An overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan America

Dr Vivian Lutz1, Dr F. Gerald Plumley2 and Dr Sebas an Krieger3

1

IIMyCINIDEP, Argen na
NFPOGO Centre of Excellence in Observa onal Oceanography, Alfred
Wegener Ins tut Helmholtz-Zentrum fr Polar- und Meeresforschung,
Germany
3
Centro de Biologia Marinha, Universidade de So Paulo, Brazil
2

Since 2003, POGO, and since 2004, NF

POGO have had a long and very producve history of supporng educaonal
iniaves, fellowships and other capacity building acvies that benet marine
science research in Lan America.

Dr Lutz

Dr Plumley

Dr Krieger

he recent, combined NANO La n American Regional

Research Group/NFPOGO CofE Regional Training
Programme in Ensenada, Mexico (see page 11) brought
together a large number of La n American scien sts
whose scien c career has beneted from previous efforts of POGO and/or NFPOGO in La n America. This
summary of POGO/NFPOGO ac vi es in La n America
is the outgrowth of having this combined group meeting periodically over coee, meals, or just enjoying me
together. We hope that this ar cle is complete, but may
miss important events/people; we apologize for any
omissions and assure everyone that they were not inten onal. Finally, this ar cle highlights a few scien sts
who have been engaged repeatedly with POGO/NF
POGO capacity building eorts in La n America, some
Rene Ayala and Ana
star ng at the earlier ini a ves (further back as 1984,
Dogglio during lab
or 1997) and running constantly to the current Ensenaanalysis at the 2006
NF-POGO visi ng Pro- da mee ng, where this ar cle was dra ed.
fessorship in Brazil
This ar cle is divided in dierent sec ons that briey
describe the following training and networking programmes: Early (19842003) Pre-NFPOGO Programmes
and ini a ves and other synergis c interac ons; overview of recent ini a ves; POGO and NFPOGO Visi ng
Professorship Programmes; NFPOGO Centre of Excellence (CofE) at BIOS and AWI; NFPOGO Centre of
Excellence Regional Training Programme; NFPOGO
Alumni Network for Oceans (NANO); and other POGO
supported training programmes. At the end, we present
tables that summarize all programmes in La n America.
A table of researchers from La n America that beneted from the above men oned programmes is available
at www.nf-pogo-alumni.org/le/view/SM_NN8.pdf.

(le to right) Eduardo Santamara-del-Angel , Robert

Frouin and Sergio Cerdeira-Estrada during eld work
at the 2006 NF-POGO visi ng Professorship in Brazil

