The “Ocean under stress” guide is now available in Arabic and is currently presented at an exhibition stand at UNFCCC COP18 in Doha.
Background
Over the coming decades and centuries, ocean health will become increasingly stressed by at least three interacting factors. Rising seawater temperature, ocean acidification and ocean deoxygenation will cause substantial changes in marine physics, chemistry and biology. These changes will affect the ocean in ways that we are only beginning to understand.
It is imperative that international decision-makers and stakeholders understand the enormous role the ocean plays in sustaining life on Earth, and the consequences of a high CO2 world for the ocean and society.
Following awareness raising of ocean acidification at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meetings (2009 – 2012), the international partnership* is now highlighting its concern about the impacts of interacting stressors and have developed an Ocean Stress Guide.
This publication, coordinated by Plymouth Marine Laboratory, has received support from international organisations and programmes.
*The international partnership consists of:
- Plymouth Marine Laboratory
- Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego
- The European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA – 32 partner institutes from 10 EU countries)
- OCEANA (32 partner institutes from 10 countries)
- The UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme (UKOA – 27 partner institutes from the UK)
- The Mediterranean Sea Acidification in a Changing Climate project (MedSeA – 16 partner institutes from 10 countries mainly bordering the Mediterranean Sea)
- The Biological Impacts of Ocean ACIDification programme (BIOACID -19 partner institutes from Germany)
Please email forinfo(at)pml.ac.uk for further details.
Plymouth Marine Laboratory, 28 November 2012. English and Arabic versions of the guide.
