BC researcher contributes to major report on ocean science
A Boston College faculty member is among the contributors to a recent report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that recommends major investments for core research in ocean science, and infrastructure upgrades and replacements to support basic and applied research in ocean studies.
Earth and Environmental Sciences Professor Mark D. Behn was one of 23 contributors to the study, undertaken by the National Academies’ Committee on the 2025-2035 Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences, which was sponsored by National Science Foundation.
The report offers advice to the NSF on how to focus investments in ocean research, infrastructure, and workforce development to meet national and global challenges during the next decade and beyond. The document also includes recommendations to enhance country safety, scientific leadership, and economic competitiveness through a thriving “blue economy”—an economic concept similar to the green economy focused on the sustainable use of ocean resources to create growth, jobs, and well-being while preserving the ocean’s health.
Mark D. Behn (Lee Pellegrini)
“It’s imperative that NSF continues funding basic scientific research, which provides the underpinnings for future applied science and innovation that directly benefits society,” said Behn, who is also the director of BC’s Weston Observatory. “We must continue to build and diversify the ocean science workforce, promoting quantitative training in STEM fields, while at the same time fostering transdisciplinary research that crosses boundaries with the humanities and social sciences, a goal that aligns with the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society. The U.S. must also continue to invest in the infrastructure required to facilitate oceanographic research, such as the academic research fleet, scientific ocean drilling, and new autonomous vehicles.”
Behn noted that he provided expertise in marine geophysics and geodynamics, with a focus on how ocean science research can address societally relevant issues such as natural hazards—including earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions—sea level rise, and exploration for natural resources.
The report focuses on three themes of research critically important for improving forecasts of ocean processes:
•Ocean and Climate: The ocean presently absorbs 90 percent of the heat and approximately 30 percent of the carbon that results from global greenhouse gas emissions. Any decline in these rates of uptake would accelerate increases in atmospheric temperature and carbon dioxide levels, with the potential for impacts on processes such as hurricane development and intensity, ice sheet stability, and ocean chemistry. Research in this area includes developing new approaches to observe heat transport, improving predictions of marine ice sheet instability, and developing ways to quantify carbon cycle variability.
•Ecosystem Resilience: Fundamental changes in Earth and ocean systems are resulting in ecosystem shifts that may negatively impact local and global communities dependent on them. Forecasting these ecosystem modifications and their causes could provide the early warning necessary to enhance communities’ ability to adapt to these changes. Research in this area includes determining the effects of warming, acidification, and de-oxygenation on the productivity of ocean biomes, and developing tools for rapid species diversity measurements.
•Extreme Events: The ocean contributes to earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, storm surges, and flooding that directly affect coastal communities, as well as increased precipitation and heat waves that impact both coastal and inland communities. Extreme events can influence major investments such as port facilities, commercial fishing fleets, and national defense infrastructure, and improving the ability to observe, understand, and forecast extreme events is critical. Research in this area includes improving early-warning systems of geohazards and increasing the ability to predict global weather extremes, and apply these forecasts to inform urban planning, agricultural, and forestry practices.
“Understanding and anticipating change in the ocean and how it will affect marine ecosystems and humans has never been more urgent,” said H. Tuba Ozkan-Haller, dean and professor at Oregon State University’s College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, and co-chair of the committee that authored the report.
“U.S. investments in ocean science, engineering, and technology are lagging behind our increased societal needs, while our international competitors are increasing their expenditures and advancing their resources and capacities. Our recommendations lay out a challenge for the research community to establish a new paradigm for ocean research that will provide forecasts to save lives and sustain livelihoods in the next decade.”
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, engineering, and medicine.
Read more at the National Academics website.