GEOTRACES International SSC meeting
XIAMEN, CHINA
6–8 SEPTEMBER 2011
List of attendees
SSC Members:
Bob Anderson (co-chair)
Gideon Henderson (co-chair)
Ed Boyle
Ken Bruland
Greg Cutter
Hein de Baar
Martin Frank
Jordi Garcia-Orellana
Catherine Jeandel
Maeve Lohan
Olivier Marchal
Maite Maldonado
Reiner Schlitzer
David Turner
Angela Wagener
Jing Zhang
Minhan Dai (Corresponding SSC member and host, China)
Toshitaka Gamo (Corresponding SSC member, Japan)
Tung-Yuan Ho (Observer, Taiwan)
Ed Mawji (GEOTRACES data manager)
Elena Masferrer (IPO Officer)
Chris Measures (Data Management Committee co-chair)
Jingling Ren (Observer, China)
Yoshiki Sohrin (Observer, Japan)
Ed Urban (SCOR)
Tuesday 6 September 2011
Opening Remarks
Bob Anderson opened meeting with introductions and welcome of new members.
Thanks to Minhan Dai and Pinghe Cai for hosting the meeting and organizing local arrangements and activities.
Revision of Action Items list from the 2010 SSC meeting
Gideon Henderson reminded all SSC members to put GEOTRACES on the title, abstract and/or keywords of the papers, if they want their publications to be included on the GEOTRACES publication database. Ideally, authors should also put a line in Acknowledgements about GEOTRACES.
Action: Each SSC member to put GEOTRACES on the title, abstract and/or keywords of the papers, and ideally, also include a line in Acknowledgements about GEOTRACES.
Also, Gideon reminded each SSC member to send information to Bob/Ed B. and Gideon about resources invested in GEOTRACES, including both direct funds and in-kind contributions.
Action: Each SSC member to send information to Bob/Ed B. and Gideon about resources invested in GEOTRACES. This will include both direct funds and in kind contributions.
Bob and Gideon mentioned that it would be good to have all GEOSECS information/data.
Reiner Schlitzer answered that he has already contacted Peter Kroopnick to construct a compilation of the GEOSECS data. No idea on the time line yet.
Action: Any SSC member having information about GEOSECS to send it to Reiner Schlitzer.
Gideon announced that the labels for GEOTRACES sections have a G added before the previous denomination (e.g. A02 cruise is now GA02 cruise).
Discussion: What about IPY cruises, shall a G be included in front of IPY as well?
Decision: The SSC agreed to put a G in front of IPY cruises, as well.
National Reports
Australia
Australia held two GEOTRACES presentations at the joint Royal Society-Australian Academy of Science ‘Frontier of Science’ meeting in Perth (Australia) and a Process study “PINTS” Workshop.
Cruises: Two-ship GEOTRACES section GP13 completed. Australia will participate to the KEOPS (French) Process Study.
As Australia will have a new ship they presented an expression of Interest for shiptime for the GI05 cruise section (later on the agenda).
15 publications and a Deep-Sea Research II special issue published, GEOTRACES process study ‘SAZ-Sense’.
Participation in GEOTRACES intercalibration exercises for dissolved, particulate and aerosols.
Design specifications and equipment for GEOTRACES sampling requirements continue to be requested for new Australian oceanographic research vessel, R.V. Investigator (to be commissioned in 2013)
India
9 groups working on trace elements and isotopes studies in the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and associated estuaries.
India has been successful on obtaining funding from the Indian’s Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
Acquisition of clean sampling system delayed. Hopefully, it will be operational at the end of this year (2011).
India Contributed funding to the GDAC.
India has participated to Intercalibration exercises with successful results.
India plans to undertake section cruises GI02 and GI03 (January to March 2013).
2 publications.
Studies on some of the less contamination prone trace elements and isotopes were continued on the samples collected using conventional techniques. Also Nd isotope compositions in water columns of the Bay of Bengal along 87° E transect are analysed.
US
US GA03 (North Atlantic) cruise terminated by mechanical problems. Securing funding to continue the cruise is very time consuming. A new workshop was held to set the logistics of the N Atlantic Cruise (continuation). The Peru-Tahiti cruise has also been deferred to Fall 2013 because of the delay in the previous one.
The US project office funding recommended for 3 years. A proposal for the management for the Peru-Tahiti section is also supported, as well as a grant for travel funding for Liege Colloquium.
A Planning Workshop will be held September 12-14 to plan the details or the Peru-Tahiti cruise.
The Arctic Workshop recommended an Arctic expedition in that time frame (there is a lot of interest for an Arctic expedition). A decision will be taken next week to insert an Arctic Expedition into decadal plan.
Discussion:
Maeve Lohan requested information about the cruise track. Bob explained that it is not yet decided since it’s too early.
Martin Frank reminded that a planning workshop for the Arctic Ocean was held and that there already exist some recommendations on possible cruise tracks.
