‘Ocean acidification and other climate stressors in high-latitude systems’ – workshop/session at the ESSAS (Ecosystem Studies of Subarctic and Arctic Seas) 2018 Annual Science Meeting, Fairbanks, Alaska, 12 – 14 June 2018.
Co-chairs: Samuel Rastrick, Kumiko Azetsu-Scott
The aim of the session is to highlight research on all aspects of acidification and climate change in northern ecosystems but particularly investigations utilising field experiments and/or natural gradients in carbonate chemistry and how such experiments could be applied in the study of northern ecosystems.
Northern oceans are in a state of rapid transition. The polar ocean is experiencing one of the most rapid shifts in biogeographic boundaries on the planet due to rapid warming, resulting in polar and tundra ice melt, and coupled with acidification – that affect the ecology of marine organisms. Still, our knowledge on the likely effects of climate change and acidification on northern ocean chemistry and ecosystems is inadequate. As it is based mainly on limited oceanographical obviations and single-species, rapid perturbation experiments on isolated elements of the ecosystem that focus on a limited number of carbonate chemistry drivers. It is difficult to extrapolate from such studies to larger scales, as these are generally too short-term to reveal how organisms may adapt/acclimatise, have often set steady pCO2 levels (which are unrealistic), and use organisms that are separated from their natural suite of food, competitors, predators, and facilitators. We consequently invite presentations on all aspects of the posable effects of ocean acidification and climate change in northern ecosystems, but we are particularly interested in research that addresses these knowledge gaps. For example, studies assessing natural spatial and temporal fluctuations in carbonate chemistry, the ecological and physiological effects of these fluctuations, and investigations using natural analogues of future climate change in Arctic waters.
