Ocean Acidification

Registration deadline: 14 November 2016!

Dates: 30 November 2016 – 1 December 2016

Location: Downtown Marriott, Anchorage, Alaska

Description: The Alaska Ocean Acidification Network is hosting a 2-day workshop in Anchorage, inviting a broad audience across the state interested in ocean acidification issues.

The aim of this workshop is to educate the broader Alaska community on the processes and consequences of OA, create connections between researchers and stakeholders, and develop new ideas and partnerships to enhance monitoring and community engagement. A report on the state of the science in Alaska will be produced after the workshop, as well as a set of recommendations to help guide the Alaska OA Network.

Day 1 will be conducted in plenary format and is intended to engage a broad audience including fishermen, shellfish growers, resource managers, researchers, coastal residents and anyone interested in ocean acidification. This first day will provide the basics on OA and an overview of research, monitoring, trends, forecasts and strategies for adaptation. Day 2 will be more discussion-oriented and include breakout groups, a session for OA researchers, and a meeting of the Alaska OA Network steering committee.

This workshop is free and open to the public. Please register by Nov 14.

Agenda and further information.

Speaker: Francois Morel

Location: Hubbs 4500

Time: 3:00pm

For more information on this event, contact: Jane Willenbring, jwillenbring(at)ucsd.edu

Go to website.

Date & time: Tuesday, 25 October 2016, 7:30pm ET (4:30pm ET)

Presented by: Tullio Rossi, Marine scientist and communicator, University of Adelaide, Australia

Primary audience: Informal educators and communicators

Good communicators speak the way they want to speak. Great communicators speak the way people listen. The interesting thing is that people listen in a formulaic way.

Join this SOARCE webinar to discover the communication formula that Dr. Tullio Rossi, author of several award-winning animation videos, uses to communicate climate and ocean acidification science. You will learn about key principles of storytelling and communication and how to implement these in your future work. Not interested in animation video? This is still relevant to you because the ideas that are going to be discussed are applicable to any type of media.

Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5315712487759550978 . After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Continue reading ‘SOARCE Webinar Series: “Telling the Ocean Acidification Story”, 25 october 2016’

The abstract submission deadline is 14 October 2016!

The ocean system is undergoing rapid and dramatic changes in response to global climatic and regional anthropogenic forcings. These drivers, including primarily temperature rise, intensified stratification, ocean acidification, eutrophication, and ocean deoxygenation, may, or already has, lead to fundamental changes in marine biogeochemistry, such as the carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron cycles, productivity and community shifts of marine microbes, and further impacts to fishery resources. These changes are affecting a broad range of goods and services provided to humans by marine ecosystems and are causing a number of marine environmental problems, particularly in coastal regions.

To foster knowledge and ideas exchange within the marine environmental science community and, in particular, to promote interdisciplinary studies, the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science (MEL, http://mel.xmu.edu.cn/en) of Xiamen University initiated the Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences (XMAS), with the overarching theme of The Changing Ocean Environment: From a Multidisciplinary Perspective. The first and second symposia were held in Jan 2014 and Jan 2015, attracting over 800 participants from more than 100 institutions across 14 countries.

Continue reading ‘Reminder: Deadline approaching for abstract submission – The 3rd Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences (XMAS), 9-11 January 2017, Xiamen, China’

Date & time: Monday, 17 October 2016, 17:00-18:00

Location: Lecture Theatre WG5, Ground Floor, Aston Webb Building (R4), University of Birmingham

Description: Part of the Lapworth Lecture series. All are welcome to attend and there is no admission charge.

Speaker: Dr Daniela Schmidt, University of Bristol

Further information.

In this experiment, participants will learn about the process of ocean acidification by adding CO2 to water and measuring its pH.

Further information and registration.

The ocean system is undergoing rapid and dramatic changes in response to global climatic and regional anthropogenic forcings. These drivers, including primarily temperature rise, intensified stratification, ocean acidification, eutrophication, and ocean deoxygenation, may, or already has, lead to fundamental changes in marine biogeochemistry, such as the carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron cycles, productivity and community shifts of marine microbes, and further impacts to fishery resources. These changes are affecting a broad range of goods and services provided to humans by marine ecosystems and are causing a number of marine environmental problems, particularly in coastal regions.

