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Our Plan

ExOIS goals

Exploring Ocean Iron Solutions (ExOIS) is an umbrella organization that strives to foster partnerships for scientific research as well as with public and private partners for funding and to establish best practices and governance of study of ocean iron fertilization as one of many steps that will be needed to remove atmospheric CO2 over the coming decades. The goal of ExOIS is to stimulate and coordinate activity around OIF research based upon recommendations from the recent NASEM and Aspen reports, and to catalyze individual enabling studies and help organize large international proof of concept field and modeling studies.

We've recently created a white paper outlining our plans. You can either review the report online, or download our PDF.

ExOIS forums

To accomplish these goals, we hold monthly virtual “forums,” normally on the third Monday of each month to explore different topics, lasting roughly 90 minutes.  The topics are proposed by individuals and organized by the ExOIS steering committee.  Led by one or more from our group, each date/topic below is linked to materials that came out of those presentations and post forum feedback.  We hope over time to build up a resource that can be shared on these web pages covering many aspects of ocean iron fertilization and the latest research priorities, governance issues, and public policy needs that are integral to this CDR research agenda.

Rather than wait to complete all of these forums, the links to each topic below should be viewed as a “work in progress” not a finished research plan, report, or publication.  You can find published materials and reports in our bibliography tab (under Our Plan), however the links below take you to a growing set of resources that we are developing and making available.  Note the views in each are not necessarily shared by all members of the ExOIS team, and one forum may be followed by another that reaches different conclusions or sets out different priorities. In other words, this is a window to ongoing scientific debate on the approaches, value and risks of OIF.  The goal here is to learn from each other, define  what we think we know and challenge us to seek out the answers to what we don’t know.

Please do not share any of these materials for any purpose without contacting us first. They contain unpublished data and information that may have changed since posted here. And note some of these forums may not yet, or may never result in shared materials, and that the topics for future forums are still being decided.  We are always looking for new forum topics and volunteers to present.

ExOIS forum topics

Date Topic
March 21, 2022Adopting a code of conduct of ocean CDR (Margaret Leinen, Kiliparti Ramakrishna and Ken Buesseler)

This code has now been the topic of two recent publications:
April 18, 2022What would the next generation, proof of concept ocean iron field experiment look like? Part I- going back to the Equatorial Pacific (Fei Chai and Mark Wells)
May 16, 2022Developing a cost model for Ocean Iron Fertilization (David Emerson, Ben Twining, Steve Archer, Alex Michaud, Laura Sofen & Dan Whaley)
June 21, 2022Building partnerships for social issues and governance. A great discussion of ExOIS Scientists and NGO groups with interest in the topic including the Aspen Institute (Catherine Pollack & Beatrijs Kuijpers), the Environmental Defence Fund (Jamie Collins & Steven Hamburg, Ocean Conservancy (Sarah Cooley) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (Rebecca Loomis).
July 18, 2022Ocean Iron Field Experiments part II - Southern Ocean (Lennart Bach & Philip Boyd)
August 15, 20225 Groups presented at this forum about iron delivery methods and bioavailability.

Sept. 19 & Oct. 17, 2022What's Next? R&D Planning for Ocean Iron Fertilization - a group discussion

This discussion led to the ExOIS planning document and white paper: Ocean Iron Fertilization: Assessing its potential as a climate solution (online) or as a PDF Download.
Nov. 21, 2022Ecological impacts of ocean iron fertilization - Presentations and discussion with Sarah Smith & Elena Litchman
Dec. 19, 2022Geochemical consequences of ocean iron fertilization - Presentation and discussion with Steve Archer & Andreas Oschilies

Jan. 23, 2023Opportunities for Funding

Feb. 20, 2023Technology for carbon flux observations

March 20, 2023Observations of the biological carbon pump

April 17, 2023Remote sensing and carbon EXPORT

June 20, 2023Presentations from the in-person Moss Landing ExOIS group meeting. Discussion of paths forward for the group and planning a "Path Forward"
Aug. 21, 2023Paths forward from the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories meeting. White paper plan to come.
Upcoming forums
Date Topic
Sept 18, 2023Natural examples of ocean iron fertilization -
  • Douglas Hamilton: An Aerosol Odyssey: Navigating Nutrient Flux Changes to Marine Ecosystems
  • Jake Weis: The Southern Ocean Biological Response to Dust Quantified by BGC-Argo Observations
  • Matthieu Bressac: Pyroplankton
Oct. 16, 2023To be determined