...

A workshop for planning the delivery of the first Marine Ecosystem Assessment for the Southern Ocean (MEASO) was hosted by WWF Antarctic Program at WWF Headquarters, Woking, UK on 3-7 June 2019.  Dr. Mike Barrett (WWF-UK, Executive Director of Conservation and Science) welcomed participants to their headquarters, provided some insights into the priorities and directions for WWF, and highlighted the timeliness and importance of work on assessing the state of ecosystems.  He wished everybody well for the week.

Support for the workshop was provided by WWF-UK, the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre.

Introduction

Andrew Constable introduced the workshop on behalf of the co-conveners, Jess Melbourne-Thomas and Andrea Piñones, and the MEASO_Steering Committee.  He gave a presentation (20190603 MEASO Introduction Constable.pdf) on the background to MEASO, its aims overall, and the aims for the week. He also outline the expectations for this MEASO, in particular not to be overly ambitious in the synthesis papers but more to do what can be done within the next six months.  A priority is to develop a useful framework and archive for undertaking a MEASO more easily in the future.  A background paper on the process for developing the report of the first MEASO was made available (MEASO-2019 Report Process and Workshop), along with a recent paper (Brasier et al., 2019) on observations and models to support the first Marine Ecosystem Assessment for the Southern Ocean (MEASO).  Background information and the development of pages on habitats, biota and other assessments were available in the MEASO space in SOKI.

...