Catherine Jeandel expressed her concern about so many cruises and funding going to the Arctic and not into the open ocean.
Hein de Baar pointed that the Polarstern could be available for a Southern Ocean cruise.
Taiwan
In Taiwan there are about 100 PhD-level oceanographers, from which about 15 PIs are funded by NSC to carry out GEOTRACES-related research. It is a very active community, with several students having been trained, 3 MC-ICPMS and 4 HR-HCPMS.
A new R/V was launched in June 2011; it can be equipped with its own trace metal-clean sampling facilities, but not clean lab vans on board.
15-20 publications published per year.
Taiwan plans to undertake two future GEOTRACES cruise sections (to be discussed later on).
Brazil
Last week, a message was received from the Brazil’s Ministry of Science and Technology recommending funding for 4 institutes on marine sciences and funding for shiptime for 5 years.
Active participation of the Brazilian scientist José Marcus Godoy in the GA02 cruise aboard RSS James Cook. About 420 samples were collected for the determination of U, Ba and Mo. Also d18O and d D. Analytical work is under way.
Brazil is working on the preparation of the GEOTRACES Latin America Workshop in 2012.
Canada
A Canadian GEOTRACES-IPY Cruise in the Arctic Ocean was undertaken in 2009, from August 27-Sept 12. It was not the best season, but for funding reasons it was not possible to undertake it before.
The following GEOTRACES Core parameters were analysed: Fe, Cu, Cd. Zn, Al, Mn, d15N-nitrate, d13C-DIC, 230Th, 231Pa, Pb isotopes, Nd isotopes, Particles.
No aerosol sampling on the cruise.
Biological analyses were also made, mainly by Maite Maldonado.
They found iron limitation.
Still working on data from the IPY-GEOTRACES cruise. A final IPY cruise workshop is foreseen for April 2012 in Montreal after/before the IPY conference. Some manuscripts are starting to be submitted.
Organizing an external review of ocean science in Canada under the umbrella of Canadian Council of Academies to put ocean science as one of the government funding strategic priorities.
Line P cruises regularly in September, February and June. These cruises last about three weeks, with places for 20 scientists. If any scientist is interested in joining one of these cruises, contact Maite Maldonado.
France
France hosted (or will host) several GEOTRACES meetings, including the GEOTRACES SSC meeting, the first GEOTRACES Med Sea and the 2nd Med Sea meeting (coming soon in Toulouse).
First meeting to plan for the GA01 section was held in July 2011.
French participation in meetings: Catherine Jeandel is a member of the Scientific Committee of the 3rd GEOTRACES Data-Model Synergy Workshop (November, Barcelona), François Lacan participated at the GEOTRACES Asia Planning, Liege Colloquium, KEOPS II kick off and COST-GEOTRACES-GMOS-Hg workshop.
French forthcoming GEOTRACES cruises are KEOPS II process study (6 Oct-28 Nov) and PANDORA cruise (GP12 section) tentatively scheduled for summer 2012.
The puzzle of the French clean sampling system is eventually achieved (the winch is funded rosette bottles and cable already acquired).
18 publications from KEOPS I and Bonus Good-Hope (2010-2011)
An introduction is done on the possible cruise tracks for KEOPS II. Final decision of this track taken in Sept 15
Discussion:
Gideon asked whether all GEOTRACES parameters will be measured in the Pandora cruise? Catherine answered that the main difficulties is with the Pa. However, they plan to measure all parameters so France needs to solve this.
Gideon reminded that cruises need to measure all parameters and that the SSC is a good opportunity to announce any lack of expertise so that analysts can be arranged.
Germany
Main GEOTRACES activities dominated by post-cruise activities for GA11 cruise in the tropical Atlantic. A proposal has been funded by the German Science Foundation to carry out the measurements of samples of the cruise GA11. Martin Frank requested GDAC to update the cruise track on the Web site.
Action: GDAC to update the GA11 cruise track.
1 PhD finished on the GEOTRACES German/Dutch IPY cruise (Torben Stichel). He moved to Hawaii to work with Katharina Pahnke to work on radiogenic isotope compositions of samples from the GA03 cruise, but she has left for Oldenburg, which will strengthen German GEOTRACES in the future.
Oliver Baars (supervised by Peter Croot) defended PhD thesis on the same samples. Peter left Plymouth but was replaced by Eike Breitbarth, who is working on trace metal cycling and its relationship to ocean acidification and is very interested in GEOTRACES. Reinforce the acquisition of a trace metal clean rosette.
New position to replace Doug Wallace, advertisement will be sent soon.
Other activities have been mainly focused on the planning of the GEOTRACES cruise to the Baltic Sea.
Discussion:
Bob remembered that any cruise that complies with the GEOTRACES Intercalibration and Data Management Protocols could be considered GEOTRACES-compliant cruise and can contribute data to GDAC.
Martin is happy to contribute data of GEOTRACES-compliant cruises to GDAC.
