Ocean Sciences 2016: New Orleans
Emma Cavan
NOCS

Thanks to the Challenger Society I was able to spend last week (end of February) in New Orleans, or NOLA as the locals call it, at the Ocean Sciences conference. This was my first time at this enormous international conference and it was a very exciting experience. It was kicked off by a plenary by Lisa Levin on oxygen minimum zones, which was very relevant to the work I was presenting there. This was followed by a drinks reception with a brass band, including a massive tuba, circulating through the crowds with a following of enthusiastic dancing conference participants. We anticipated that very few of these were British!
Once the conference officially began its vastness was easily appreciated. The poster hall was massive, containing over 3000 posters. At this point I was glad I had made mine stand out from the crowd. I can’t claim the idea was mine but I decided to take an oval-shaped poster (see picture) to the conference to draw people in, and I believed it worked! All of my 20 A4 hand-outs had been taken, plus some CVs, by the end of the week. This was the first time I’d presented a poster and it was a great experience to talk face to face with people about my work. As it’s almost ready to be submitted for peer-review I used this opportunity for people to, unknowingly, review my work!
As a biogeochemist the highlights for me were sessions on the biological carbon pump, nitrogen cycling and stoichiometry, plus getting to see the American ‘giants’ of the field present, which I wouldn’t usually see in the UK.
One of the plenaries was by Professor Corinne Le Quere (FRS) who actually streamed her talk from UEA. She spoke on the ocean carbon cycle and apparently UEA have a policy limiting excessive travel that contributes to increasing fossil fuels in the atmosphere. I think this is a great idea as it is somewhat ironic that thousands (> 5000) of climate scientists fly half way around the world to discuss our oceans and climate! I expect or at least hope we will see more scientists opting to follow suit in the future.
Although I didn’t fall in love with New Orleans, I did appreciate the tropical weather and I had a fantastic week catching up with non-UK colleagues, discussing science with so many people, furthering my current work and even discussing potential job opportunities! Thank you so much to the Challenger Society for this travel grant as I really wouldn’t have been able to make it without it. Bio: Emma is a final year PhD student at the National Oceanographic Centre, Southampton, where she also completed her Masters of Marine Biology degree. She studies the organic carbon cycle in the ocean, specifically sinking particles and how they are remineralised. This work has taken her on many cruises including to the Southern Ocean and equatorial Pacific. Emma has a passion for science-policy and took 3 months out of her PhD to work in the Royal Society’s Science Policy Centre. Other research interests include the application of the Metabolic Theory of Ecology and the presence of microplastics in the ocean. Outside of research Emma has been actively involved in organising events such as the Challenger Society’s 7th AMBIO conference held in Oxford, January 2016, and the Pint of Science festival in Southampton, 2015. Twitter style post: Thanks to @ChallengerSoc for the amazing opportunity to attend #oceansciences #osm16! What a fantastic week :)
Latest News
Potential Availability of NERC Ship Time During the 25/26 Programme Year
The NERC Marine Facilities Programme for 2025/2026 for the RRS Discovery and the RRS James Cook has been published on the Marine Facilities Planning website.
The RRS Discovery programme currently contains a 79 day alongside slot between the 2nd of November 2025 and the 19th of January 2026, which is available for science delivery if funded science projects can make use of this time. Due to the location of the vessel, the ship is most likely to be able to deliver fieldwork in the North and East Atlantic regions. Some support for science capability within the National Marine Equipment Pool is potentially available, although there is no capacity for use of autonomous vehicles or remotely operated vehicles. Any fieldwork within Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) will need the appropriate diplomatic clearance submitted to coastal states at least 6 months in advance, and to NMF with sufficient lead time for processing via the FCDO.
If interested in making use of this ship time, please contact NERC Marine Planning (marineplanning@nerc.ukri.org) ASAP to start discussions.
THE MARINE FACILITIES ADVISORY BOARD – CAN YOU HELP?
The Marine Facilities Advisory Board advises the National Oceanography Centre on marine facilities and services, including the Natural Environment Research Council’s National Marine Equipment Pool (NMEP), the British Oceanographic Data Centre and the British Ocean Sediment Core Research Facility.
NOC Association AGM 2025
NOC Association (NOCA) AGM 2025
The 14th AGM of the NOC Association will be held on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th May 2025. This free, on-line event will take place on Zoom, across two consecutive mornings, each starting at 10:00 and ending at 12:30. Although discussion topics are being finalised, we will focus on national capability (NC) science, ships, and autonomous vehicles, and how the community can engage. There will be an update on AtlantiS and on the new marine science scoping group. All are warmly welcome to join. To participate, please complete your registration here. For enquiries: Jackie Pearson, Secretary to NOCA: jfpea@noc.ac.uk