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Santamara-del-Angel (Mexico) and Adriana Gonzlez Silvera (at that moment a masters student in Brazil). Due to
the interac on in this course, Adriana decided to pursue
As antecedents to the NFPOGO ini a ves we should menher doctorate in Baja California. This research group acon the courses that Trevor Pla taught at the Catholic
tually just hosted the CofE Regional Training Programme
University and the University of Concepcin in Chile durat the University of Baja California (from 19 January to 6
ing 1984 and 1985 (see ar cle in NANONews volume 1).
February 2015). Moreover, it was during the Concepcin
These early educa onal ac vi es were crucial in the ca2002 course, a ended by Ana Doglio and Milton Kampel
reer of many La n-American researchers. Some of these
(students at that me), that the idea for the Antares netstudents went to Canada for
work was fostered. This was realized
graduate studies and then reduring a workshop sponsored by the
turned to their home countries
Interna onal Ocean-Colour Coordinatincluding Osvaldo Ulloa, Renaing Group (IOCCG) in 2003 at INIDEP
to Quiones, Ruben Escribano
(Argen na), where the Antares network
and Vivian Lutz who, at that
was launched. Since this early start, the
me was directed by H. BeAntares network grew alongside the
navides and R. Negri to go to
La n American ini a ves of these interCanada due to their experiencna onal organiza ons. To illustrate, a er
es in Trevors courses in Chile.
the second Antares mee ng (2005), an
This exchange of students from
IOCCG mee ng took place in Margarita
and towards La n America was
2006 NF-POGO visi ng Professorship in Brazil
Island (Venezuela); similarly, training
s mulated by Trevor and Shubcourses in the region provided a venue
has laboratory and con nued
for
an
Antares
mee
ng (e.g., Brazil 2006 and 2009). This
throughout the years. As examples, Heather Bouman went
history
of
reinforcing
the
interac on and enhancing capacifor a post-doc at Osvaldo Ulloas laboratory in Concepcin
es
through
the
years
led
Antares to receive an important
(2005), recently Heather taught at the CofE trainings in Bergrant
from
the
Inter-American
Ins tute for Global Change
muda and received a NANO alumni from Brazil as her Ph.D.
Research (IAI) in 2013, which is propelling the network into
student (Priscila Lange). Later on, Trevor Pla and Shubha
a new connec on between natural and social sciences. This
Sathyendranath taught courses again in Chile in 1997 and
subject has become a major goal interna onally, bringing
in 2002, where Osvaldo Ulloa was the local organizer (cothe ocean into the agendas of global climate change,
sponsored amongst others by IOCCG and POGO). One of
ecosystem services and societal benets, using similar
the instructors at the Olmu training course in 1997 was
approaches
as those from Oceans and Society: Blue PlanVivian Lutz (Shubhas graduate student at the me), and
et
(h
p://www.oceansandsociety.org/)
the over-arching
among the students were Roberto Milln-Nez, Eduardo
marine task within the Group on Earth Observa ons (GEO).
Early (19842003) Pre-NFPOGO iniaves and other
synergisc interacons

Overview of recent (2003present) NFPOGO iniaves

Since 2003, POGO, and since 2004, NFPOGO have had a long
and very produc ve history of suppor ng educa onal programmes, fellowships and other capacity building ini a ves
that benet marine science research in La n America and the
Caribbean. These ini a ves were complemented by IOCCG acvi es in several instances. To date, trainees and/or instructors
from 12 countries (Argen na, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa
Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela) have been engaged. Lecturers and/or
mentors from a number of developed countries (e.g., Canada,
Japan, Korea, UK, USA) have also taken part in delivering capacity building opportuni es to trainees from La n America,
2009 NF-POGO Regional Centre of Excellence in Brazil
ac ng either as instructors to workshops/training programmes
oered in La n America and/or hos ng fellows in their home ins tutes. In addi on, a large number of trainees from outside La n America (Belgium, Egypt,
Germany, India, Italy, Spain, Sweden and USA) have studied in La n America,
with support from POGO and/or NFPOGO, further extending the La n American scien c network.

An overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan America

Contact us: regeirk@gmail.com, info@nf-pogo-alumni.org, lilian.krug@nf-pogo-alumni.org
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An overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan America

