The UK Ocean Acidification Programme (UKOA) funded a baseline study of carbonate chemistry parameters in UK waters. This report presents the results of the project.
Ocean acidification is the decrease in the pH of the earth’s oceans as a result of uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. The limited data available worldwide shows that acidification does not occur uniformly. It is important to establish these natural variations by routine monitoring before changes due to anthropogenic inputs can be assessed. Limited monitoring of the changes in ocean acidification is undertaken in coastal waters around the UK. The UK Ocean Acidification Programme (UKOA) funded a baseline study of carbonate chemistry parameters in UK waters, which included monitoring at the Cefas SmartBuoy sites over a 3 year period. It was agreed that additional monitoring would be undertaken for a short period in 2013 as a UK-IMON demonstration study. The project was divided into two distinct parts, firstly a preliminary feasibility study to examine the use of moored water samplers to collect water samples for the analysis of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and secondly discrete sampling for TA and DIC analysis at five locations around the UK. Reported here are the results of both parts of the project.
Walsham P., Webster L., Engelke C., Greenwood N., Stewart B, Kivimae C., Hartman S., Pearce D. & Gowen R., 2014. Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science Volume 5 Number 1: UK Ocean Acidification Coastal Monitoring Network – Expanding the Network – Defra Contract C5801/ME5309. Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science 5(1). Report.
