Philip Boyd has fundamentally advanced understanding of the interactions between ocean biogeochemistry, Earth's carbon cycle, and climate. He established how environmental controls, particularly iron, set the magnitude of productivity in the modern, past, and future ocean. His work has particular importance in assessing the role of Southern Ocean plankton in establishing the coupling between productivity and pathways of export flux to depth. He has also transformed understanding of how particulate organic carbon is transported, degraded, and stored in the ocean’s interior, providing insights into the potential and challenges of deliberate human interventions in the ocean to influence the carbon cycle.
Boyd was a lead author on Ocean chapters in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group 2 in the AR5 (2014) and AR6 (2022) assessments. For two decades, he has been heavily involved in the international scientific steering committees of ocean biogeochemical programmes. Since 2017, Boyd has been the co-chair of the GESAMP Working Group on Ocean Interventions for Climate Change Mitigation which advises the United Nations system on scientific aspects of marine environmental protection.
Professional position
- Professor Marine Biogeochemistry, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University Of Tasmania