To foster knowledge and ideas exchange within the marine environmental science community and, in particular, to promote interdisciplinary studies, the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science (MEL, http://mel.xmu.edu.cn/en) of Xiamen University initiated the Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences (XMAS), with the overarching theme of The Changing Ocean Environment: From a Multidisciplinary Perspective. The first two symposia (http://mel.xmu.edu.cn/conference/1xmas, http://mel.xmu.edu.cn/conference/2xmas) were held in Jan 2014 and Jan 2015, attracting over 800 participants from more than 100 institutions across 14 countries.

Continue reading ‘The 3rd Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences (XMAS), 9-11 January 2017, Xiamen, China’

Estuarine acidification due to global carbon dioxide emissions and local eutrophication has the potential to have widespread impacts on marine ecosystems by reducing calcification—key to building shells, for example—in key marine organisms. Recently, the West Coast Ocean Acidification & Hypoxia (OAH) Science Panel recommended improved monitoring to assess biological impacts in the coastal ocean and estuaries. The current status and impacts of acidification on the San Francisco Bay and many other West Coast estuaries are largely unknown.

A workshop at San Francisco Estuary Institute on October 19-20 will convene forty scientists, managers, and representatives of local monitoring entities to assess whether acidification is a likely concern in SF Bay, and to identify its potential impacts to beneficial uses, cost-effective monitoring strategies, and potential management actions, including restoration. San Francisco Bay, as the largest estuary on the West Coast, will serve as a case study for how to approach the development of OAH monitoring strategies for West Coast estuaries.

The workshop attendance is already at capacity but the Organizing Committee will produce a publicly available technical report documenting the key outcomes.

Event address: San Francisco Estuary Institute, Main Conference Room, 4911 Central Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804

Further information.

Photo credit: CICESE

A group of 20 early-career scientists representing 11 nations in Latin-America and the Caribbean had the chance to attend a training course on ocean acidification, 5-10 September 2016 in Ensenada, Mexico, organized by the IAEA Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre (OA-ICC) in partnership with the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education of Ensenada (CICESE) and the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC). The course also benefitted from financial support from the Programa Mexicano del Carbono (PMC).

The training course sought to give participants entering the field of ocean acidification a solid theoretical framework and practical hands-on experience needed to set up coherent experiments. An international group of highly experienced lecturers shared their expertise in ocean acidification observation and data collection, experimental protocols and data interpretation, as well as possible shortcomings and ways to avoid pitfalls.

Continue reading ‘OA-ICC Training Course on Ocean Acidification, 5-10 September 2016, Ensenada, Mexico’

Date & time: 21 September 2016, 4:00-5:00 pm
Location: University Centre, Seminar Rm 307, 6331 Crescent Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
Presenter: Christopher Harley

Ocean acidification has been called global warming’s evil twin. Like warming, acidification is caused by human greenhouse gas emissions and has the potential to reshuffle the ecological deck in the ocean. Unlike warming, however, near-future changes in pH will exceed anything in the recent geological record, and there are few if any places to hide. The seminar discuss the many ways in which ocean acidification affects marine species, including shellfish that we eat and kelps and invertebrates that define key marine habitats. The presenter will emphasize the importance of moving beyond studies of single species studies, and present examples of how ocean acidification may change coastal ecosystems in British Columbia and beyond.

Reception to follow. Registration not required.

Further information.

Date: Thursday, 15 September 2016
Time: 10.30am
Venue: Lecture Room, South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB), Somerset Street, Grahamstown, 6139, South Africa

Carla Edworthy manages the new Aquatic Ecophysiology Research Platform (AERP) which is a formal collaboration between Rhodes University Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries Sciences and SAIAB. Carla, shown here sampling in the new new custom-made laboratory space, will present: “Insights from a practical training course in Ocean Acidification and a research strategy for South Africa”.

