Activities

UK IGBP National Committee

Past activities

8 June 2009: Atmospheric chemistry in the tropics: marine, biosphere and climate connections

The tropical regions, which account for around half the surface of the globe, are the chemical powerhouse of the atmosphere; with important ramifications for both atmospheric composition and global climate. It is vital to understand these interconnections in a changing world. The tropical forests emit large quantities of biogenic hydrocarbons into the atmosphere, leading to photochemical production of radicals, ozone, and secondary organic aerosols; all of which have direct and indirect consequences for regional and global climate. Biomass burning likewise affects the chemistry of the tropical regions and beyond. Emission of gases from the sea surface play an important role in the oxidation chemistry of the lower atmosphere, and potentially the supply halogen source gases to the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere via deep tropical convection.

The arid and semi-arid regions also play a significant role in climate-chemistry interactions. Changes in monsoon rainfall, desertification, and convection are being found to all have impacts on regional and long range chemical processing. Plumes of dust from arid regions reach far across the tropical oceans, where the resulting deposition of minerals and nutrients impacts marine biogenic production of atmospherically important gases.

A number of recent international research activities have focussed on these issues, included the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (AMMA) in Western Africa; the Oxidant and Particle Photochemical Processes (OP3) project in Borneo; observations at Cap Verde in the tropical Atlantic as part of the Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS); and the Stratospheric-Climate Links with Emphasis on the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere (SCOUT-O3) project in Northern Australia and Africa, to name a few.

This one-day meeting, proposed by the UK National Committee of the International Biosphere-Geosphere Project, included a series of presentations on some of the outcomes of these projects and provided an opportunity for discussion of current findings and future research needs.

8-9 January 2009: Developing IMBER science in the UK

Using five high priority research topic selected from the IMBER Science Plan, the aim of the proposed meeting was to improve interaction between UK marine researchers studying these IMBER topics, thereby providing added value to programmes such as Oceans 2025 and creating the forum for discussions leading to new collaborative proposals. The meeting was convened by Carol Robinson (UEA), Richard Sanders (NOCS) and Andy Rees (PML).

Meeting objectives included:

To inform the UK community fo the science and implementation of IMBER
To inform the UK community of current IMBER-related science funded by NERC including that within Oceans 2025
To expose the UK scientific community to relevant international initiatives and expertise
To build links between UK research communities working to understand and model aspects of marine biogeochemistry and ecosystem function
To develop and IMBER 'identity' for those researchers already funded to undertake research aligned with the IMBER objectives
To initiate collaborative research projects relevant to the IMBER Science Plan and NERC Theme Action Plans

An important output from the meeting will be the five science topic reports detailing potential areas for future UK/EU proposals.

Further details including oral presentations and session reports can be found on the meeting website.

IGBP Congress

The 4th IGBP Congress was held in Cape Town, South Africa from 5-9 May 2008. IGBP Congresses are held every four years and bring together the leadership of the IGBP community to discuss forward-looking scientific issues that cut across the programme and aid integration and synthesis. The 4th Congress was designed to aid the development of the scientific agenda for the period 2008-2013. Follow the link below for details of UK participation at the Congress.

27 June 2007: Palaeo and Modern Perspectives on Global Change

This meeting aimed to examine the key challenges posed by the palaeo-record from the perspective of each of the IGBP projects and to build a dialogue between these projects and the PAGES community to ensure that these challenges are addressed in a realistic way. The aims of the meeting were:

To inform the UK science community of the major challenges to our understanding of the medium and long-term dynamics of key aspects of the earth system as currently perceived by the IGBP community;
To inform the UK science community about the availability of resources (e.g. process studies, data syntheses, modelling tools) for tackling such challenges over the next 5-10 years;
To strengthen the links between the IGBP projects at a critical phase in the planning and implementation of new projects, including their link with the ESSP integrated projects on water, food, carbon and human health;
To explore differences in perspective and in our understanding of key aspects of the earth system that stem from the timescale at which these phenomena are studied;
To explore approaches based on analysis of observations at different time and space scales and on the use of modelling tools;
To develop ideas for improving the integration of palaeo-studies within the other core IGBP projects and to provide feedback to the international IGBP on how to do this.

The meeting was structured around a series of paired talks plus a chair-moderated discussion of the topic by participants, suggested topics are listed below:

Biodiversity, ecosystem structure and functioning
The regulation of ocean productivity
Ocean fertilization and the biological pump
Fluxes to the coastal ocean: changing land-surface conditions and human interactions
Natural regulation of atmospheric oxidizing capacity

For further details from the meeting please see the meeting website, http://www.bridge.bris.ac.uk/palmope

14 February 2007: Understanding Land-Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions in the Climate System - the Role of Earth Observation from Space open meeting

A one day open meeting was held at the Royal Society, organised jointly by CLASSIC (Climate and Land Surface Systems Interaction Centre), CASIX (Centre for observation of Air-Sea Interactions and fluXes) and ESSC (Environmental Systems Science Centre) on behalf of the IGBP National Committee. The meeting addressed the following objectives:

To build links between UK research communities working to understand and model aspects of the whole Earth system and to foster a more integrated view of the Earth climate system.
To expose the UK scientific community to relevant international initiatives and expertise.
To inform the community of the contribution that Earth observation is now making to the development of coupled Earth system models and their application to increase understanding of global-scale processes.

20 July 2006: Atlantic Ocean Biogeochemistry and Biodiversity open meeting

The Atlantic Ocean Biogeochemistry and Biodiversity meeting was supported financially by the Royal Society and recommended by the IGBP National Committee. The meeting set out to achieve the following objectives:

To allow UK researchers and others with interests in ocean biogeochemistry to meet and exchange information on their activities.
To foster commonalities and collaborations in this field, thereby strengthening the national science contribution to the IGBP projects SOLAS and IMBER.
To promote the application and exploitation of AMT science in the context of Earth System Science and natural resource management
To explore scientific priorities for future UK effort in this area, linking with other relevant European initiatives.

For further details please see the AMT website, www.amt-uk.org