This will be an in-person meeting of around 100 people. Plenary sessions will be made available virtually to those unable to attend for any reason at no cost. For more information about speakers and agenda click here.
There will be two main sessions:
- Session 1 will focus on how we determine biomass in the mesopelagic, looking at the architecture of mesopelagic food webs, and understanding diel vertical migration.
- Session 2 will focus on the biological carbon pump, seeking to establish a benchmark figure for its magnitude now and to understand how it may change in the future.
Registration fee for participants will be $500, and $300 for early career. This includes daily a la carte breakfast and lunches as well as one dinner per session. More information will be forthcoming on block rates for hotels ranging from $130 to $200/night upon confirmation of attendance. Transportation from the hotel to the meeting will be provided each day.
Applications for registration will close June 1st. You will be notified of acceptance into the workshop by end of June, your registration fee will be due then.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will be hosting this international mesopelagic conference in collaboration with JETZON.
There will be two main plenary sessions
Session 1Â will focus on how we determine biomass in the mesopelagic, looking at the architecture of mesopelagic food webs, and understanding diel vertical migration.
- What is the biomass and distribution of the mesopelagic: how do we know? Who are the major contributors to biomass? How is biomass distributed?
- Diel vertical migration and biodiversity: who’s migrating, how often, how does this change seasonally, annually?
- Food web architecture: what fuels the mesopelagic biomass, how are the epipelagic and mesopelagic connected, what are the predator prey relationships?
Session 2Â will focus on the biological carbon pump, seeking to establish a benchmark figure for its magnitude now and to understand how it may change in the future.
- How large are the fluxes due to gravitational sinking and how well do we understand its drivers to predict their future magnitude?
- How significant is the transport of organic carbon to depth due to the physical circulation and how will anticipated changes in properties such as stratification affect this?
- How significant are the carbon fluxes associated with the vertical migration of organisms and how will these respond to changes in temperature and oxygen?
- What biogeochemical constraints are there on the magnitude of the biological carbon pump and what do they tell us about its future strength?
Symposium Sponsors
This conference is possible with generous support from WHOI’s Ocean Twilight Zone project, the NERC CUSTARD project, and the Grantham Foundation.
You can find out more here.