Recent trends in ocean data are indicating that the marine environment is evolving rapidly in response to anthropogenic forcing. Increasing rates of sea ice loss, measureable acidification of surface waters, and changes in marine food webs will all affect how carbon is cycled and sequestered within the ocean in the coming decades. Marine scientists will be called upon to monitor changes as they occur and to predict outcomes based on an understanding of an interconnected and evolving system.

Skidaway Institute of Oceanography will host a symposium on February 22-24, 2009, in Savannah, GA, to bring together a diverse set of scientists to discuss carbon cycling in the ocean in this context, and to foster cross-disciplinary exchanges that can lead to a fresh assessment of our current understanding of carbon cycles in the ocean (i.e., the “unknown knowns”), as well as an identification of critical gaps in our understanding or our measurements (the “known unknowns”) of the ocean carbon cycle.

The Symposium will be organized around two morning and two evening sessions. Afternoons will be free for poster sessions, smaller discussion groups and/or free time. The session themes are:

• Carbon cycling as seen through the filter of biomarkers- what do we know and what do we need?
• Marine Margins: Passive or aggressive players in biogeochemical cycles?
• Paleoproxies: Carts and horses or chickens and eggs?
• What questions should we be asking about ocean biogeochemical changes during the next century?

Speaker lists for the four sessions are presently being finalized by the Symposium steering committee. Meeting participants are encouraged to present posters related to new research related to the four symposium session themes as well as other aspects of marine biogeochemistry. The Symposium organizers hope to assemble papers resulting from the conference presentation for publication in a journal volume.

Important Deadlines:

• Registration:
• Hotel registration at reduced prices: