Updates on West Antarctic Working Group Efforts

1. Update on the West Antarctic Working Group Efforts SOOS Steering Committee Meeting Hangzhou China 2018 WAP Working Group Leads: Kate Hendry, Sian Henley, Oscar Schofield The current leadership team Group Meetings Progress Documenting Efforts Next Steps

2. Core current team organizing efforts

3. WAP meeting 1: Assessing the observing needs to make progress • Specific Goals • to establish some of key scientific questions surrounding the WAP • to share information about the existing sustained observational programs along the WAP and plans/aspirations for their futures • to discuss how a WAP component of SOOS might be constructed in the context of these activities, and how such a system might be best implemented and operated. Aurora Centre at the British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Cambridge, on May 15-16th 2017 Funding SOOS, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR), and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC-ORCHESTRA)

4. Take Homes for WAP meeting 1 • The key ‘big-picture’ questions surrounding the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) • How is the WAP changing? What’s driving the changes? Why is the WAP heterogeneous? • The scientific issues from across all WAP science disciplines • Complexities at different spatial and temporal scales, Sampling bias in context of spatial and • temporal heterogeneity, Challenges in identifying of the key processes and rates. Challenges in • identifying the key questions relating to latitudinal variation • Long-term solutions across the board • Continued, basic long-term monitoring (from all nations), Improved data availability and sharing, Developments in sampling – especially autonomous – methodologies, Improved networking of stations, Developments in portability of research infrastructure, Improved networking of people, including in other disciplines such as glaciology, atmospheric science and ice core scientists, Enhanced model capability, Engagement with other organizations and with industry, Engagement with citizen science, through conversations with cruise ships, and development of apps and approachable literature • Immediate priorities for the WAP Working Group • WG mailing list, Continued cross-discipline discussion within community with future meetings, Reports and summaries for the general public, Discussion of basic requirements for SOOS (in the form of both reports and Progress in Oceanography paper) in order to develop a meta-database (data, requirements, contacts, experts etc.) ,Dedicated effort for the engagement with industry, to be organized via email listing

5. WAP meeting 2: Royal Society “In Icy Waters” • Overarching Questions the meeting Addressed • What is the nature of oceanographic change on the WAP? • What can be ascribed to anthropogenic forcing? • What are the time and spatial scales needed to detect significant change, and the area over which change occurs? • How much can we extrapolate what we observe? • Are our existing time series study sites representative of the WAP ecosystems and biogeochemistry? • Are ship board observations representative ecosystems and biogeochemistry? • Are satellite images representative ecosystems and biogeochemistry? • What controls the ‘patchiness’ of the WAP? • Can we see threshold behavior? • What’s the role of the atmosphere on WAP ecosystem and biogeochemistry? May 17-18th 2017, “In Icy Waters” Funding provided by the Royal Society and SOOS

6. WAP meeting 2: Royal Society “In Icy Waters” • Broad observations made during the meeting include: • There is a high degree of spatial and temporal variability along the WAP in many oceanographic parameters; • Sea-ice variability is key to driving many of the physical, biological and chemical characteristics of the WAP; • There are many processes and rates that are difficult to quantify due to being understudied. • Goals moving forward focused on breaking down barriers include: • Better use of existing making it more available across national programs; • Need to conduct more high resolution observations and modelling efforts; • Winter and spring time sampling is to sparse and should be expanded; • Better integration across disciplines; • Joint international initiatives to allow for WAP regional perspectives. • data

7. Products of the Meetings: From the Royal “Icy Waters” Meeting Special issue of Transactions of the Royal Society In press 14 manuscripts

8. Products of the Meetings: From the BAS meeting Review manuscript submitted to Progress in Oceanography Variability and change in the west Antarctic Peninsula marine system: research priorities and opportunities Henley, Schofield, Hendry, Schloss, Steinberg, Moffat, Peck, Costa, Bakker, Hughes, Rozema, Ducklow, Abele, Stefels, Van Leeuwe, Brussaard, Buma, Kohut, Sahade, Friedlaender, Venables, Meredith

9. Next steps Working with SOOS ensure all the community EOVs are fully distributed to the communities in the WAP including the biological variables we can do now. (GOAL is to have the done this Fall) EOVs drawn for the SOOS. Many physical chemical variables have been defined. Biology is clearly making good progress

10. Next steps Develop/leverage of existing websites: Three core websites were identified as being a high priority for the WAP community. (GOAL is to have the done 2018) Leverage SOOS where ever is possible Develop a list-serve for the WAP community to facilitate cross-talk. 2) Contribute to a community website linking the EOV core measurements to recommended methods to guide community to standardized measurements. 3) Ensure the full data range of sustained data sets collected by the WAP community is fully updated in SOOS data portal.

11. Next steps Develop a short term federal strategy for developing joint projects. Several possible avenues for funding were identified by the meeting (NERC International Opportunities Fund (IOF); NSF RCN program; Chilean funding; Royal Society International Exchange Grants; and integrated efforts with Antarctic Science Ltd). Needs focused discussion with WAP community.

12. Next steps Develop community wide data expertise and science data efforts to provide an international baseline for the WAP. Identify “sentinel” stations of wide community interest that might reoccupied by ships of opportunity whenever possible. Coordinate a series of inter-laboratory efforts to ensure data quality/assurance measures for the distributed WAP science community Develop a series of sentinel species (examples might be Laternula and Yoldia bivalves as environmental indicators and archives of temperature change and toxins) Develop a list of opportunistic sampling variable, where water collected could be sent to a lab for analysis. Key variables suggested included chemical toxins and pollutants.

13. Next steps Longer term goals (5 years) that were identified was the need for deployment of technologies that provide sustained regional measurements (space or time). The tools identified include installation of a larger number of weather stations, WAP-wide glider network coordinated by the distributed field stations. 2 Glider Surveys for the WAP in January 2018, we can do NOW! Cape Sheriff King George Palmer Station Rothera Station TEMPERATURE PARTICLES

14. Entraining wider groups as well as standardizing across working groups and adjacent seas Example: The Dynamo group to the north Argentina:CADICUshuaia, CEAN JunindelosAndes, CONAEBuenos Aires, IADO Bahia Blanca, CCT Mendoza, CENPAT PuertoMadryn, UNGS Buenos Aires, Universidad de Tierra del Fuego y UniversidadTecnológicaNacional Chile: IDEAL Valdivia INACH & Universidad de MagallanesPuntaArenas,, UniversidadMayorSantiago de Chile, ChileCEQUA, Punta Arenas, Universidad de Los Lagos, Puerto Montt, CIBAS, Concepción Additionalpartners: US RutgersUniversity, Canada, University of Quebec Cross sector: (4-H Jena, TRIOS, Campbells)