IMBER

Overview

IMBeR research seeks to identify the natural mechanisms by which marine life influences marine biogeochemical cycles, and how these, in turn, influence marine ecosystems and how anthropogenic activities are impacted and impact on the oceans. In 2008, it engaged in the GLOBEC-IMBER Transition Task Team (TTT), and upon TTT's recommendations, IMBER entered into its second phase at the end of 2009, aiming to cover marine ecosystem research with associated latest technical and academic development. The GLOBEC research programme was to be finished by end 2008. Both GLOBEC and IMBER board members held meetings in the UK and the US to confer the plan.

Central to the IMBeR goal is the development of a predictive understanding of how marine biogeochemical cycles and ecosystems respond to complex forcing, such as large-scale climatic variations, changing physical dynamics, carbon cycle chemistry and nutrient fluxes, and the impacts of marine harvesting. Changes in marine biogeochemical cycles and ecosystems due to global change will also have consequences for the broader Earth System. An even greater challenge will be drawing together the natural and social science communities to study some of the key impacts and feedbacks between the marine and human systems.