Spain
National Committee members are: P. Masqué and J. Garcia-Orellana (UAB, Barcelona); A. Cobelo and R. Prego (Vigo-CSIC); and A. Tovar-Sanchez (Mallorca-CSIC).
Spain contributed 10 k euro/year (for 2 years) to the GEOTRACES IPO.
Participation in several intercalibration activites and in the COST action.
Participation in meetings: Chaired session at ASLO (Puerto Rico, February 2010), co-organization of the GEOTRACES Mediterranean Workshops, and several participants at 43rd International Liege Colloquium on Ocean Dynamics.
UAB will host the 3rd GEOTRACES Data-Model Synergy (November 14-17, UAB-Barcelona).
Participation in GEOTRACES expeditions in the Atlantic Ocean: German RV Meteor GEOTRACES M81/1 and the Netherlands RV Pelagia cruises 64PE319 and 64PE321.
Jordi Garcia-Orellana will submit a proposal under the Spanish Ministry for a Mediterranean project/cruise. However, because of the critical financial situation in Spain they are not sure about being funded. The Southwest Atlantic proposal has been discarded, as it is not possible to submit two proposals at the same time.
The Netherlands
Hein de Baar presented a list of Dutch GEOTRACES activities:
2007-2008 GEOTRACES IPY- Arctic and Antarctic expeditions (AWI-NIOZ);
2009 Amundsen Sea (Antarctica), R.V. Nathaniel Palmer, iron supply by Pine Island Glacier (Stanford-NIOZ);
2010-2011 National project GEOTRACES, Global Change and Microbial Oceanography in West Atlantic Ocean;
2011-2012 Fe and Mn in Antarctic sea-ice (Schoemann);
2012-2016 Trace Metals in Marguerite Bay and glacier (Antarctica):
2013 Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea (NIOZ-Utrecht)
Publications: Arctic: Al (2009), Mn (2011) by Middag; Fe-organics (2011) by Thuroczy; Fe upper and deep by Klunder (to be accepted) and Antarctic: Deep-Sea Research II (December 2011 issue). The last one includes a table of all IPY cruises.
Western Atlantic Ocean transect completed, 2010-2011. Hein presented scientific results from data of these cruises.
BioGEOTRACES in the Netherlands: all Dutch GEOTRACES cruises included some BioGEOTRACES (parameters measured and samples collected). Some papers are already submitted.
Workshops: First Cruise Data Workshop of 2 Northwest Atlantic cruises held at NIOZ in January 2011. Second Data Workshop of all 3 cruises will be at Barcelona, 29-30 September 2011.
Forthcoming cruises: The Mediterranean and Black Sea cruise is already planned for 2013. Netherlands will try to have another training cruise in conjunction with the Med Sea cruises.
Discussion:
Olivier Marchal asked about the Cd isotopes and whether they have been intercalibrated. Hein explained that they show a good correlation within in Al, Fe and Mn.
Catherine asked about the spacing between large stations. Hein answered that they were every 5º.
China
China has actively participated in inter-comparison activities:
Ra Inter-comparison Experiment (June 2011). It involved 5 Chinese labs. Results not ready yet.
Total and particulate 234Th results from GEOTRACES inter-calibration cruise are available.
GEOTRACES-relevant research includes:
*SGD studies using 223Ra and 224Ra;
*Laizhou Bay and Bohai Bay: total dissolved trace metal and Cu speciation analysis
*Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea: Dissolved Al, Mn, As, Sb/ Dissolved Se isotope / Dissolved Ra and Th isotopes.
*Changjiang Estuary: Dissolved Al, Mn, As, Sb / Dissolved Fe.
A new RV is being designed and just got the confirmation that it will be built. It will be finished in 2-3 years time.
A discussion was presented on proposed cruise sections on NW Pacific. As it’s not possible to borrow Greg Cutter’s clean sample system anymore, China is studying the possibility to collaborate with Taiwan. A second option is to wait until the vessel is available 2015 but still a clean system will be needed so will need even more time.
Bob mentioned that since GEOTRACES will continue for a decade, having a clean sample and ship in 2016 will still give opportunity for China to participate.
Sweden
Arctic GEOTRACES is the priority project for Sweden. A proposal was submitted to the Swedish Council. The project is on the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat Roadmap for the next 5 years. This project requires international collaboration.
Per Andersson participated in US Arctic GEOTRACES workshop in Washington (Sept- Oct 2010) and Bob Anderson visited Stockholm discussing Arctic GEOTRACES, Nov 2010.
Oden Southern Ocean 2010/11 Sweden-US collaboration: Trace metal speciation on R/V Palmer. Kuria Ndungu (SU/ITM) and Nd isotopes on R/V Palmer (Per Andersson and Rob Sherrell). Contract with US will be discontinued.
Participation in COST action and the planning of the Baltic Sea GEOTRACES cruise.
Participation in GEOTRACES intercalibration: Nd, Th and Si isotopes and Trace elements
BioGEOTRACES there is a growing interest in Sweden, with several marine biologists interested.