Ten ambitious scholars have the opportunity to participate in the Nippon Foundation-Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean Centre of Excellence in Observational Oceanography. Credit: Riley Smith/Courtesy OFI

By Alison Kentish
DOMINICA, Mar 19 2024 (IPS)

Picture yourself as an early-career ocean researcher. You have the opportunity to be at sea in addition to learning on campus. Through cutting-edge technology and immersive facilities, you experience the most realistic ocean exploration scenarios, including braving extreme cold and harsh environments. That’s the experience at the Launch, a ‘living lab’ at the Marine Institute of Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador, located on the east coast of Canada. It’s an experience meant to prepare you for the real-world complexities of the type of ocean research needed to tackle urgent global issues like climate change.

In the same spirit of immersion, imagine being able to conduct research at two unique ecological observatories: Hakai Institute’s Quadra Island with labs for genomics, ancient DNA, and physical and chemical observatory, and the Institute’s remote Calvert Island observatory—an off-grid site and the only settlement on the island, which is located between Vancouver and Alaska. There, you can conduct research in oceanography, ecosystems mapping, nearshore habitats, watersheds, and biodiversity.

What sounds like a researcher’s most ambitious dream is the reality for scholars of the Nippon Foundation-Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean Centre of Excellence in Observational Oceanography. Once spearheaded by the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, the next phase of the programme is being hosted by the Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI), which is led by Dalhousie University, in partnership with the Faculty of Open Learning and Career Development at Dalhousie University. Partnerships with the Marine Institute of Memorial University and the Hakai Institute make for dynamic learning and hands-on experience.

“By providing 10 scholars a year the opportunity to develop and fine-tune their interdisciplinary skills, all relevant to observation of the global ocean, the Centre of Excellence is equipping the next generation of leaders and mentors,” says Tracey Woodhouse, OFI’s Training and Early Career Development Program Manager.

The Centre of Excellence is being hosted by the Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI) in partnership with the Faculty of Open Learning and Career Development at Dalhousie University. Credit: Courtesy OFI

With a significant number of applicants received, priority consideration is being given to candidates from developing and emerging nations who hold positions at research, academic, or governmental institutes in their home country, and who anticipate returning there after the completion of the program.

“They learn about the climate-ocean nexus, how to communicate with diverse groups, including policymakers, data management practices, coding, and modelling, all while networking with researchers at the forefront of ocean and climate work.”

Since its start in 2008, there have been 10 cohorts of scholars, producing over 100 scholars. Woodhouse says the scholars join a larger network of alumni and have inspired the next generation of ocean observers. Founder and President of the Tula Foundation’s Hakai Institute, Eric Peterson, says the values of the Centre of Excellence seamlessly align with those of the partners.

“Our Hakai Institute is an integrated program of coastal science and community programs on our Pacific coastal margin. We say that we study everything from “icefields to oceans,” mainly through the lens of climate change. Together with many partners, we conduct long-term observational science and experimentation ranging from analyzing water masses upwelling across the continental shelf to glacial loss and coastal instability,” he told IPS.

“We provide the fellows with exposure to the Pacific Coast, hands-on field research, and greater exposure to Indigenous perspectives on science, resource management, and education,” he told IPS.

Peterson says the programme’s diversity ensures that no region is left out of ocean science research.

The scholars have the opportunity to experience both ocean exploration and learning on campus. Credit: Courtesy OFI

“Our other program, which has been in place for over 20 years, is a public health and nursing education program (TulaSalud) in the rural Indigenous regions of Guatemala. We welcome initiatives that build links between our ecological work in Canada and our longstanding work in global health, in the spirit of what is now called OneHealth. The Centre of Excellence, with its emphasis on educating future leaders from the global south, is therefore a very good fit for us,” he said.

Officials of the Marine Institute campus of Memorial University agree. Vice President Dr. Paul Brett told IPS that the programme is “creating space” for early-career researchers to expand their work in ocean observation within the wider context of ocean research.

“This program sees scholars come together worldwide and with varied academic experiences. The diversity in perspectives will be beneficial in many elements of the group’s shared learning and in the independent research projects they will engage in throughout the program. It is anticipated that participation in the independent research work, coupled with curricular elements of science communication and presentation skills, will equip students to engage in critical conversations concerning ocean research in Canada and their home country.”

