1.CliMetS

Global Climate Impacts of Methane Seeps (CliMetS) is a UNESCO-IOC endorsed Ocean Decade Programme focused on global methane seep discovery, observation, and interdisciplinary research. It aims to understand marine methane cycling, climate impacts, biodiversity, and resource potential of seep ecosystems through international collaboration, innovative technologies, long-term monitoring, and capacity sharing, particularly in Global South regions. It focuses on global collaboration to advance its mission, with the following objectives:

(1) To promote methane seep-related capacity sharing and knowledge exchange. The goals of these activities are directed by regional working groups and their existing research clusters, and are developed by local teams in Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, and Southeast Asia. These activities include methane seep observation, monitoring, and research.

(2) To organize joint research and training cruises which can carry out observation, monitoring, and research. These surveys will create distribution maps of global methane seep ecosystems and help to understand how they function over time.

(3) To conduct interdisciplinary research which helps us understand the fate and pathways of marine methane, while also permitting an assessment of the biodiversity and global biogeography of seep ecosystems.

(4) To develop innovative observation technologies and analytical methods. These will help us assess possible environmental impacts and risks of marine methane release on the seafloor and in coastal areas. 

(5) To work in conjunction with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO and other public policy institutions such that the research conducted by CliMetS will be publicly accessible and will allow for informed decision-making and policy development regarding seafloor methane seeps.

Click here for more information：https://oceandecade.org/actions/global-climate-impacts-of-methane-seeps/

2. MOCSI

Mysteries of Ocean Cold Seep Interfaces (MOCSI) is a UNESCO endorsed Science Decade Programme dedicated to advancing scientific understanding of seafloor cold seep ecosystems—one of Earth’s most biologically unique and geochemically dynamic extreme environments. Cold seeps release methane-rich fluids and gases from marine sediments, sustaining chemosynthetic ecosystems that play critical roles in global carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, and metal cycling, while also supporting unique biodiversity and genetic resources.

MOCSI aims to investigate the complex interactions among geology, geochemistry, microbiomes, macrofauna, and ecosystem processes across representative cold seep systems in the North and South Pacific, Atlantic, and western Indian Oceans. Focusing on 12–14 already-known seep fields, MOCSI will combine in situ observations, long-term monitoring, laboratory simulations, isotopic analyses, and multi-omics technologies to examine processes from molecular to ecosystem scales. Key objectives include: (1) characterizing the geochemical and microbiological features of representative seep systems; (2) understanding interactions between microbiomes and biogeochemical cycles across spatial and temporal scales; (3) revealing adaptation and evolutionary mechanisms of seep organisms under methane-rich and high-pressure environments; (4) investigating the transport of rare earth elements, microbes, and larvae driven by gas ebullition and hydrodynamics; and (5) assessing the influence of cold seeps on marine biodiversity, biogeography, and ecosystem resilience under climate change.

Click here for more information：https://www.un-sciences-decade.org/en/endorsed-activities/mysteries-ocean-cold-seep-interfaces-mocsi?hub=63