The Arctic Ocean is rapidly accumulating carbon dioxide resulting in a decline in pH. Marine ecosystems and biodiversity will change, creating new economic, social and policy challenges.
When
May 06, 2013 08:00 AM to
May 08, 2013 06:00 PM
Where
Bergen, Norway
Contact
Inger Utne: +47 22 95 83 40
Perturbations in the global carbon cycle and climate change are causing the Arctic Ocean to rapidly accumulate CO2. This is resulting in an associated decline in pH, so-called ocean acidification. The majority of the ocean acidification is due to increases in anthropogenic carbon. However, changes in freshwater balance, heat budgets and land-ocean exchange may also play a significant role.
Warming of the ocean and increasing ocean acidification will change the nature of the Arctic Ocean’s ecological and biogeochemical coupling. Reduction in seawater pH and changes to carbonate system speciation and calcium carbonate saturation state will influence the Arctic Ocean system at all scales. The Arctic Ocean is an important climate regulator and the implications of a changing role of the Arctic on the global carbon cycle are unknown. Receding ice cover will open up potentially enormous marine resources. Therefore, improved knowledge of the resilience of the system to changing carbon dioxide is necessary. Ocean acidification is expected to affect fish stocks, marine ecosystems and the commercial, subsistence and recreational fisheries in the Arctic. However, knowledge of all of these questions is limited.
Topics to be addressed
• Response of Arctic Ocean to increasing CO2 and related changes in the global carbon cycle
• Social and policy challenges
• Arctic Ocean acidification and ecological and biogeochemical coupling
• Implications of changing Arctic Ocean acidification for northern (commercial and
subsistence) fisheries
• Future developments
Call for Abstracts
Participants are invited to submit abstracts on relevant subject, including reports from observational, experimental and modelling studies of past, present and future ocean acidification, responses of marine organisms and ecosystem structure, functioning and biodiversity, perturbations to biogeochemical cycling and feedbacks to the climate system and the economic, social and policy challenges of ocean acidification. Abstracts for proposed oral and poster presentation (max. 750 words) should be forwarded to the Conference organizers (amap@amap.no) by January 1st, 2013. Selection of oral and poster presentations will take place within one month and speakers and presenters will be informed of the outcome by February 15th, 2012. The printed Conference programme will include abstracts of the accepted oral and poster presentations.
Who should attend?
Scientists, climate scientists, social scientists, policy- and decision-makers concerned with fisheries and management of marine ecosystems, representatives of stakeholders groups
including northern residents and indigenous peoples, fisheries organizations, etc.
Pre-registration
If you are interested in participating, please send an e-mail to the AMAP Secretariat (amap@amap.no) for a preliminary (non-binding) registration. This will ensure that you receive further information about the Conference as it becomes available. Some financial support will be available to assist participation of young scientists in the Conference.