Vising Professorship Programmes of POGO and NFPOGO
The goal of the visi ng professorship is to oer capacity building in the host ins tu on, leading to enhanced sustained
ocean observa ons that address societal issues of the day.
The priority is to develop highly-trained scien c professionals. Addi onal important goals include promo ng contacts,
collabora ons and networking among ins tu ons of developing and developed countries. This enhanced interac on goes
many mes across regions. Invited instructors from La nAmerica have collaborated in programmes in other regions. As
an example, Vivian Lutz was invited to teach in India during the
Visi ng Professorship Programme conducted by Trevor Pla
in 20042005. In the same way students from outside La n
Vivian Lutz teaching at the 2006 NF-POGO visi ng ProfesAmerica have pursued further studies in the region. For exsorship in Brazil
ample, Satya Prakash, who a ended the POGO visi ng professorship in Cochin (20042005) went to Concepcin for his post-doctoral fellowship. He is s ll ac ve in the NANO
regional research program for the Indian subcon nent.
The Visi ng Professorship Programme started in 2003 sponsored by POGO and in January 2004 became NF
POGO, as a partnership between POGO and the Nippon Founda on (NF) for three years (from 2004 to 2007). This
ini a ve metamorphosed into the Centre of Excellence (CofE) Programme in 2008. In La n-America the rst visiting professorship was oered in Brazil in 2003, followed by another one in Brazil in 2006, in Argen na in 2010, and
more recently one again in Brazil last year:
This rst NFPOGO Visi ng Professorship eort in La n America was led
by Dr. Robert Frouin (Scripps Ins tu on of Oceanography SIO, USA)
in 2006. There were mul ple parts of this Visi ng Professorship, startCourse tle: Evaluaon of satellite ocean
ing with a training course at the Brazilian Na onal Ins tute for Space
colour algorithms and products in coastal
Research (Ins tuto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, INPE). Dr. Robert
regions of Central and South America
Frouin, with the help of experts from the interna onal ocean-colour
Dates: 17 April to 12 May, 7 to 25 August,
community, including Dr. Greg Mitchell (SIO, USA), Dr. Vivian Lutz (IN2006
IDEP, Argen na), Prof. Ichio Asanuma (Tokyo University, Japan) and Dr.
Vising professor: Robert Frouin, Scripps
Ewa Kwiatkowska (NASA, USA), provided training on the use of remotely
Instuon of Oceanography, UCSD, USA
sensed ocean-colour data as a tool for analysing the marine ecosystem.
Hosts: Dr Milton Kampel, Instuto Nacional Other objec ves included:
de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE) and Instuto
To build capacity in Central and South America to exploit satellite
Oceanogrco da Universidade de So Paulo ocean-colour and other, complementary data sets in the quan ta ve
study and monitoring of coastal waters and ecosystems;
Components: eldwork, laboratory and
To augment the measurement suite at the ANTARES and other staseminars on remote sensing and modelling
ons with radiometric data, by making available SIMBADA radiometers
Number of parcipants: 16
on a quasi-permanent basis;
Countries of origin: Argenna, Brazil, Colom To develop strategies for long-term successful observa ons and rebia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela
search in biological oceanography of the coastal ecosystems in the region;
To promote long-term coopera on between Central and South American countries and to improve the North-South American dialogue within the American con nent.
Other components of the Visi ng Professorship involved travel by Dr. Robert Frouin to Mar Del Plata, Argen na, to provide
training and to lend a SIMBADA radiometer to INIDEP for rou ne measurements at their Antares me series sta on, and to
train INIDEP students and scien sts in the use of the instrumenta on. A er the training course at INPE, Dr. Frouin travelled to
So Jos dos Campos and Ubatuba to test newly acquired op cal instrumenta on, to rene measurement protocols, and to
par cipate in the October 2006 Antares cruise in Ubatuba. Among the students were Ren Ayala (who later on par cipated
in year 1, CofEBIOS), Mayza Pompeu (in charge of the eld work at AntaresUbatuba me series sta on, who par cipated in
later courses), Ana Doglio , Eduardo Santamara and Adriana Gonzlez Silvera (the three of them took part in other courses
as students and instructors).

Brazil 2006

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The theore cal component (more than 35 hours) was held in Buenos Aires at the Museo Argen no de Ciencias Naturales and the
prac cal/discussion seminars component (more than 21 hours)
was held 500 km south of Buenos Aires, at Estacin Hidrobiologica de Ququn, on the rocky coast.
The POGO course provided an integrated combina on of formal
lectures, research seminars, discussion workshops and eldwork
to inform research and to provide training in the area of climate
change responses of coastal and near-shore ecosystems. This was
intended to inform and enable the establishment of broad-scale
observa ons and me series, which are essen al for separa ng
climate change from local and regional scale impacts. Research
underpinning adap ve responses to climate change was also outlined regarding its impacts and the design of sea defences.
The following NFPOGO priori es were explored in the context
of climate change and the rela onship between biodiversity and
ecosystem func oning: xed point me-series observa ons,
large-scale observa ons of biodiversity, emerging approaches
for ocean observa ons, data management, coastal observa ons,
coastal zone management and modelling future states in the
coastal zone.

