Abstract submission deadline: 14 October 2016!
This session welcomes research focused on the challenges of variability and uncertainty associated with scaling OA mitigation to implementation. This session will also consider key lessons learned, best practices, and guidelines for future intervention research and practice.
Session rationale: Recent research has illuminated the biological impacts, geochemical drivers, and dynamics of ocean acidification in the coastal environment. Following our improved understanding of the impacts of acidification in coastal ecosystems, there has been increasing interest in local-scale biogeochemical approaches to mitigate, and potentially remediate, the problems of coastal acidification. Such approaches generally fit into three categories: (1) the restoration and enhancement of CO2 uptake provided by aquatic photosynthetic organisms, such as sea grasses and algae, (2) alkalinity buffering through the intentional dissolution of calcium carbonate, such as discarded bivalve shells, and (3) geochemical engineering by enhanced air-sea gas exchange. Interest in implementing mitigation approaches in state-level OA policies is rapidly increasing. Yet there remains substantial uncertainty about the heterogeneity, variability, and effectiveness of such approaches when scaled to the level of implementation. Such challenges include the durability of carbonate system interventions in naturally variable coastal ecosystems, and whether these changes translate into desired outcomes for target organisms in the context of multiple stressors.
Organizers: David Koweek , Carnegie Institution, Department of Global Ecology (dkoweek(at)stanford.edu) & Aaron Strong , University of Maine, School of Marine Sciences (aron.strong(at)maine.edu)
