Understand
Ocean Deoxygenation
Oxygen dissolved in seawater supports the largest ecosystems on the planet. It is alarming that the ocean is losing oxygen, termed ocean deoxygenation, at a rapid rate, primarily due to global warming by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and pollution from nutrients and organic wastes particularly in coastal waters.
The Global Ocean Oxygen Decade (GOOD) is an endorsed programme of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) led by the Global Ocean Oxygen Network of IOC-UNESCO. GOOD will raise global awareness about ocean deoxygenation, provide knowledge for action and develop mitigation and adaptation strategies and solutions to ensure continued provision of ecosystem services, and minimize impacts on the ocean economy through local, regional, and global efforts, including transdisciplinary research, innovative outreach, and ocean education and literacy.
Microplastics
The IOC is leading global efforts to understand the sources, fate and effects of plastics and microplastics in the marine environment. The IOC is lead agency, together with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), of Working Group 40 on Plastics and Micro-plastics in the Ocean of the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP).
Blue Carbon
Blue carbon ecosystems – mangroves, tidal and salt marshes, and seagrasses – are highly productive coastal ecosystems that are particularly important for their capacity to store carbon within the plants and in the sediments below, and are thereby considered a key component of nature-based solutions to climate change.
Ocean Acidification
Through its role in supporting the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON), the IOC helps the Member States to coordinate the resources from different countries and organizations needed to understand and tackle the problem of ocean acidification.
Ocean Carbon Research
The Integrated Ocean Carbon Research (IOC-R) programme is a formal working group of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) formed in response to the United Nations (UN) Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), “the Decade.” The IOC-R contribute to the science elements of the overarching Implementation Plan for the Decade. The Implementation Plan is a high-level framework to guide actions by which ocean science can more effectively deliver its contribution and co-development with other entities to achieve the societal outcomes outlined in the Decade plan and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the UN. One of the major expectations from the Decade is a predicted ocean that relies on the integration of comprehensive modeling and sustainable ocean observing systems. Specific to climate change and ocean carbon, the Implementation Plan contains dedicated Ocean Decade Challenge 5: "Enhance understanding of the ocean-climate nexus and use this understanding to generate solutions to mitigate, adapt and build resilience to the effects of climate change, and to improve services including improved predictions and forecasts for weather, climate, and the ocean." The IOC-R addresses key issues in ocean carbon research through a combined strategy of research and observational goals.
Phytoplankton
Climate Change and Global Trends of Phytoplankton in the Oceans (TrendsPO) is an IOC activity complementing the GOOS Bio-Eco Panel, OBIS and IOC-SCOR GlobalHAB by analyzing representative phytoplankton data sets in order to develop greater scientific understanding of underlying processes and pressures mediating ecological change; to understand better the connectivity of phytoplankton with environmental changes by interactions with other IOC sponsored programs and groups; to provide scientific support for IPCC to examine phytoplankton variability in the ocean and coastal ecosystems under various climate change scenarios; and to train young career scientists under the mentorship of the Group’s senior scientists.
Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas
Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Related Impacts on Contaminants in the Ocean. Jointly with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the IOC is cosponsoring GESAMP Working Group 45 on Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Related Impacts on Contaminants in the Ocean. The WG 45 combines the efforts of a multidisciplinary group of experts to better understand the interactions of pollutants and climate change stressors to inform stockholders and decision-makers to better act towards the expected outcomes of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
Ocean Interventions for Climate Change Mitigation
The IOC is jointly with IMO cosponsoring GESAMP Working Group 41 on Ocean Interventions for Climate Change Mitigation. The WG is established to better understand the potential environmental (and social/economic) impacts of different marine geoengineering approaches on the marine environment; and Provide advice to the London Protocol Parties to assist them in identifying those marine geoengineering techniques that it might be sensible to consider for listing in the new Annex 4 of the Protocol. WG 41 currently has two main foci; i) developing guidance to elicit information from proposers of marine geoengineering approaches, including individuals, institutes, government agencies or others looking to undertake marine geoengineering activities, to enable a preliminary assessment of their relevant techniques by regulators, policy-makers, funders or anyone considering or permitting proposals; and ii) developing a holistic assessment framework that includes social, political, economic, ecological, ethical and other societal dimensions by using a systems approach framework.