Changes in ocean chemistry are being recognised on a global scale and research in this field is growing exponentially. However, Africa and most parts of the Indian Ocean are poorly studied and our understanding of ocean acidification in these areas is limited. This presentation will outline Carla’s experience at the ocean acidification practical training course she attended in Mauritius in July 2016, hosted by the world’s leading ocean acidification experts. It will also address the need for ocean acidification research in South Africa by highlighting some achievable research goals.

Further information.

When: Thursday, 8 September 2016 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM (AEST)

Where: AIMS Townsville – Main Theatre – Lot 35 Cape Cleveland Road Cape Cleveland, Townsville, Queensland 4816, Australia

Spearker: Joy Smith, University of Bremen (Germany), Plymouth University (UK), AIMS

Abstract: Ocean acidification has been at the forefront of marine science research due to the potential effects on entire marine ecosystems. Here, I’ll present results from my PhD dissertation that examines the effects of ocean acidification on microscopic organisms that are the basis of food webs, zooplankton. Natural CO2 seeps were used as windows into the future to compare differences in zooplankton communities that reside in ambient CO2 conditions to communities that live in high-CO2 conditions. Samples were collected and experiments conducted over three expeditions to two seep sites in Papua New Guinea, ensuring that trends were consistent in space and time. Overall, the study sought out to examine how ocean acidification affects zooplankton abundance, migration behavior, taxonomic composition, and fatty acid content. Once changes were observed in the zooplankton community, the mechanisms behind the alterations were investigated.

Continue reading ‘AIMS seminar: “The effects of ocean acidification on zooplankton: using natural CO2 seeps as windows into the future”, 8 September 2016, Townsville, Australia’

SECOORA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Ocean Acidification Program are facilitating the formation of the Southeast Ocean and Coastal Acidification Network (SOCAN) to support and encourage discussions on ocean and coastal acidification in the Southeast region.

SOCAN hosted a state-of-the-science webinar series on ocean acidification. The series is now completed and all the archived webinars and presentations can be found here.

The series sought to lay a foundation for the state of ocean acidification science in the Southeast region.  These webinars intended to create a dialogue among key stakeholders to identify what is known, what isn’t, and what research in other locales can be applied to better understand ocean acidification and its impacts in the Southeast US. The SOCAN Steering Committee will use information learned from the webinars to develop a state-of-the-science white paper on ocean acidification in the southeast.

Further information.

PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend Marine Science Center’s Marine Exhibit will host “Oceanography on the Dock” at the pier, 532 Battery Way, from noon to 1 p.m. Friday, July 29.

The oceanography field course for the public will focus on ocean acidification.

The event is free and open to the public.

To schedule a session for a larger group or at special times, email info(at)ptmsc.org.

Peninsula Daily News. Further information.

“Coral Reefs and Ocean Acidification: Effects of an Unsustainable Energy Syste”

Join AGCI for a free public lecture from Dr. Ken Caldeira, of the Carnegie Institution for Science.

A social reception with wine and cheese will follow the event, offering an opportunity to discuss the lecture and ask further questions.

ABOUT THE LECTURE:

Most of the CO2 released when we burn coal, oil or gas is eventually absorbed by the oceans, where it reacts with seawater leading to acidification. Ocean acidification has been shown to harm many marine organisms, including corals, under controlled laboratory conditions. This talk will describe how Dr. Calderia’s team altered seawater chemistry in a natural ecosystem without any artificial confinement, for the first time ever, and measured the biological response in order to better understand ocean acidification and its impacts on corals Dr. Caldiera will describe the effects of ocean acidification on corals, his team’s research in the great barrier reef, and the need for energy technologies that provide for human systems while protecting the natural environment. This lecture is part of a series offered in honor of Walter Orr Roberts.

Further information.

Date & time: Tuesday, 9 August, 10:00 AM AKDT

Speakers: Natalie Monacci & Bob Foy

Scientists estimate that the ocean is 30% more acidic today than it was 300 years ago, traceable to increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil-fuel combustion and land-use change. Lowering the pH of seawater affects the ability of shell-building organisms to build and maintain their shells, which puts stress on the entire marine food chain. Alaska is expected to experience the effects of ocean acidification sooner and more seriously than lower latitudes due to its temperature and circulation patterns.

