How is PICES working with large-scale ocean research projects?

Presented at the Third SCOR Summit of International Marine Research Projects

March 30 – April 1, 2009

Michael DaggPICES

Biological Oceanography Committee, Chairman

The North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) was established in 1992 to promote and coordinate marine research in the northern North Pacific and adjacent seas.

Its present members are:

Canada Japan People's Republic of China Republic of Korea Russian FederationUnited States of America.

The PICES Mission 

- advance scientific knowledge and capacity available to the Contracting Parties,

- provide a mechanism for collaboration among scientists in addressing timely and critical scientific questions. 

The PICES Mission calls for:  - Providing leadership on scientific issues and identifying research priorities and

problems pertaining to the North Pacific Ocean, as well as appropriate methods for their solution;

- Promoting the collection and exchange of data related to marine scientific research in the North Pacific Ocean;

- Recommending coordinated research programs and related activities pertaining to the North Pacific Ocean to be undertaken through the national efforts of the participating partners;

- Establishing effective arrangements for scientific consultation and exchange;

(continued on next slide)

(ctd) ……The PICES Mission calls for:  

- Coordinating and enhancing physical, chemical, biological, and interdisciplinary research;

- Developing and implementing large-scale research;

- Synthesizing scientific information regarding the regions, and making the results widely available;

- Responding to requests from the Contracting Parties to provide advice on scientific issues relating to the North Pacific Ocean;

- Building capacity within the scientific communities of the Contracting Parties;

- Fostering partnerships with other organizations that share a common interest;

- Informing interested parties and the public about marine ecosystem issues.

Scientific Programs Committees   Working Groups  Sections   Study Groups     Task Teams   Advisory Panels 

PICES (see http://www.pices.int/ ) does not directly fund research but rather it coordinates, encourages, and supports international science by the work of its:

For example…….Scientific Programs

PICES Scientific Programs

The first PICES Scientific Program was “Climate Change and Carrying Capacity”

goal of CCCC was to forecast the consequences of climate variability on the ecosystems of the subarctic Pacific. CCCC was linked closely with GLOBEC

The CCCC Scientific Program provided the guiding framework of GLOBEC Science to the PICES region. In turn, CCCC provided an outlet for regional GLOBEC science. e.g. PICES/GLOBEC symposium in April 2006 “Climate Variability and Ecosystem Impacts on the North Pacific: a Basin-scale Synthesis.” (see special volume of DSR II).

CCCC is ending this fall at the PICES annual meeting and a new Scientific Program called FUTURE will begin, expected to be a 10 year PICES program

FUTURE : Forecasting and Understanding Trends, Uncertainty and Responses of North Pacific Marine Ecosystems

Science Plan – Feb 2008

Implementation Plan (anticipated final approval – November 2009)

The FUTURE program evolved from the research conducted by its predecessor, the PICES/GLOBEC Climate Change and Carrying Capacity (CCCC) Program

FUTURE continues a focus on understanding climate impacts on marine systems and places additional emphasis on coastal anthropogenic influences, ecosystem forecasting, and providing information to a broad community in useful formats.

PICES Committees

Biological Oceanography Committee (BIO)Fishery Science Committee (FIS)Marine Environmental Quality Committee (MEQ)Physical Oceanography and Climate Committee (POC)

Technical Committee on Data Exchange (TCODE)Technical Committee on Monitoring (MONITOR)

All committees have their own Terms of Reference, Mission Statements, etc but all share the same general goals as stated in the PICES mission, including the development and strengthening of relationships with other international organizations and programs.

Some specific mechanisms……

Co-sponsoring scientific sessions at PICES Annual Meetings

Of 9 scientific topic sessions to be held in fall 09 PICES annual meeting, 4 are co-sponsored:

S3 – Early life stages of marine resources as indicators of climate variability and ecosystem resiliency (FIS/BIO, co-sponsored by ICES)

S6 – Marine spatial planning in support of integrated management – tools, metghods and apporaches (MEQ/FIS, co-sponsored by NOWPAP - the NW Pacific Action Plan of the Regional Seas Program – Japan, S. Korea, China, Russia).

S7 – State of the art of real-time monitoring and its implication for the FUTURE oceanographic study (MONITOR, co-sponsored by Argo and GOOS).

S9 – Outlooks and forecasts of marine ecosystems from an earth system science perspective: Challenges and opportunities. (POC/FUTURE, co-sponsored by IMBER)

Co-sponsoring Workshops

10 workshops scheduled during the 2009 Annual Meeting, including

W1 – Natural supplies of iron to the North Pacific and linkages between iron supply and ecosystem responses (BIO, co-sponsored by SOLAS).

W3 - Integrating marine mammal populations and rates of prey consumption in models and forecasts of climate change – ecosystem change in the North Pacific and North Atlantic oceans (BIO, co-sponsored by ICES).

W4 - Marine ecosystem model intercomparisons (BIO, co-sponsored by ESSAS)

Also intersessional workshops

Working Groups and Sections focus on specific scientific issues:

Examples:

WG-22: Working Group on "Iron supply and its impact on biogeochemistry and ecosystems in the North Pacific Ocean" (Oct. 2007 - Oct. 2010).

