Marine Ecosystem Analysis and Prediction (MEAP-TT)

Introduction

The MEAP Task Team is focused on developing the underpinning science and tools that will further the integration of biogeochemical and ecosystem models into existing ocean operational systems. The Task Team’s mission is to advocate for an expansion of the ocean observing system with respect to biogeochemical and biological properties, to support method development for the assimilation and modelling of Essential Biogeochemical Variables (EBV), to exchange of scientific advances and transfer of capabilities between academic and operational centers of expertise, and to help bridge the gap with end-users.

The area of biogeochemical and ecosystem prediction is of significant societal relevance, supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals 13 (climate change) and 14 (life below water), and supports Blue Growth. It is an area likely to make important advances in the next 5 to 10 years because relevant ocean observing capabilities are rapidly expanding.<

The MEAP-TT is led by the co-chairs:

Marjy Friedrichs, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, USA
Stefano Ciavatta, PML, UK

Objectives

Drive forward method development focused on two main aspects:
- the extraction of ecological information from proxy observations (incl. satellite observations of ocean colour and bio-optical measurements from autonomous in-situ sensors), and
- the development of strongly coupled assimilation of biological and physical observations into ocean models;
Advocate for the expansion of global ocean observing capabilities with respect to biogeochemical and biological variables (e.g. via BGC Argo), and guide optimal design including through observing system simulation studies;
Contribute to the development and provision of biogeochemical and biological products for end users through assessments of product quality and end user needs;
Demonstrate and quantify the improvements in biogeochemical and biological model skill resulting from advances in biogeochemical/biological ocean observation and assimilation, including identification of metrics for system evaluation.

Activities

The MEAP-TT will promote scientific collaboration and deliver joint outputs of team members by:

Meeting in periodic video conferences (every three months)
Meeting annually in person at Task Team workshops
Convening MEAP theme sessions at international conferences (e.g. EGU, Ocean Sciences, AMEMR)
Editing special issues in Journals (e.g. Special Issue on Biogeochemical-Argo modelling in Biogeosciences)
Co-authorship of horizon publications and influential reports (e.g. Fennel et al., 2019; ETOOFS manual, Ocean State Reports)
Engagement of ecosystem analysis and prediction stakeholders (e.g. IMBER, OceanSITES, BGC-Argo)

MEAP-TT Members

No	First name	Last name	Affiliation	Country	Role
1	Laurent	Bertino	NERSC	Norway	Member
2	Pierre	Brasseur	CNRS/IGE	France	Member
3	Chris	Brown	NOAA	USA	Member
4	Fei	Chai	University of Maine	USA	Member
5	Kunal	Chakraborty	INCOIS	India	Member
6	Stefano	Ciavatta	Mercator Ocean international	France	Co-chair
7	Gianpiero	Cossarini	OGS	Italy	Member
8	Stephanie	Dutkiewicz	MIT	USA	Member
9	Chris	Edwards	UCSC	USA	Member
10	Katja	Fennel	Dalhousie University	Canada	Member
11	David	Ford	Met Office	UK	Member
12	Marjorie	Friedrichs	Virginia Institute of marine Science	USA	Co-chair (new)
13	Marilaure	Gregoire	University of Liege	Belgium	Member
14	Elodie	Gutknecht	Mercator Ocean international	France	Member
15	Youichi	Ishikawa	Kyoto University/ JAMSTEC	Japan	Member
16	Emlyn	Jones	CSIRO	Australia	Member
17	Hae-Cheol	Kim	NOAA	USA	Member
18	Julien	Lamouroux	Mercator Ocean international	France	Member
19	Patrick	Lehodey	CLS	France	Member
20	Paul	Mattern	UCSC	USA	Member
21	Ragu	Murtugudde	ESSIC/ University of Maryland	USA	Member
22	Coralie	Perruche	Mercator Ocean international	France	Member
23	Ariane	Verdy	Scripps Institution of Oceanography	USA	New member (Oct 2020)
24	Marcello	Vichi	University of Cape Town	South Africa	Member
25	Tsuyoshi	Wakamatsu	NERSC	Norway	Member
26	Yongsheng	Wu	BIO	Canada	Member
27	Liuqian	Yu	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	China	Member

Patron champion:

Paul DiGiacomo, NOAA, USA

Status: Feb 2022

Workshops and meetings

An important activity of the MEAP-TT is to organise regular workshops. In order to increase collaboration, these workshops are often held jointly with other TTs or groups.