This presentation will cover what we know about OA in Alaska, statewide monitoring efforts to track changes in seawater, and results of lab work to test the impacts of higher-acidity waters on commercially important species. It will also highlight resources available through the new Alaska Ocean Acidification Network, which was recently launched to help connect scientists and stakeholder communities, identify knowledge gaps, share data, and determine best practices for monitoring in Alaska.

Registration

Pre-registration for webinars is strongly encouraged. The audio portion of the call is through a toll-free phone line and the slide presentation is streamed via computer. For instructions on participating through your home office or at a satellite viewing location with others in your community, please see the webinar information page.

Further information and registration.

Application deadline: 5 September 2016!

The Linnaeus Centre for Marine Evolutionary (CeMEB) invite PhD students and postdocs from all over the world to gather for one week in a stimulating environment to discuss how climate change (including global warming, ocean acidification, hypoxia) affects evolutionary rules that shape ocean ecosystem structure.

The Questions

What determines species-sensitivity to future environmental stressors and how does it relates to species recent evolutionary history? What life-history strategies will be selected in future ocean? How can we assess a species adaptation potential? What is the role of phenotypic plasticity in species resilience? What will be evolutionary rules in future oceans? What is the role of ecological interactions in future ecosystem changes?

The aims

The most important aims with this course is to train young researchers in state-of-the-art research in marine climate change research with a special focus on evolutionary biology, to share theoretical and experiment approaches and to create new professional contacts among the participants.

Continue reading ‘CeMEB Advanced Course for PhD students and post docs2016: “Marine evolution under climate change”, 20-25 November 2016, Kristineberg, Sweden’

Deadline for nominations: 30 June 2016!

Organizers:

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Center for Scientific, Research and Higher Education of Ensenada (CICESE) and the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC)

Purpose:

The purpose of the course is to train early-career scientists from the Latin America and the Caribbean region entering the ocean acidification field, with the goal being to assist them in setting up pertinent ocean acidification experiments.

Expected outputs:

• Increased capacity to measure and study ocean acidification and increased networking among scientists working on ocean acidification in the Latin America and the Caribbean region.
• Initiate/deepen connections with the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON; www.goa-on.org).

Scope and nature:

The training will include lectures in plenary sessions and hands-on experiments in smaller groups (the level will depend on the basic knowledge of the selected participants). Subjects to be covered include: the carbon dioxide (CO2) system in seawater and relevant measurements; instrumentation available for measuring seawater chemistry parameters; software packages used to calculate CO2 system parameters; and key aspects of ocean acidification experimental design, such as manipulation of seawater chemistry, biological perturbation approaches, and laboratory- and field-based methods for measuring organism calcification and other physiological responses to seawater chemistry changes, including nuclear and isotopic techniques.

Continue reading ‘OA-ICC Training Course on Ocean Acidification, 5-10 September 2016, Mexico’

Date & time: Wednesday, 25 May 2016, 15:30 UTH

Join a live Q&A session with two experts on ocean change biology, Prof. Ulf Riebesell and Dr. Lennart Bach, this Wednesday 25th May at 15:30h UTC. This is your opportunity to ask questions and get an expert perspective on how marine life may respond ocean stressors in our future ocean: https://plus.google.com/events/c6l4cpj2ri2qvlompu1lcpm040o?authkey=CK3B1rL5i5_RtgE

Through his landmark paper published in Nature in 2000, Riebesell brought the effects of ocean acidification on plankton to the attention of the marine science community. Since 2009 Prof. Riebesell has been the coordinator of the German national research programme ‘Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification’ (BIOACID) funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research. Dr. Lennart Bach, a biological oceanographer at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, is interested in changes in seawater chemistry and how these affect phytoplankton, from the cell through to the ecosystem level.

Continue reading ‘Live Q&A session: Our oceans are ‘warming up, turning sour and losing breath’, 25 May 2016’