MBARI’s Biological Oceanography Group has collected a trove of long-term data on the health of Monterey Bay. Led by Senior Scientist Francisco Chavez, this team studies our changing ocean, working with the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) to advance tools, including environmental DNA (eDNA), to more effectively survey life in the sea. This summer, Chavez has participated in a series of international conferences and workshops in Europe, sharing MBARI’s expertise with peers from around the world.

Chavez is a member of the expert workgroup for Global Ocean Oxygen Network (GO2NE), an international network of researchers working to provide a global and multidisciplinary outlook on the declining concentration of dissolved oxygen in the coastal and open ocean. He participated in the workgroup’s meeting from June 10–12 in Paris, France.

Chavez participated in the fourth World Biodiversity Forum from June 14–19 in Davos, Switzerland, sharing MBON’s efforts to scale observations of biodiversity across the California Current using eDNA. On June 23, he attended Beneath the Surface: Ocean Summit 2026, a conference about ocean resilience and the blue economy co-hosted by Deutsche Bank and the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance as part of London Climate Action Week.

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