As I prepared to attend my first Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM) February 22-27 in Glasgow, Scotland, I was expecting what I had observed at previous AGU conferences: only a smattering of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) sessions. Upon arrival, it became clear that not only were there many relevant sessions, but that the marine CDR (mCDR) community is growing. For many sessions, there were not enough seats, and people were grabbing headphones from other sessions to tune in and stand at the back. It is an exciting sign.
A Researcher’s Report from OSM26
I started day 1 in the “silent disco” room. A single, large conference room where all the attendees donned color-coded headphones to tune into one of the eight sessions occurring simultaneously in the room. I grabbed a pair and tuned in to an oral session focused on mCDR modeling, arriving just in time to catch an outstanding talk by Yale Earth & Planetary Sciences (EPS) PhD student Suhani Dalal, followed by more talks about physical and biogeochemical modeling of the surface ocean in an ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) deployment. Then, running across the conference center, I was able to tune into the biological carbon pump session to learn that the future of the carbon pump is expected to be controlled by biological calcification for centuries after net zero, but that in the long-term, the ocean sink could slow or flip to a carbon source as it responds to changes in emissions, with a significant lag time.
I followed that with an e-Lightning session, highlighting many of the current start-ups and academic institutions deploying mCDR across countries and methods (including Vesta, SeaCURE, and SeaO2), and headed back to the disco to hear about iron fertilization, sediment biogeochemical modeling, and the biological side of the story. A whirlwind poster session followed, featuring great work from YCNCC and EPS Associate Research Scientist Gabby Kitch on coastal resilience, and EPS Assistant Professor Elizabeth Yankovsky on modeling OAE carbon uptake efficiency.
Tuesday, I focused on the sediment side of the story, attending talks in several sessions and the Sediment Model Intercomparison Project (SedMIP) town hall. In the town hall, we talked about how sediment processes are not often considered in global models or OAE efficiency estimates. SedMIP is an effort to compare sediment biogeochemical models across research questions, including carbon cycling and response to OAE. We need more measurements of sediment carbon cycling and redox, in the lab and field, ideally at “boring sites” that could serve as good model test-cases for intercomparison.
At the poster session, I learned more about the newest version of the code I use daily to estimate the carbonate system, PyCO2sys, from its creator, chatted about public perception metrics from the LOC-NESS project’s two open comment periods, and heard about Ebb Carbon’s Project Macoma as the project came to a close.
On Wednesday, the topic of the hour was biological impacts. Research highlighted the need to assess impacts on communities across timescales, since protist, calcifier, and zooplankton responses differed dramatically. Delayed phytoplankton blooms were observed, especially in cases with mineral additions, though the influence of suspended material blocking light could have caused some of this effect. Equilibrated OAE methods were found to have a lower biological impact across the board, due to the reliance of phytoplankton on dissolved bicarbonate for photosynthesis.
Two talks near the end of the session presented results from in-situ benthocosm deployments of alkaline minerals, finding precipitation to be important in both cases. I think this generated some excitement for the following poster session, when I was presenting early results from a lab incubation to identify precipitation thresholds in sediments of differing composition. I was excited to have a busy poster presentation, but sadly was not able to sneak away to see presentations from EPS PhD student and labmate Nico Theunissen, or YCNCC Associate Research Scientist Luke Gloege.
Thursday, I took some needed rest, then perused posters from Wednesday’s session about sediment and calcifier responses to OAE, before attending the final poster session of the conference to hear about Carbon to Sea’s new MRV database, and novel reagentless inorganic carbon and alkalinity sensing technologies from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Then, I went on a tour of the science of mangrove ecosystems, catching up with Yale School of the Environment (YSE) master’s student Isabella Garrioch at her poster to hear about greenhouse gas emissions variability, and Gabby Kitch and Nico Theunissen at their poster about mangroves’ durable CDR potential.
To wrap everything up, Friday morning’s session focused on the efficiency of OAE, public perception, cost, and coastal resilience. We kicked off with an overview of the state of the literature on OAE efficiency, heard about the outcomes of the LOC-NESS project, Gabby Kitch’s work with the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative (CRSI) to develop a Coastal Resiliency and CDR Roadmap. We ended with Frontier’s approach to responsible mCDR credit purchasing and techno-economic analyses of coastal enhanced weathering and OAE.
My big takeaway from my first OSM was that we have a lot of work to do before mCDR is ready to scale. Nevertheless, momentum is building, and scientists worldwide and across disciplines are laying the foundation for responsible deployment and scaling with fundamental research. Precipitation, sediment effects, and biological responses are critical gaps that are starting to be filled, and I expect to see leaps and bounds of development on these topics by the time we meet again, in British Columbia, Canada, in 2028. See you there!