Dharma Reyes Macaya

One of my PhD goals is established a regional proxy calibration to reconstruct the past variability of the Equatorial Subsurface Water (ESSW). The ESSW that have an extension from Galapagos to the South of Chile and brings at subsurface depths the famous Oxygen Minimum Zone (OMZ) & the Anoxic Zone (AZ) to the coastal areas of South Equator, Colombia, Peru and Chile. Changes in the extension and compression of this water mass can affect the local ecosystems with the current anthropogenic climate change.

This year I had the opportunity to present the preliminary results of a regional calibration of the stable isotopes signatures of carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) from different species of benthic foraminifera at the Equatorial and South East Pacific; previously in the FORAMS 2018 and during the first week of September in the Ocean Deoxygenation Conference. These signatures we will use for establishing the regional calibration of the proxy of oxygenation Δδ13C (epibenthic & deep infaunal foraminifera) and the productivity proxy Δδ13C (epibenthic & shallow infaunal foraminifera).

The Ocean deoxygenation conference hosted more than 300 participants from 33 countries. The conference aim was to discuss the decline of oxygen and its causes, effects and consequences.

From the third to the last day of the conference I presented the work titled “Testing the suitability of Chilean and Peruvian margin core tops for bottom water oxygen reconstructions” in the section Ocean Deoxygenation - how the Past can Inform the Future. I received many suggestions related to my study and I made a nice connection for establishing future collaborations.

During the conference, the conveners redacted a public declaration about the ocean deoxygenation called Kiel Declaration, that aim to inform to the society about the concept and call to everyone for taking care the marine environments and climate mitigation strategies.

In the following link, the Kiel declaration on Ocean Deoxygenation

www.ocean-oxigen.org

Aside from the scientific program, while in Kiel I met my collaborators from Peruvian Oceanographic Institute & The Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia. I visited them during last February after my holidays in Chile and during the meeting; we had the opportunity to set my next visit (I will present the final state of the regional calibration during January there).

I would like to thank GLOMAR for the financial support, which made my participation possible in the Ocean Deoxygenation conference.