Brett says the Marine Institute will host the scholars for about six months and they will be part of a programme ‘tailored to the fundamentals of observational oceanography’.

“Topics include applied oceanography, ocean observation, and remote sensing. The curriculum will be delivered through classroom theory, practical hands-on shops, labs, and time spent on the water from MI’s Holyrood facility, The Launch,” he said.

With the Hakai Institute’s assistance, the scholars will benefit from investment in geospatial science. According to Peterson, this includes satellites, aircraft, drones, and bathymetry.

“Most of the work we do from our ecological observatories is fortified by detailed mapping, modelling, etc. This ranges from mapping of ocean dynamics, planktons, kelps, and seagrass, intertidal invertebrates, snow and ice cover, geomorphological change to our coastline, and even identification of ancient human settlements has a geospatial component,” he said.

OFI has confirmed International Ocean Institute Canada and DeepSense as additional curriculum delivery partners and the Institute intends to forge new partnerships as the programme progresses.

The Centre of Excellence will be hosted by OFI for at least three years, with the possibility of an extension. Institute officials say that through this partnership, the scholars are given the tools, facilities, mentorship, and opportunities to make their mark on ocean research.

“Graduates from the Nippon Foundation-Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean Centre of Excellence go on to complete higher-level degrees; guide ocean stewardship in their home countries; teach, mentor, and inspire the next generation; lead innovative ocean research; inform policy; and more. There’s no limit to the number of doors the Centre of Excellence can open for the scholars,” said Woodhouse.

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Youth host Jay Matsushiba, in Vancouver, participating in a beach clean-up with Tanya Otero of the Great Canadian Shoreline Clean-up. Credit: Nick Hawkins/Ocean Frontier Institute

By Catherine Wilson
SYDNEY, Jul 19 2023 (IPS)

The Canada-based Ocean Frontier Institute is very clear about the significance of a new collaborative ground-breaking ocean research program. Global warming cannot be effectively tackled, and human life cannot survive on Earth without the ocean.

The ocean covers more than 70 percent of the planet’s surface and absorbs 25 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere, yet there is a critical lack of understanding about the changes occurring in the seas as greenhouse gas emissions increase.

“The ocean has absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat from the atmosphere, but will that continue? We know the ocean is a big factor in climate, but we need a much better level of detail to understand how the ocean is functioning now and how will that change in the future.” Dr Anya Waite, CEO and Scientific Director of the Ocean Frontier Institute told IPS.

The Institute was established by Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, on Canada’s east coast in 2015 to accelerate global leadership in ocean research with a focus on the North Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Gateway. On 12 May 2023, it launched the Transforming Climate Action (TCA) research initiative with its academic partners, Université du Québec à Rimouski and Université Laval in Quebec and Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Institute describes it as “the most intensive investigation ever into the ocean’s role in climate change.” And it seeks both knowledge breakthroughs and climate action solutions in association with Indigenous communities, including the Mi’kmaq people, custodians of indigenous land and knowledge on Canada’s Atlantic coast.

Youth host Nesha Ichida gathering fish samples in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Credit: Nick Hawkins/Ocean Frontier Institute

“Our relationship with the ocean is an ancient one built on balance, respect, and knowledge passed down from generation to generation,” stated Angeline Gillis, Executive Director of the Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq, at the program’s launch. “It will provide a unique opportunity to bring together our common experiences and understandings of the ocean in a partnership that will ensure we move towards a sustainable future for our children.”

Coastal communities in Canada have long depended for generations on the sea and coastal marine life for food, culture and socioeconomic survival.

The world’s ocean is the greatest form of protection against an overheating planet. It removes more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than all the rainforests and stores 90 percent of the excess heat generated by greenhouse gas emissions. A critical marine organism, phytoplankton, captures carbon dioxide from above the sea’s surface and circulates it to the deep ocean, where it is stored for millennia. And, so, the ocean moderates the effects of global warming and, in turn, determines climate and weather patterns while generating 50 percent of the oxygen we need to breathe.

