Virtual Meeting (WebEx) Minutes

Part-1 (15.00 – 16.30 CET)

This part of the meeting is open to Chair, co-chairs and FPs.

Governance Structure – FPs Activity

Things to get done:

  • AfriGEO: will include GOS4M in the WP of AfriGEO for the coming year, establish a community of practice and will put effort to involve more people in African countires. 
  • CNR will draft a flyer + a PPT presentation aimed to highlight clearly what GOS4M can do for stakeholders/policy makers. Specifically, it should be made clear the objectives and expected outcomes with reference to:
    • Easy access to observational data bases of existing monitoring networks including also single monitoring sites
    • The possibility to receiving support for data repository and QA/QC to all interested parties at no cost.
    • The possibility of receiving lab training for ambient Hg monitoring 
    • The possibility to use of the online GOS4M Knowledge Hub for analysing emission reduction scenarios  
  • The flyer and ppt will be used as needed by co-chairs and FPs in conferences and meeting as background material. 
  • CNR Team will send the first draft of the flyer and ppt to Sandy Steffen and Shuxiao Wang that will start the review process.
  • To send to LM contacts info for Congo and Ivory Coast – DONE

With reference to the FP for Asia-Oceania

It was decided to invite to join GOS4M and act as FP:
Dr. Younghee Kim
National Institute of Environmental Research
Seoul, South Korea
e-mail: heek89@korea.kr

Scientific Advisory Board

We have started the process of identifying potential candidates for the SAB having in mind the following criteria:

She/he should be well recognized expert in the field of Hg monitoring/ modelling/ policy, willing to provide a concrete support to GOS4M in bridging science and policy aspects. As first attempt the following names were suggested:

  • Milena Horvat, IJS, Slovenia (biota, metrology)
  • Ashu Dastoor, Env Canada (Modeling)
  • Noel Selin, MIT, USA (modeling, policy)
  • Elsie Sunderland, Harvard, USA (modeling, biota)
  • Colin Eglesmith, USGS, USA
  • Jiming Hao, TU, China (industrial emissions, monitoring, policy)
  • South America (Sandy will provide names) –
  • Jereon Sonke, CNRS, France (Hg isotope, monitoring)
  • Stefano Nativi, European Commission – JRC (data analytics, AI, interoperability)
  • + social scientists (to be identified among NGOs active in the context of the MCM)
  • …more may came later…..

Expert Groups

It was decided to activate two top-priority Expert Groups:

  • QA/QC systems: Suzuki (Japan), NADP (Marc Olsen), GMOS (M. Bencardino + Olivier Magand), Jeoff Stuple (Env Canada), Guey-Rong Sheu (APMMN)
  • Standardization of PAS: as follow up of the small scale intercomparison done with three PAS (CNR, IVL, Tekran) there is a need to promote a larger intercomparison exercise. Also for biota there is a need to promote an intercomparison of methods and devices. Possible leads for this task may be Milena Horvat and Lars-Eric Heimbürger-Boavida, but we need to cross check their availability.

Modelling

Sandy Steffen will talk to Ashu Dastoor to explore the possibility of having her to contribute to the GOS4M KH by performing modelling runs for all emission reductions scenarios already performed using ECHMERIT. If Ashu will agree CNR will forward to her the table with all info to run the simulations similarly to those performed with ECHMERIT. The modelling outputs from Ashu will be included in the GOS4M KH / HERMES and will be used to run the biogeochemical model already available in GOS4M KH, however any suggestion for Ashu on this will be very much welcomed.

Effectiveness Evaluation

We agreed that we need to be crystal clear on the type of services that GOS4M may offer to UNEP and to all interested parties and their sustainability (financial) over time. It was discussed quite extensively on possible ways that GOS4M may contribute to EE future objectives. It came up clearly that GOS4M may well provide the following contributions / services:

  • Services offered to all interested parties at no cost:
    o Guideline material and training (hosted at one of the GOS4M institutions) on how to start and manage a new Hg monitoring site.
    o All interested parties may need to receive services for Data Repository and QA/QC of their monitoring data. GOS4M may offer services of raw data repository and/or QA/QC’d data sets on GOS4M servers.
    o QA/QC of raw data sets using validated SOPs
    o Support for lab analysis of PAS samples and any other sample analysis (including water and biota samples)
    o The use of an online GOS4M KH to analyse customised emission reduction scenarios and generate the likely trends of the following parameters:
    • Maps of atmospheric Hg deposition to surface waters (oceans, lakes) and terrestrial ecosystems by Region / emission source type / % of emissions reduction modelled allowing the possibility of choosing among different global models (ECHMERIT, GeosChem, others….) and anthropogenic emissions inventories (AMAP, EDGAR, David Streets EI).
    • Assess the Hg fate in the ocean including Hg bioaccumulation in biota (currently this part provides the final Hg concentration in marine biota after a certain time step, in the future it will provide the temporal trend of Hg bioaccumulation in marine biota for a given anthropogenic emission scenario.
    • At a later stage (to be discussed in the modelling community contributing to GOS4M KH) also the effect of Climate Change on deposition patterns and Hg bioaccumulation in marine biota will be included.

CNR leading the GOS4M KH development and services secured funding for the years to come through EC funded projects and financial support from the Italian Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Research.

Part-2 (16.30 – 17.30 CET)

This part of the meeting is extended also to CNR colleagues contributing on different aspects related to GOS4M (data, modelling, web portal, communication).

Data sharing and Knowledge Hub

In order to facilitate the data access and data sharing to stakeholders and scientific community, the following tasks will be undertaken:

  • Shuxiao Wang will organize workshop on Hg data in China by inviting all leading site managers and chief scientists. The aim is to involve the national community in GOS4M and start the process of sharing monitoring data for modelling validation purposes and geospatial data analysis to the extent possible. If requested, GOS4M may offer the services detailed in the previous section above.
  • David Schmeltz will contact APMMN and cross check their interest to join GOS4M and their needs in terms of data repository, QA/QC and metadata description.
  • Sergio Cinnirella will send metadata prepared for Canadian and NADP networks to Sandy Steffen and David Schmeltz whom will cross check with appropriate data experts in the above mentioned networks.
  • Aurelien Dommergue will talk to Jeroen Sonke and verify the possibility to make available the Hg isotope dBase in GOS4M portal

GOS4M Portal & GOS4M Secretariat

Sandy Steffen offered the help and support of her post-doc, Katrina McSween (will start in two months) to cooperate with Gianluca Bevacqua (CNR) for supporting the GOS4M Secretariat activity that will include to keep updated the web portal, prepare material for communications / outreach activity of the members and feed social media, organization of webinars, etc.

Plan the annual meeting:

It was agreed that the face-to-face GOS4M meeting (to be held in Matera, Italy sometimes in 2022) should be held prior to the COP-4 (planned for Nov 2021 in Bali but likely will be postponed to May/June 2022) and ICMGP (July 2022) in South Africa.

The meeting was closed on time at 17.30.