CC-S: Section on “Carbon and Climate” (incl Ocean Acidification)

Members participate in entire scope of scientific activities associated with these topics and bring information to PICES and bring the PICES perspective to wider audience. Members are often scientific participants in large programs or developing programs

Publications - wide variety including

annual reports, scientific reports, special publications, technical reports, primary journals, brochures, books, PICES press

Example – primary journal resulting from a collaboratively sponsored symposium:

Deep Sea Research II. Volume 54, Issues 23-26 (2007). Effects of Climate Variability on Sub-Arctic Marine Ecosystems - A GLOBEC-ESSAS Symposium on "Effects of climate variability on sub-arctic marine ecosystems” Victoria, BC, Canada, 16-20 May 2005, Edited by George L. Hunt Jr., Kenneth Drinkwater, Stewart M. McKinnell and David L. Mackas

Sponsoring (with other international organizations and programs) international symposia or meetings

Examples:

2008, Oct 6-8, MonacoPICES/ICES Theme Session on “The effects of ocean acidification on fisheries and ecosystems” at the International Symposium on “The Ocean in a High CO2 World – II.” sponsored by SCOR, IOC, IAEA and IGBP.

2008, May 19-23. Gijón, SpainInternational Symposium on Effects of climate change on the world's oceans. sponsored by ICES, PICES, IOC

2009, Jun 22-26, International Symposium, Victoria, Canada3rd GLOBEC Open Science Meeting. Sponsored by GLOBEC, PICES

In addition, PICES provides logistical support, web page support and hosts web sites for many events like these.

PICES has a standing list of international organizations and programs that are invited to attend the Annual meeting as observers

e.g. last year’s annual meeting: 27 observers

Representatives of several programs and organizations make oral presentations to Committees and/or their subsidiary bodies: e.g. 2008 Annual meeting: Argo, BEST, ESSAS, IMBER, IWC, NEAR-GOOS, NOWPAP, NPAFC, PAG, SOLAS, CLIVAR

Some show posters outlining their programs and program objectives at our poster sessions.

How to do more?

How to do more?

PICES has two technical committees that address issues common to most international organizations and programs:

TCODE – PICES Technical Committee on Data Exchange

Terms of Reference:

1. Identify the data management requirements of PICES; 2. Develop strategic plans to meet these requirements; 3. Recommend establishment of ad hoc task groups to deal

with specific functions of TCODE; 4. Review the progress of task groups and provide Annual

Reports to Science Board on the work of TCODE; and 5. Advise the PICES Secretariat on its data exchange

activities.

MONITOR - PICES Technical Committee on Monitoring

Terms of Reference:

1. Identify principal monitoring needs of the PICES region, and develop approaches to meet these needs, including training and capacity building;

2. Serve as a forum for coordination and development of inter-regional and international components of the North Pacific Ocean Observing Systems, including the GLOBAL Ocean Observing System, GOOS. Facilitate method development and inter-comparison workshops to promote calibration, standardization and harmonization of data sets;

3. Contribute to the development of the North Pacific Ecosystem Status Report, advising editors and lead authors on monitoring issues, identifying the need for particular time series and their continuities, the period on which they need to be updated for the FUTURE forecast products, and recommend to Science Board that they endorse the need to establish or maintain particular time series;

4. Recommend interim meetings to address monitoring needs and PICES–GOOS activities;

5. Provide annual reports to Science Board and the Secretariat on monitoring activities in relation to PICES;

6. Interact with TCODE on management issues of monitoring data.

Address program relevant themes at annual meetings (co-sponsorship)

Develop PICES – program coordinated efforts (under FUTURE but also all PICES is not FUTURE)

PICES can bring suggestions to committees OR Individuals can work with committee members (all listed on PICES web page) to develop and propose theme sessions. Also for WGs, Aps, etc.

Sessions at PICES annual meetings can bring in contributions on similar themes from several regions – i.e. bring in participants from outside the PICES region but on a similar topic – e.g. iron enrichment experiments. We do this now by ‘invited speakers’

How to do more?

Enhance Scientific Exchange

Example –

ICES/PICES Early Career Scientist Conference in Baltimore USA

How to do more?

Provide additional support for co-sponsored summer schools and educational activities – capacity building

NPESR II – 2003-2008 status and trends across the PICES region

Nine regional chapters plus a synthesis chapter • California Current system (Steve Bograd, USA)• Coastal Gulf of Alaska (Phil Mundy, USA)• Bering Sea (George Hunt, USA)• Okhotsk Sea (Vladimir Radchenko, Russia)• Kuroshio Current system (Hiroya Sugisaki, Japan)• Oyashio Current system (Sanae Chiba, Japan)• Japan / East Sea (Vladimir Lobanov, Russia)• Yellow Sea (Sinjae Yoo, Korea)• Oceanic North Pacific (Sonia Batten, Canada)

How to do more?

Work collaboratively to get more marine science in next IPCC Report

e.g. FUTURE will have three layers of Forecasting products:

Status Reports are a web-based, updated version of PICES Special Publication 1, Marine Ecosystems of the North Pacific. Forecasts have a requirement for quantification and uncertainty measures. Outlooks are intermediate products that do not yet meet the full requirements of Forecasts. Outlooks may be categorical and can be based on limited available information, coming from models or expert knowledge.

How to do more?

collaboration on brochures, reports or educational products of global relevance, building on information provided by regional activities, e.g. Climate Change, El Nino effects

Summary

We’re doing a lot but more can be done