Low oxygen conditions have already been reported for various aquatic systems, from lakes, estuaries and coastal areas to off-shore regions of the World Ocean, where water ventilation is not able to renew the oxygen consumed by degradation of organic matter.

In the coming decades and centuries, it is foreseen that deoxygenation will increasingly stress aquatic ecosystems in a way that is currently ignored on the global scale, but admitted as only local problems. The expansion of O2 minimum zones and resulting biogeochemical and ecological changes will make impossible the Good Environmental Status of marine and freshwater ecosystems, as well as their functioning and ability to underpin the delivery of services. These themes are in the focus of several international initiatives (SOLAS, IMBER, GEOTRACES, CLIVAR, etc.) and projects (PERSEUS, HYPOX, EMODNET, etc.).

Thematic sessions and Keynote talks:

1. Deoxygenation, marine resources, ecosystem functioning and structure of the foodweb.

Conveners: Lisa Levin & Carol Robinson – Keynotes: Robert Diaz & Rutger Rosenberg

2. Deoxygenation and biogeochemical cycles.

Conveners: Jack Middelburg & Wajih Naqvi – Keynote: Don Canfield

3. Life and processes in redox gradients.

Conveners: Sean Crowe & Steven Hallam – Keynote: Klaus Jurgens

4. Paleoproxies of hypoxia.

Conveners: Caroline Slomp & Daniel Conley – Keynote: Silke Severmann

5. Modelling hypoxia.

Conveners: Temel Oguz & Marilaure Grégoire – Keynote Eugene Turner & Dubravko Justic & Nancy Rabalais

6. Oxygen time series and instrumental developments.

Conveners: Allan Devol & Alberto Borges – Keynote: Niels-Peter Revsbech (to be confirmed)

7. Eastern Boundary upwelling systems (EBUS) as natural SOLAS laboratories.

Conveners: Véronique Garçon & Francisco Chavez – Keynotes: Zouhair Lachkar

8. Deoxygenation in a global change context.

Conveners: Jing Zhang & Andreas Oschlies – Keynote: Nancy Rabalais