A white paper entitled ‘Towards a transformative understanding of the ocean’s biological pump: Priorities for future research’ is now available for community feedback. The paper identifies those critical gaps in our understanding whose study will lead to significant advances in the field. All who have interest in any aspect of ocean carbon export are encouraged to provide feedback on the white paper to the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by August 1, 2016. 

This white paper is an outcome of the workshop held on February 19-20, 2016, in New Orleans, LA, USA, which aimed to foster discussions around new perspectives and to identify critical gaps in our understanding of key biological processes involved in ocean carbon export. The workshop, which was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and coordinated by the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Project Office, convened 39 participants, including researchers working in key areas related to biological pump function, as well as NSF and NASA program managers.

The white paper list of authors:

Adrian Burd (University of Georgia), Alison Buchan (University of Tennessee), Matthew Church (University of Hawai’i), Michael Landry (Scripps Institution of Oceanography), Andrew McDonnell (University of Alaska Fairbanks), Uta Passow (University of California Santa Barbara), Deborah Steinberg (Virginia Institute of Marine Science), Heather Benway (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution).

Recommended citation for the paper:

Burd, A., A. Buchan, M. Church, M. Landry, A. McDonnell, U. Passow, D. Steinberg, H. Benway (In review). Towards a transformative understanding of the ocean’s biological pump: Priorities for future research. Report of the NSF Biology of the Biological Pump Workshop, February 19-20, 2016 (Hyatt Place New Orleans, New Orleans, LA), 36 pp.