PICOs

Deoxygenation in the marine environment is a critical global issue. Dissolved oxygen concentrations are indicators of ecosystem health as measures of biological productivity, remineralisation, and global climate trends. Oxygen deficient regions are present around the world, as persistent open ocean oxygen minimum zones or seasonal features in shelf seas.

Despite significant uncertainty under future climate scenarios, Earth system models predict deoxygenation across many ocean basins and shelf seas. This deoxygenation has a compound effect on oxygen deficient environments, causing shoaling, expansion, intensification and critical shifts in biogeochemical cycling pathways.

We must develop a better understanding of how physical, chemical and biological processes interact to impact low oxygen regions under changing oxygen conditions and climates. What are the interactions and feedbacks with biological communities and biochemical processes? How will these changes impact the marine environment at regional and global scales?

We invite contributions that investigate ocean deoxygenation and its physical, chemical and/or biological drivers, using observational or model-based approaches at regional or global scales.