Brazil 2014
Course tle: Innovave integrated
marine monitoring systems in coastal
regions
Dates: 19 October to 3 November 2014
Vising Professor: Renzo Mose, OGS,
Italy
Hosts: Dr Eduardo Marone, Center for
Marine Studies, Federal University of
Paran, Brazil
Number of parcipants: 49
Countries of origin: Argenna, Brazil,
Colombia, Peru and Uruguay

Argenna 2010
Course tle: Understanding climate driven
change in biodiversity and ecosystems: observaons, modelling and experiments
Dates: 12 February to 9 March 2010
Vising Professor: Stephen J. Hawkins, Bangor University, School of Ocean Sciences, UK
Hosts: Maria Gabriela Palomo, Senior Researcher, Naonal Commission for Research
in Science and Technology (CONICET) Argenna; Museo Argenno de Ciencias Naturales
Bernardino Rivadavia, Buenos Aires, Argenna
Parcipaon in eldwork and seminar component: Juan Jose Cruz Moa, Universidad
Simon Bolivar, Venezuela
Number of parcipants: 22
Countries of origin: Argenna, Brazil, Uruguay
and Venezuela

The POGO course was organized into

lectures and prac cal ac vi es, mainly
processing observa onal data, including a eld trip to the Paranagu Bay
for doing observa on of currents with
electromagne c and acous c devices,
measuring water proper es with CTD,
etc. The group was divided in two, with
all the par cipants taking the morning
lectures together and, in the evenings,
Prof. Mose con nued with the group
of graduates and covered topics more
deeply, while Prof. Marone took care
of the undergraduates. At the end, the
par cipants received around 30 % more
training me than originally planned.

Table 1 - Overview of POGO and NFPOGO capacity building workshops held in La n America.
The country names in bold font indicate the
country in which the workshops were held.

An overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan America

Contact us: regeirk@gmail.com, info@nf-pogo-alumni.org, lilian.krug@nf-pogo-alumni.org
NANO website: www.nf-pogo-alumni.org

An overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan America

Robert Frouin (Scripps
Ins tu on of Oceanography, USA) was
Course tle: Phytoplankton community
the visi ng professtructure: from the molecular to the global
sor, once again. There
scale
were also assistants
Dates: 21 September to 7 October 2009
and guests lecturers:
Vising Professor: Robert Frouin, UCSD,
Heather Bouman (OxScripps Instuon of Oceanography, USA
ford University, UK),
Hosts: Instuto Nacional de Pesquisas Espa- Vivian Lutz (INIDEP,
ciais (INPE) and Instuto de Estudos do Mar Argen na),
Milton
Almirante Paulo Moreira (IEAPM)
Kampel (INPE, Brazil),
Components: eldwork, laboratory and
Roberto Milln (Universidad Autnoma
seminars on remote sensing and modelling
de Baja California,
Number of parcipants: 25
Mexico one of the
Countries of origin: Argenna, Brazil, Ecuaorganizers of the
dor, Mexico, Venezuela
CofE RTP 2015 Ensenada), Gerald Plumley (Bermuda Ins tute of Ocean Sciences, Bermuda),
Silvana Vianna Rodriguez (Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil), Eliane
Gonzalez Rodriguez (Ins tuto de Estudos do Mar Almirante Paulo Moreira
IEAPM, Brazil), Rodolfo Paranhos (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil) and nally Silvia Ma os Nascimento (Universidade Estadual do Norte
Fluminense, Brazil), who oered lectures on theore cal fundamentals complemented by prac cal demonstra ons.
The ra onale for the course was that par oning the autotrophic plankton
community into func onal types is expected to improve the modelling of
primary produc on and increase our understanding of the role of phytoplankton in the global carbon cycle. Through the course, trainees learnt the
fundamentals on phytoplankton community structure, including laboratory
and eld methods for iden fying composi on and taxa, rela on with op cs,
remote sensing approaches, and biogeochemical signicance.
Among the students there were Ren Ayala (Venezuela), Jaimie Rojas (Venezuela, who got a scholarship to assist in the La n American NANO research
project in 2013), Mayza Pompeu (Brazil), Adriana Gonzlez Silvera and Eduardo Santamara (Mexico, organizers of the CofE RTP 2015Ensenada); as
well as Ana Doglio (Argen na) and Ntalia Rudor (Brazil).