But, as global temperatures keep rising, scientific data collected from a vast network of submergible floats scattered across the ocean indicates that there are changes occurring in the sea as the amount of carbon dioxide it takes in endlessly grows. This year, scientists recorded the highest temperature of the world’s ocean in 40 years. Waite says there are warning signs about a possible decline in the health of the ocean and its ability to regulate our climate to safe levels.

“We know extreme climate events are becoming more common. The probability is that there will be more extreme events in the future, but climate modellers are currently not able to predict them,” she said.

Fanny Noisette, Professor of Biological Oceanography at the Université du Québec à Rimouski, told IPS that she had witnessed severe levels of deoxygenation in the bottom waters of the sea near the coastal town of St. Lawrence on the Burin Peninsula. This has resulted, for example, in shoals of Northern Shrimps migrating from the deeper ocean to shallower coastal areas where oxygen is more readily available, she said.

“The decrease in some species abundance, such as Northern Shrimps, could lead to the transformation of economic activities and sources of revenue in local coastal communities,” Professor Noisette predicted, adding that “these environmental changes are superimposed on to other local disturbances already happening in coastal zones, such as pollution and invasive species. Management of coastal zones will need to be more rooted in holistic and ecosystem-based approaches.”

The North Atlantic Ocean, which is the largest oceanic carbon sink, is a critical site for climate-oriented research, and the TCA program will draw on the expertise of many disciplines, from oceanography and atmospheric science to maritime law, social science and justice to Indigenous knowledge. It will also include collaboration with 40 national and global partners in industry, government and the non-profit sector.

The program will strive to generate new scientific data that will be critical to making better decisions about climate action. And identify more effective solutions for the planet’s survival, including the development of new technologies to remove the build-up of carbon dioxide in the sea.

Scott Simpson filming Jordan Wilson and Nicola Rammell of the John Reynolds Lab near Bella Bella, British Columbia. They were doing an experiment to see how salmon impact flower growth in estuaries. Zan Rosborough is recording sound. Credit: Nick Hawkins/Ocean Frontier Institute

Helen Zhang, Canada Research Chair of Coastal Environmental Engineering and Professor of Civil Engineering at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland, told IPS that micro-algae will be critical to this goal. “Micro-algae widely exist [in the ocean] and have the robust capacity to employ a carbon dioxide conversion factory in the cold marine environment, such as the North Atlantic and Arctic gateways,” Zhang explained. Micro-algae convert carbon dioxide to biomass, which “can then be used to generate bio-products, such as bio-surfactants and biofuels, that can support the growth of various ocean industries, such as transportation and fisheries, as an alternative energy source.”

If global warming is not contained, scientists predict that higher sea temperatures will generate more severe marine heat waves, acidification of seawater and bleaching of coral reefs. That, in turn, will have detrimental impacts on marine life, their habitats and ability to breed. Therefore, removing toxic carbon dioxide from the ocean is essential to its long-term health, the survival of marine life and the sustainable lives of coastal communities. Nearly 10 percent of the world’s population, or more than 680 million people, live in low-lying coastal areas of continents and islands.

While global unity and action to limit the planet’s temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius remain in limbo, the Ocean Frontier Institute and its partners are forging ahead with a clear vision and timeline of action. That leadership is fully backed by the Canadian Government, which has contributed $154 million to the ‘Transforming Climate Action’ program through its Canada First Research Excellence Fund. In total, about $400 million has been committed to the TCA research program. And, in line with Canada’s national goal, the Institute is focused on achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

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Researchers have been driving collaboration, funding, and state-of-the-art research into the earth’s largest carbon sink – located in the high seas. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS

By Alison Kentish
NEW YORK, Jun 8 2023 (IPS)

Almost half of the world’s population lives in coastal zones. For islands in the Pacific and Caribbean islands such as Dominica, where up to 90 percent of the population lives on the coast, the ocean is fundamental to lives and livelihoods. From fisheries to tourism and shipping, this essential body which covers over 70 percent of the planet, is a lifeline.

But the ocean’s life-saving potential extends much further. The ocean regulates our climate and is critical to mitigating climate change. Researchers have long lamented that major international agreements have failed to adequately recognize the resource that produces half of the earth’s oxygen and whose power includes absorbing 90 percent of excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions.

