make serious progress in this field. This session of the conference aims to examine the reasons for slow progress in the past and to identify areas in which significant progress can be made over the coming decade and how progress can be accelerated.

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