CofE RTP Brazil 2009

NFPOGO CofEBIOS and CofEAWI

The Nippon Founda onPOGO Centre of Excellence (NFPOGO CofE) provides world class educa on and training courses in the eld of observa onal oceanography. The Bermuda Ins tute
of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) hosted phase I of the
NFPOGO CofE annually during four consecu ve
years (from 2008 to 2012). Star ng from 2013,
phase II of the NFPOGO CofE has been hosted
by the Alfred Wegener Ins tute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). In both loca ons, the CofE
has oered 10 students a 10 month mul disciplinary programme that involves a series of lectures,
laboratory studies, ship board training, and an opportunity to conduct independent research. Core
skills such as scien c wri ng, sta s cs and public
speaking are also emphasized.
As of the wri ng of this ar cle, from all 60 NF
POGO CofE scholars, fourteen (14) are from La n
America: nine in CofEBIOS and ve in CofEAWI.
Some of the NFPOGO CofE par cipated in other
capacity building programmes supported by POGO
or NFPOGO. Ren Ayala Campos (Venezuela) and
Fabricio Guaman (Ecuador) had also a ended
one of the previous NFPOGO regional trainings.
Whereas Lilian Krug (Brazil) a ended the Austral
Summer Ins tute (ASI) with support from POGO
and has been awarded a POGOSCOR fellowship
to visit Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) in the
UK; Priscila Lange (Brazil) and Rafael Jose Rasse
Boada (Venezuela) were also POGOAMT fellows;
and Shaazia Salina Mohammed (Trinidad and Tobago) and Sebas an Krieger (Brazil) also a ended
the most recent CofE Regional Training Programme
in Ensenada, Mexico.

NFPOGO CofE Regional Training Programme

The NFPOGO Visi ng Professor Programme morphed into the NFPOGO CofE Regional Training
Programme (RTP) in 2008. The rst RTP in La n
America was organized and hosted in Brazil by Milton Kampel in 2009; the second programme in Latin America was held in 2015 in Ensenada, Mexico.

Group of scholars at the Centre of Excellence in Observaonal Oceanography

La n American past
scholars of the Centre of Excellence
in Observa onal
Oceanography

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CofE RTP Mexico 2015

Course tle: Phytoplankton bio-opcal variability: applicaon to the study of coastal systems
Dates: 19 January to 6 February 2015
Host: Adriana Gonzlez Silvera, Eduardo
Santamara-del-ngel, Roberto Milln-Nez,
Natalia Silva Hernndez (Facultad de Ciencias
Marinas, Universidad Autnoma de Baja California, Mexico)
Components: eldwork, laboratory and seminars on pigment analysis, inherent opcal properes, light absorpon and remote sensing
Number of parcipants: 28
Countries of origin: Argenna, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Ecuador, India, Mexico, Peru, Spain,
Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela

Table 2 - Number of trainees for each country from/in La n American

ins tu ons/training programmes that beneted from POGOs and NF
POGOs support. The training programmes are divided into POGO Visiting Professorship Programme (VPP), NFPOGO VPP, NFPOGO Centre of
Excellence (CofE), NFPOGO CofE Regional Training Programme (RTP),
POGO Atlan c Meridional Transect (AMT) fellowship, POGOSCOR
fellowship and Austral Summer Ins tute (ASI). The list also includes
a endees from countries outside this region that par cipated in training programmes that were held in La n America. We counted mul ple
a endances from the same trainees.

