February 5, 2020
Thank you for your continued interest in the BioGeoSCAPES initiative. BioGeoSCAPES is the concept for a potential future interdisciplinary global-scale microbial biogeochemistry program that arose out of a small international working group in late 2018 (see the meeting report here and various prior related activities below. BioGeoSCAPES is at an early stage of the organizing process, when those interested are gauging and aiming to build international community support, as well as discussing potential science objectives and parameters.
Upcoming plans include organizing national meetings to continue building interest and exploring potential scientific goals. In addition, initial intercalibration efforts are being encouraged for potential parameters such as the recently organized metagenomic and metaproteomic intercalibration projects (see below). Future sessions at international meetings are also being organized, such as at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Diego (CA, USA) in 2020 (see below).
In parallel, we would like to facilitate the inclusion of more nations and researchers in BioGeoSCAPES activities. To help with this we have begun a list of ambassadors here. Please consider self-declaring if you wish, and if you wish to get involved contacting those listed would be a good first step.
Please have a look and if you wish to add your name, please send an email to info@biogeoscapes.org.
Some highlights of the most recent, ongoing and upcoming activities include:
- An Ocean Metaproteomic Intercomparison effort is underway funded by the US Ocean Carbon Biogeochemistry (OCB) program. Intercomparison samples were recently sent to participating groups, and there are opportunities for a few more laboratories to join. A workshop to discuss results is planned for May 14-17, 2020.
- A series of EU participants at the 2018 WHOI BioGeoSCAPES workshop (Martha Gledhill, Alessandro Tagliabue, Ingrid Obernoster, Daniele Iudicone, Chris Bowler, and Yeala Shaked) submitted a EU-COST action proposal with multiple EU partners, entitled “Cells to SeaSCAPES: Nutrient regulation of Ocean Metabolism” in the fall 2019, to develop an EU wide BioGeoSCAPES network, outlining protocols and planning intercalibrations, field campaigns and experiments. The results of this proposal will be known in March 2020.
- 1st China BioGeoSCAPES Planning Workshop, Academic Exchange Center, Xiamen University, Xiang’an Campus, October 20-21, 2019. Organizer: Dalin Shi
- 1st Canada BioGeoSCAPES Planning Workshop; Halifax, Nova Scotia, October 25-27, 2019. Organizers: Erin Bertrand, Steven Hallam and Maite Maldonado
- Ocean nucleic acids ‘omics intercalibration and standardization Workshop; January 9-11, 2020; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; funded by the US Ocean Carbon Biogeochemistry (OCB) program. A more complete description of this activity is available here.
- Three BioGeoSCAPES Sessions at the Ocean Sciences Meeting, San Diego, USA, February 16-21, 2020, entitled “Toward BioGeoSCAPES: Exploring Molecular Drivers of Ocean Metabolism and Biogeochemistry”
- 1st France BioGeoSCAPES Planning Workshop; May 4-7, 2020; Toulouse. Organizers: Catherine Jeandel, Ingrid Obernoster and Damien Cardinal
- Proposal funded for USA BioGeoSCAPES Planning Workshop (~70 participants) in the fall of 2020, entitled Laying the foundation for a potential future BioGeoSCAPES program: Assessing needs and capabilities for studying controls on ocean metabolism through integrated omics and biogeochemistry, by Ben Twining, Mak Saito, Alyson Santoro, Adrian Marchetti, Naomi Levine.
BioGeoSCAPES related science is also being promoted on social media through the Twitter account “@BioGeoSCAPES”. If you have any highlights for the Twitter feed, please share them with us at info@biogeoscapes.org. The latest news and archived newsletters are also available on the Biogeoscapes.org website.
Thanks for showing interest in BioGeoSCAPES!
Sincerely,
Maite Maldonado, Adrian Marchetti, Mak Saito, and Alessandro Tagliabue
Biogeoscapes Conveners