During the Covid pandemic all meetings are held online as virtual events.

MEAP-TT meetings	Date	Topics	Location
5th MEAP-TT online meeting	1 Dec 2022	Science talk: “Predicting Past and future of Tunas” by Patrick Lehodey News from the SynObs Kick-off and UN Ocean Decade (Marjy and Stefano) Housekeeping	Virtual meeting, MS Teams
4th MEAP-TT online meeting	10 June 2022	Sharing of recent science highlights Planning of MEAP-TT engagement with the UN Decade Programmes and Projects Planning of other future activities	Virtual meeting, MS Teams
3rd MEAP-TT online meeting	10 June 2021	Ensemble generation and evaluation	Virtual meeting, MS Teams
2nd MEAP-TT online meeting	10 March 2021	Implementing Darwin in ROMS: Initial results from regional simulations with a complex ecosystem model Overview of the EU H2020 SEAMLESS project MEAP-TT contribution to the UN Decade	Virtual meeting, MS Teams
1st MEAP-TT online meeting	14 Oct 2020	Assessment of the CMEMS Global biogeochemical forecasting operational system Introduction of OceanSites	Virtual meeting, MS Teams

Since 2012, the MEAP-TT held three workshops

Meeting history (under GODAE OceanView)

→ Joint DA/MEAP-TT workshop 2016, Santa Cruz, USA

→ MEAP-TT Workshop 2015, Halifax, Canada

→ MEAP-TT Workshop 2012, Exeter, UK

Documents

Meeting reports:

Report from the Joint DA-TT/MEAP-TT meeting, Santa Cruz, USA, July 2016
Report from the 2nd MEAP-TT meeting, Halifax, Canada, June 2015
Report from the 1st COSS-TT meeting, Exeter, UK, February 2012

TT quad-chart

The task team quad-chart provides a quick glance at the TT’s activities, achievements and future plans.

Marine Ecosystem Analysis and Prediction Task Team (MEAP-TT) – June 2021

Short description and objectives of the activities started/planned for this year:	Accomplishments of the TT this year:
Main activities: Main objective: To promote the expansion, modelling and assimilation of global ocean observing capabilities with respect to biogeochemical and biological variables (e.g. via BGC Argo and gliders) to advance the prediction and exploitation of essential biogeochemical variables Milestone: Kick-off the biogeochemical component of a UN Ocean Decade project for a predictable ocean ecosystem	Main achievements: Contribution of the biogeochemical components of the UN Ocean Decade programme ForeSea and project SynObs proposals Editing the special issue of Biogeosciences/Ocean Science issue on “Biogeochemistry in the BGC-Argo era: from process studies to ecosystem forecasts“ Contributions to the The Global Biogeochemical-Argo Fleet: Knowledge to Action Workshop, linked to the G7 FSOI Hold three video-meetings of the TT, hosting representatives of the OceanSites community and the CMEMS BGC-DA group Kick-off of the H2020 SEAMLESS project on ensemble biogeochemical data assimilation for operational oceanography
Future plans to continue/ improve current activities:	Issues/ problems:
Main future plans: Engage key observational (e.g. OceanSite, Bio-Argo, GOOS), modelling/assimilation (e.g. CMEMS BGC-DA) and policy (e.g. G7 FSOI) stakeholders Hold targeted team workshops and questionnaires on topics relevant to this year main objective, e.g. ecosystem ensemble simulations, multi-platform data assimilation, high trophic level modelling Deliver the biogeochemical chapter of the ETOOFS manual on operational oceanography	Main issues: Difficulty to ensure a good representation of the biogeochemical modelling communities in the South American and African continents Difficulty to carry out concrete actions (e.g. intercomparison projects) on best effort basis (enthusiasm during planning dies off rapidly as it implies extra work added to an in general already heavy load)