Ocean sciences central to designing thriving global futures

Earth’s ocean is its single largest biome. It is home to more than half of the world’s species and produces as much as half of the world’s oxygen supply. The ocean is essential for life on Earth. It is also a leading indicator of our planet’s wellness. Now, ASU has harnessed more than 120 years of ocean science expertise to lay out a new pathway to understanding this immense habitat.

In 1903, a cohort of marine scientists from Harvard and New York University connected with the Bermuda Natural History Society. The group came together to establish the Bermuda Biological Station for Research, which went on to become globally known as the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences. In 2021, the institute joined the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University, bringing nearly 120 years of marine science to the nation’s top university for innovation, global impact and sustainability.

In 1995, the NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnership established the Pacific Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments program in Honolulu, Hawaii to position scientists to better understand and respond to climate change at the regional scale throughout the Pacific Rim. In 2021, the program, now known as Pacific RISA, collaborated with ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation to renew their NOAA funding, joining the Global Futures Laboratory.

Greg Asner, an ecologist recognized for his exploratory and applied research on ecosystems and climate change, launched a new airborne laboratory at Carnegie University in 2006. This laboratory would be used to collect ecological data that would be integrated with satellite sensors and computer modeling to better understand the health of our planet’s forests, coasts and coral reefs. In 2019, Asner moved his Heinz Awardrecognized Global Airborne Observatory team to ASU to establish a new Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science, based jointly at the Walton Center for Planetary Health on ASU’s Tempe campus and at the ASU Pacific Ridge-to-Reef Program facility in Hilo, Hawaii.

The Global Futures Laboratory leveraged the expertise and resources of these and other diverse research programs to establish a new School of Ocean Futures in 2023, the fourth school based within the College of Global Futures. Ocean Futures graduate students have begun research projects, and undergraduate and graduate degree programs are on target to begin enrolling for fall 2024.

At the Global Futures Laboratory, our scientists and scholars understand that, as the planet’s largest biome, the ocean is a central component of protecting our planet’s health and the general wellness of our world’s complex network of systems. To honor this commitment, the ASU Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and faculty and researchers across the Global Futures Laboratory will be celebrating the more than 120 years of navigating ocean sciences during World Oceans Month in June 2024. The occasion will be marked by a weekend of events including a research symposium and public ocean sciences day at the ASU BIOS campus. Please check our website for more details as June approaches.