Joint 6th Workshop on Asian Dust and Ocean EcoSystem (ADOES) with Asian SOLAS was held on 5-9 October 2011 in Qingdao, China. This workshop was organized by Ocean University of China and SOLAS-ADOES/WESTPAC-ADOES working group with the support by Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology (Ministry of Education of the people’s Republic of China), and Strategic Chinese-Japanese Cooperative Program by MOST/JST.

More than 50 participants attended the workshop and 29 scientists from China, Japan, Republic of Korea and the United State were invited to present their latest research results and findings, with a focus on Asian dust and its potential impact on marine ecosystem. They include:
1) recent experimental results on impact of Asian dust on marine ecosystem, e.g., new techniques developed for measuring air-sea exchange flux and more evidences of ocean acidification, transport pathways and phys-chemical evolution of dust aerosol in a long-distance transport, and potential impact of biomass burning aerosol on bio-available Fe in China seas;
2) new particle bursts and aerosol optical properties recently observed in the coastal areas;
3) impact of radioactive materials leakage from the Fukushima nuclear plant on marine environments.

Building on these findings, scientists from Ocean University of China, Fudan University, Peking University and Institute of Physical (CAS) also had a group discussion in the workshop for jointly submitting a proposal to deepen current studies on relationship between atmospheric deposition and ocean primary activities. The proposal will also attempt to understand the impact of ocean emissions on regional climate.

For more information, please contact Dr. Huiwang Gao, Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology (Ocean University of China), Ministry of Education, Qingdao, P.R. China at hwgao@ouc.edu.cn