IOC/UNESCO, Paris, France, April 11-14 (Wednesday-Saturday), 2007
The purpose of this workshop is to review the current knowledge base and enhance international cooperation to resolve the magnitude, variability and processes governing ocean sources and sinks of carbon: from observations, process-based models and atmospheric and oceanic inversions. Some of the key questions to be addressed through plenary talks, poster session, and working groups include:
- What are the decadal changes in the air-sea CO2 flux in the oceans today and how well can we predict their changes in the future?
- Are present oceanic and atmospheric models simulating the observed changes?
- How do changes in ocean physics (temperature, salinity, and circulation) and atmospheric dynamics impact air-sea CO2 fluxes today, in the future, and in the far future?
- What is the possible contribution of changes in marine ecosystems on air-sea CO2 fluxes?
- How can we use evidence from the present and the past to set bounds on the possible response of the carbon cycle to physical and biological changes in the future?
- Are there instabilities and thresholds in the marine carbon cycle?
- What is the current knowledge of regional and temporal variability in mixed-layer CO2 and air-sea CO2 fluxes?
- Can we estimate how CO2 fluxes have changed in the coastal ocean?
- What is the current knowledge and what are the future approaches to quantify gas transfer rates?
- What processes have controlled the observed CO2 flux variability?
- What observational strategies, instrumentation and model developments are required to deliver better air-sea CO2 flux estimates into the future