The most recent RTP was held in Ensenada, Baja California,

Mexico earlier this year (see page 11). Lectures and laboratory experiments were held by Ana Doglio (CONICET, Argen na); Crystal Thomas (NASA, USA); Greg Mitchell, Ma
Kahru and Robert Frouin (Scripps Ins tu on of Oceanography, University of California, USA); Natlia Rudor (Ins tuto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais INPE, Brazil); Vivian
Lutz (IIMyC INIDEP, Argen na); Adriana Gonzlez Silvera,
Eduardo Santamara-del-ngel, Roberto Milln Nez (Facultad de Ciencias Marinas, Universidad Autnoma de Baja
California, Mexico). Gerald Plumley (NFPOGO Centre of
Excellence in Observa onal Oceanography, AWI, Germany)
also accompanied the workshops ac vi es.
The overall goal of the RTP was to provide the theore cal
background and the skill-set required to implement and
apply measurements of bio-op cal variables in seawater
to both remote sensing and to the study of biogeochemical
variability of coastal waters. Lectures were on topics such
as: phytoplankton composi on and pigments, inherent
op cal proper es (IOPs) in seawater, and remote sensing
of ocean colour and IOPs. Water samples collected during
the eld work were analyzed to determine phytoplankton
community composi on using four dierent and complimentary methodologies: microscopy; absorp on spectroscopy; high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC);
and satellite ocean colour remote sensing.
Having Ana Doglio and Natlia Rudor (two former
NFPOGO trainees) as instructors shows the con nued
progression and benet of POGO/NFPOGO training in
mee ng the long-term goal of crea ng a global network of
ocean scien sts. Furthermore, Vivian Lutz (IIMyCINIDEP,
Argen na), Robert Frouin (SIO, USA) and Greg Mitchell
(SIO, USA) con nue to play a major role in the NFPOGO
training programmes in La n America and inspire the future genera ons of marine scien sts.

An overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan America

Contact us: regeirk@gmail.com, info@nf-pogo-alumni.org, lilian.krug@nf-pogo-alumni.org
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An overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan America

Other POGO Training Programme Ac vi es Involving La n America
POGO hosts other capacity building programmes from which La n American
trainees have beneted: POGOAMT fellowship, POGOSCOR fellowship, and
Austral Summer Ins tute in Concepcin, Chile. In total, 173 students from La n
America have beneted from these ini a ves.
POGOAMT Fellowship
The Atlan c Meridional Transect (AMT) is a long-term mul disciplinary ocean
observa on programme involving biological, chemical and physical oceanographic studies in yearly research cruises between the UK and des na ons in
the South Atlan c Ocean. The POGOAMT fellowship provides hands-on, seagoing experience to young scien sts from developing countries and economies
in transi on. The fellowship is open to scien sts, technicians, graduate students
(Ph.D. and M.Sc.) and post-doctoral fellows involved in oceanographic research
ac vi es. The selected fellows par cipate in cruise prepara on and planning; go
on the cruise; and analyse the samples and interpret the results a er the cruise.
From the seven POGOAMT fellows, three were from South America: Mario Vera
(Uruguay, 2008), Priscila Lange (Brazil, 2012) and Rafael Jose Rasse Boada (Venezuela, 2014). Rafael and Priscila were also scholars of the NFPOGO CofEBIOS
in years 3 (2010/2011) and 4 (2011/2012), respec vely.

Priscila Lange being

bap zed for crossing
the Equator line at the
AMT cruise

POGOSCOR Fellowship
POGO and the Scien c Commi ee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) jointly
fund this programme which is designed to promote training and capacity
building. Its main purpose is to advance sustained ocean observa ons and
their applica ons globally. It oers scien sts, technicians, graduate students
(Ph.D.) and post-doctoral fellows from oceanographic centres in developing countries and countries with economies in transi on the opportunity to
visit other oceanographic centres for a short period. Training can be on any
aspect of oceanographic observa ons, analyses, and interpreta on. This
programme has awarded over 150 fellowships since 2001, from which 51
were to scholars from La n American ins tu ons (see table 2). Five fellowships went to NANO members; and Sergio Cerdeira Estrada and VladimirGiovanni Toro Valencia, both from Mexico, were awarded twice.
Natlia de Moraes Rudor trainee during the CofE RTP 2009 in Arraial
do Cabo and lecturer during the CofE RTP 2015 in Ensenada was a Ph.D.
student at Ins tuto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), Brazil and visited the Scripps Ins tu on of Oceanography, USA, to study the variability in
ocean-colour proper es. Sergio Cerdeira Estrada trainee during VPP 2006
in So Paulo from the Na onal Commission for the Knowledge and Use of
Biodiversity in Mexico City, Mexico, visited EOMAP (Earth Observa on and
Mapping) in Germany to derive standardised products using hyperspectral
satellite images; and the University of South Florida to study red de events
using satellite sensors. Lilian Krug a NFPOGO CofEBIOS year 2 scholar
beneted from this fellowship during her Ph.D. at the University of Algarve,
Portugal and was able to visit Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), UK, to
study biogeochemical provinces.

