As an important part of the global climate system, the oceans play a critical role in forming and regulating climate variability and climate change on a variety of spatial and temporal scales.  The small- and meso-scale ocean dynamical processes, such as vortex, internal wave, turbulent mixing, eddy, and so on, have important effects on regional oceanic circulation and atmospheric circulation and can then affect climate.  Over the global ocean, ocean-atmosphere interaction can form various climate phenomena such as Pacific El Niño-Southern Oscillation, Pacific decadal oscillation, Indian Ocean basin mode, Indian Ocean dipole mode, Atlantic Niño, Atlantic multidecadal oscillation and Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, all of which have impacts on regional and global climate and extreme weather events.  Additionally, inter-ocean interaction can initiate and modulate climate variability and climate change.

The State Key Laboratory of  Tropical Oceanography has traditionally organized and hosted international conferences on the tropical Marine Environmental Changes (MEC) every other year since 2001.  The conferences have provided a communication platform for the scientists all over the world who are engaged in the study of the ocean environment, weather and forecast, climate variability and climate change, ocean-atmosphere interaction and oceanic dynamics etc.  The theme of  the10th MEC conference is: “ The oceans and climate：Variations from small to global scales”.  We will invite scientists in relevant research fields to discuss the influence of the oceans on climate variability and climate change.