And while its ability to capture and store carbon has been receiving increased attention as the world commits to keeping global warming below 1.5C, researchers say that coverage of that ability has concentrated on coastal ecosystems like mangroves, seagrass, and salt marshes. This is known as coastal blue carbon.

Protecting and conserving coastal blue carbon ecosystems is very important because of the many co-benefits they provide to biodiversity, water quality, and coastal erosion, and they store substantial amounts of legacy carbon in the sediments below.

Researchers welcome the exposure to topics on ocean solutions to climate change but say the conversation – along with data, investment, and public education – must extend much further than coastal blue carbon. Scientists at Dalhousie University have been driving collaboration, funding, and state-of-the-art research into the earth’s largest carbon sink – located in the high seas.

“It’s easy to imagine the ocean as what we can see standing on the edge of the shore as we look out, or to think about fisheries or seaweed that washes up on the beach – our economic and recreation spaces,” says Mike Smit, a professor in the Faculty of Management and the Deputy Scientific Director of the university’s Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI).

“Beyond that, what you might call the deep ocean, is less studied. It’s harder to get to, it’s not obviously within any national jurisdiction, and it’s expensive. The Institute is really interested in this part of the ocean. How carbon gets from the surface, and from coastal regions, to deep, long-term storage is an essential process that we need to better understand. We know that this deep storage is over 90 percent of the total carbon stored in the ocean, so the deep ocean is critical to the work that the ocean is doing to protect us from a rapidly changing climate.”

OFI’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Anya Waite, says the phrase ‘deep blue carbon’ needs to be a household one – and soon. She says the omission of earth’s largest repository of carbon from climate solutions has resulted in the issue becoming “really urgent.”

“If the ocean starts to release the carbon that it’s stored for millennia, it will swamp anything we do on land. It’s absolutely critical that we get to this as soon as possible because, in a way, it’s been left behind.”

Researchers at the Institute have been studying deep blue carbon and bringing researchers together to spur ocean carbon research, interest, investment, and policy.

Through the Transforming Climate Action research program, the Institute is putting the ocean at the forefront of efforts to combat climate change.

“The ocean needs to be in much better focus overall. We are so used to thinking of the ocean as a victim of sorts. There is ocean acidification, biodiversity loss, and pollution, but in fact, the ocean is the main climate actor. It’s time to change that narrative, to understand that the ocean is doing critically important work for us, and we need to understand that work better in order to maintain the function that the ocean provides,” says Waite.

A lot of emphasis has been placed on coastal blue carbon – mangroves, seagrass, and salt marshes, but now the Ocean Frontier Institute intends to ensure deep blue carbon becomes part of the climate change conversation. Credit: Beau Pilgrim/Climate Visuals

Most Important, Yet Least Understood

The OFI is harnessing its ocean and marine ecosystems research to find strategic, safe, and sustainable means of slowing climate change, but time is not on the world’s side to achieve the “deep, rapid and sustained greenhouse gas emissions reductions” that the latest Synthesis Report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states is needed to limit warming to 1.5C.

“We know that the ocean is changing, and how it absorbs carbon might change,” says Smit. “There are just too many open questions, too high uncertainty, and too little understanding of what will enhance natural ocean processes and what will impair their abilities to continue to work.”

According to Waite, the ocean’s storage capacity makes it a better place to remove carbon from the atmosphere than land options. In fact, it pulls out more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than all the earth’s rainforests combined. She concedes, however, that the ocean is more complex physically, making carbon capture and ensuring the durability of sinks more difficult.

“We really need to understand the full scope of the ocean’s carbon-absorbing function and bring that into conversation with policymakers, nations, the finance community, and insurance. There are all sorts of impacts when the heat and carbon budget of the ocean are not well observed. Then we don’t have a good prediction system for cyclones, heat waves, and other important phenomena that insurance companies, governments, and the military all need to understand to keep us safe. There are really strong societal reasons for us to do this work.”

The Economics

The OFI’s innovation and research are meant to inform policy and industry. The commercial side of deep blue carbon will be critical to converting ground-breaking research into in-use technology among climate mitigation companies.