Rafael Rasse preparing

a bio-argo instrument
for the AMT cruise

University of Concepcin vessel

at Dichato, Chile

Austral Summer Instute

Lilian Krug
and Dr Ajit
Subramaniam
onboard vessel
undertaking
sampling pracce at the 2007
Austral Summer Ins tute

The Austral Summer Ins tute (ASI) is run annually at the University of Concepcin in Chile; it is
co-sponsored by POGO. The Ins tute takes approximately 30 students for a series of lectures on specic
topics rela ng to the general theme of the Ins tute.
Between 2007 and 2015, POGO supported 119 students from nine La n American countries as well as
seven countries outside La n America (see table 2).

Presence of La n
nual mee ngs. (Top)
presen ng the proProject in 2011
Vivian Lutz, Jaimie
Lange
discussing
goals in 2013 (Berlin)
Silva presen ng upin 2014 (Lisbon).

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NANO
The Nippon Founda on and the Partnership for Observa on of the Global Oceans have created a network of former
scholars called the NFPOGO Alumni Network for Oceans (NANO). The goals of NANO are to maximize the benets of the alumni from the training they have received, to facilitate network interac ons between alumni, and to
promote joint (regional coali on) research eorts. NANO has two classes of members: alumni and friends. Alumni
include scholars from the Centre of Excellence (CofE) at BIOS and the CofE at AWI, the CofE Regional Training Programmes in Brazil, Vietnam, India, Philippines and Mexico, and the Visi ng Professorship Training Programmes in
India, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Brazil, Tunisia and Vietnam. NANO is currently organized into regional coali ons. One of these
research groups is the La n American Regional Coali on, which is briey described below.
Currently, 72 individual trainees a ended one or more NFPOGO supported training programmes. From theese
trainees, 58 are NANO members. For more details, please refer to table 2 and www.nf-pogo-alumni.org/le/view/
SM_NN8.pdf. Detailed research proles of NANO members in La n America are available on the web page h p://
www.nf-pogo-alumni.org/La n+America.

La n American NANO
The La n American Regional Project for the NANO Network (LANANO) started in April
2012. It was coordinated by Ana Doglio and was supported by Guillermina Ruiz (a recent
trainee in the CofE RTP 2015Ensenada) with general supervision of Vivian Lutz. One of the
achievements of the rst phase of the project was to send more than 50 pigment samples
from 6 me series sta ons of the Antares network (Argen na, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico,
Peru and Venezuela) to the Ocean Ecology Laboratory, at the NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center (Greenbelt, Maryland, USA), for high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
pigment analysis.
The second phase of the LANANO project was coordinated by Jaimie Rojas (Venezuela, a
trainee at the CofE RTP 2009Arraial do Cabo) and supported by advice from Vivian Lutz. A
workshop on Ecological use of marine phytoplankton pigments at the Antares-ChloroGIN
me-series-sta ons was carried out in October 2013 at the Sta on of Marine Research of
the La Salle Founda on for Natural Sciences in Margarita Island, Venezuela. Briey, the workshop consisted of lectures, working sessions and group discussions on the topics regarding
phytoplankton pigment analyses used in oceanographic research and the possibili es of carrying out HPLC analyses in La n America. A total of 17 par cipants were gathered including
two special guests, Suzanne Roy (Universit du Qubec Rimouski, Canada) and Crystal
Thomas (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA), eight representa ves of the ve guest
La n-American countries, and 7 local researchers from Venezuela. Preliminary results on the
Variability in phytoplankton pigments at the Antares/ChloroGIN me series sta ons and
ancillary informa on from the par cipa ng sites was reported.
The third phase of the LANANO project is ongoing under the coordina on of Adriana
Gonzlez Silvera (UABC, Mexico) and with the assistance of Natalia Silva Hernndez (UABC,
Mexico). It included the con nua on of pigment sample collec on at the six par cipa ng
sites and the gathering of the samples at the workshop held in conjunc on with the recent
CofE RTP 2015 at UABC (Ensenada, Mexico). The main subject of discussion of the LANANO
workshop was the produc on of a publica on with the results obtained from pigment analysis at the six me-series-sta ons. For more informa on on this topic please read the accompanying ar cle in this issue of the newsle er on updates of the LANANO project (page 22).
Details on this project, as well as the men oned reports are available on the web page
h p://www.nf-pogo-alumni.org/La n+American+Regional+Project.
n
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1
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America at NANO anSebas an

Krieger
posal of LA Regional
(Abingdon); (Middle)
Rojas and Priscila
progress and future
and (Bo om) Natalia
dates of the project
LA-NANO project sampling in Cariaco (Venezuela), Ubatuba (Brazil) and EPEA (Argen na)

An overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan America

Contact us: regeirk@gmail.com, info@nf-pogo-alumni.org, lilian.krug@nf-pogo-alumni.org
NANO website: www.nf-pogo-alumni.org

An overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan America

Concluding Remarks
POGO and NFPOGO ini a ves, in a construc ve synergy with other organiza ons (e.g., IOCCG), have a long and very
produc ve history of suppor ng capacity building workshops (table 1), training programmes as well as fellowships from
which over 300 La n American marine scien sts have beneted. In this ar cle, we summarized the training programmes
and tried to be as accurate as possible. Trainees from 12 dierent countries in La n America and the Caribbean par cipated in one or more programmes (table 2). Most trainees were from Brazil, Argen na, Chile and Mexico. At h p://www.
nf-pogo-alumni.org/le/view/SM_NN8.pdf we show a list of all trainees and instructors from research ins tu ons from
and/or training programmes held in La n America. From these, 29 trainees and 5 instructors par cipated in more than
one of the training programmes. Even long a er their training, many of the par cipants s ll feel inspired and mo vated by
their experience in the dierent programmes and by the passion that instructors, senior scien sts and other trainees have
for marine science. We highlighted a number of trainees and are condent that many more of them already contribute
to the advances in marine science; to the establishment of a solid research network within La n America and beyond; to
help determine marine, environmental and public policy; and ac ng as mul pliers for the future genera ons. Although in
some ways it seems just the beginning, since nowadays challenges call for even stronger collabora on within scien sts,
it is valuable to see the interac ons already achieved through networking in La n America. Finally, these advances are
a direct result from the support of POGO and the Nippon Founda on, as well as the hard work and commitment of all
instructors and trainees.
Acknowledgements We would like to thank Trevor Pla and Shubha Sathyendranath for their invaluable input and sugges ons, ensuring we highlight key people and that we summarise the most important historical facts; Sophie Seeyave for sending us the most current
informa on on the dierent training programmes.

Call for Personal Outreach Projects

Educaon is the most powerful weapon which you can use
to change the world. Nelson Mandela

We announce a call for small projects for outreach and educa on

performed by alumni in their countries. Outreach is an ac vity of providing services to popula ons who might not otherwise have access to those
services. Thus we expect proposals which main ain is to distribute knowledge and/or awareness to ocean-related issues. The maximum amount by
which it can be applied is US$500, which can only include costs of educaonal materials, tools, transorta on or expenses related to material prepara on (e.g. prin ng).
Please send the completed form of the proposal to
monikao@ioplan.gda.pl by the 30th of May 2015.
Visit h p://www.nf-pogo-alumni.org/NANO+Outreach for more informa on and reports of
past projects

10

Contact us: regeirk@gmail.com, info@nf-pogo-alumni.org, lilian.krug@nf-pogo-alumni.org

NANO website: www.nf-pogo-alumni.org