Eric Siegel is the Institute’s Chief Innovation Officer. With a background in oceanography, he has spent the last 20 years at the interface of ocean science, technical innovation, and global business.

“We are trying to work more with industry to bring some of the innovations that our researchers are developing to support innovation in companies, but also trying to bring some of those companies into the research realm to help support our work at the Ocean Frontier Institute,” he told IPS.

“For example, carbon removal companies will need to monetize carbon credits as they will have to sequester the carbon. That takes innovation and investment. It’s a great example of companies that do well and generates revenue by doing good, which is mitigating climate. It’s also sort of a reverse of how, over the last couple of decades, companies have donated charitably because they have generally been successful in extractive technologies or non-environmentally friendly technologies. It’s a nice change from the old model.”

Siegel says presently, there just aren’t enough blue carbon credits that can be monetized.

“There are almost zero validated and durable carbon credits that are being created and are able to be sold now. Many people want to buy them, so there is a huge marketplace, but because the technology is so new and there are some policy, monitoring, reporting, and verification limits in place, there are not enough of them.”

Some companies have started buying advanced market credits – investing now in the few blue carbon credit projects available globally for returns in the next five to 20 years.

“I think that this is our decade to do the science, do the technical innovation, and set up the marketplaces so that at the end of this decade, we will be ready – all the companies will be ready to start actively safely removing carbon and therefore generating carbon credits to make a difference and to sell them into the market.”

The pressing need for solutions to the climate crisis means that work has to be carried out simultaneously at every link in the deep blue carbon chain.

“We don’t have the luxury of saying, okay, we have the science right now; let’s work on the technology. Okay, the technology is right; let’s work on the marketplace. The marketplace is right; now, let’s work on the investment. Okay, all that’s ready; let’s work on the policy. We have to do them all at the same time – safely and responsibly – but starting now. And that’s how we are trying to position Ocean Frontier Institute – different people leading on different initiatives to make it happen in parallel.”

A floating flipped iceberg in the Weddell Sea, off Argentina, with a block of green sea ice now showing above the water, joined to the whiter land ice. This picture was taken from the British research vessel RRS Discovery on a research cruise in the Southern Ocean in the Weddell Sea. The Ocean Frontier Institute says the ocean is the main climate actor and needs this acknowledgment. Credit: David Menzel/Climate Visuals

Global Collaboration – and the Future

The Ocean Frontier Institute is working closely with the Global Ocean Observing System. With Waite as Co-Chair, the system underscores that oceans are continuous. No one country understands or controls the ocean. It is based on the premise that collaboration between nations, researchers, and intergovernmental organizations is key to maximizing the ocean’s role in fighting climate change.

“Every nation that observes is welcome to join this network, and we then deliver recommendations to nation-states and the United Nations,” says Waite.

“The technical systems that observe the ocean are becoming fragile because nations have other things to put their money into. So, we need to get nations to step in and start to boost the level of the observing system to the point where we can understand ocean dynamics properly. This is in real contrast, for example, to our weather observation systems that are very sustained and have a mandate from the World Meteorological Organization that they must be sustained to a certain level.”

For OFI’s Deputy Director, data sharing will be critical to the collaboration’s success.

“The data that we collect from these observations can’t stop at the desks of scientists. We have to get them out of the lab and into the world so that people have some understanding of what is happening out there. It’s critically important, it’s also really cool, and we need to understand it better,” says Mike Smit.

The Institute’s Chief Innovation Officer wants the world to know that deep blue carbon is positioned for take-offs.

According to Siegel, “We need to start realizing that the ocean and the deep blue carbon is actually the big, big opportunity here.”

And as for residents of the Pacific Islands intrinsically linked to the ocean by proximity, tradition, or industry, Waite says their voices are needed for this urgent talk on deep blue carbon.

“Pacific island nations are uniquely vulnerable to climate change. Their economic zone, extending up from their land, is a critical resource that they can use to absorb carbon to maintain their biodiversity. Pacific island nations have a special role to play in this conversation that’s quite different from those who live on big continental nations.”

Deep blue carbon might not be a household term just yet, but the world needs to talk about it. Dalhousie University, through its Ocean Frontier Institute’s research and partnerships, is ensuring that conversation is heard across the globe.

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