Ocean Acidification

Photo credit: Vera Shi

The IAEA/OA-ICC Training Course on Best Practices in Ocean Acidification Research, organized in partnership with the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science (Xiamen University, China), took place on 19-23 October 2015.

Twenty eight scientists from 10 IAEA Asian Member States participated in the course, which aimed to provide an introduction to both monitoring and experimental ocean acidification studies, with special focus on methods and potential pitfalls. It also looked to encourage networking and familiarize participants with existing international cooperation opportunities and resources in the field of ocean acidification.

Continue reading ‘IAEA/OA-ICC Training Course on Best Practices in Ocean Acidification Research, 19-23 October 2015, Xiamen, China’

Speaker: Lisa Suatoni, Natural Resources Defense Council

Date & time: Tuesday, 20 October 2015, 12:00pm ET

Link to register: http://bit.ly/1LaHADW

Ocean acidification is a global, long-term problem whose ultimate solution requires carbon dioxide reduction at a scope and scale that will take decades to accomplish successfully. Until that is achieved, feasible and locally relevant adaptation and mitigation measures are needed. To help to prioritize societal responses to ocean acidification, we present a spatially explicit, multi disciplinary vulnerability analysis of coastal human communities in the United States. We focus our analysis on shelled mollusc harvests, which are likely to be harmed by ocean acidification. Our results highlight US regions most vulnerable to ocean acidification (and why), important knowledge and information gaps, and opportunities to adapt through local actions. The research illustrates the benefits of integrating natural and social sciences to identify actions and other opportunities while policy, stakeholders and scientists are still in relatively early stages of developing research plans and responses to ocean acidification.

Continue reading ‘SOCAN webinar: “Vulnerability and adaptation of US shellfisheries to ocean acidification”, 20 October 2015’

Photo credit: Dr. Antoine D.R. N’Yeurt

An Ocean Acidification Monitoring Best Practice Training Workshop took place at the University of Auckland, New Zealand on 8-11 September 2015. The workshop was coordinated by Dr. Mary Sewell from the University of Auckland and Dry Todd Martz from the Scripps Research Institute, USA and benefited 12 researchers from New Zealand, Fiji and the Marshall Islands.

The aim of this workshop was to train participants to deploy pH sensors (Satlantic SeaFET), collect and analyze bottle samples for CO2 system properties, including pH, total alkalinity (AT), and total dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), and combine results to generate high quality time series information. One of the main objectives of the workshop being allowing the participants to gain hands-on experience with SeaFET sensors, a total of four instruments were made available for the training.

Continue reading ‘Workshop report: “Ocean Acidification Best Practice & SeaFET Training”, University of Auckland, 8-11 September 2015’

Date & time: Tuesday, 6 October 2015, 12:00pm ET

Speaker: Zackary Johnson, PhD in Marine Botany (Duke University), Postdoc in Marine Microbial Ecology (MIT); currently Arthur P. Kaupe Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology at Duke Marine Laboratory, Duke University

Link to register: http://bit.ly/1L2VX0h

Abstract

Increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) from anthropogenic sources is acidifying marine environments with potentially dramatic implications for the physical, chemical and biological functioning of these ecosystems. If current trends continue, mean ocean pH is expected to decrease by ~0.2 units over the next ~50 years. Yet, at the same time there is substantial spatial and temporal variability in pH and other carbon system parameters in the ocean resulting in regions that already exceed long term projected pH changes, suggesting that short-term variability is an important layer of complexity on top of long term acidification. Thus, in order to develop predictions of future climate change impacts including ocean acidification, there is a critical need to characterize the natural range and variability of the marine CO2 system and the mechanisms responsible for this variability. Here we examine pH and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) variability at time intervals spanning 1 hour to >5 years in a dynamic coastal marine system to quantify variability of the carbon system at multiple time scales. Continue reading ‘SOCAN webinar: “Dramatic variability of the coastal North Carolina carbonate system across multiple timescales”, 6 October 2015’

Deadline for applications: 20 October 2015!

In partnership with IMBER (Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystems Research), the Swedish National Committee for Global Environmental Change and the Environmental Committee at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Secretariat for Environmental Earth System Sciences (SSEESS) organises a workshop to:

• investigate the knowledge base, gaps and Swedish research capacity when it comes to impacts of ocean acidification in relation to ecosystems (considering multiple threats) and socioeconomics (including fisheries), as well as management of these impacts;
• increase the collaboration among researchers in Sweden within ocean acidification related research (e.g. through an active network and/or a Swedish research programme), with linkages to IMBER;
• inform about IMBER´s Science Plan and activities, and stimulate involvement of Sweden-based researchers in IMBER.

The workshop takes place at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm from 24-25 November 2015. (Starting with lunch at 12:00 on the 24th).

Continue reading ‘Workshop: “Effects of ocean acidification on ecosystems and human societies”, 24-25 November 2015, Stockholm’

Date & time: Tuesday September 15, 2015, 12:00pm ET

Link to register: http://bit.ly/1NhLI6G

Abstract

Progressing ocean acidification may significantly impact marine plankton community structure and community-level processes. Yet, our ability to predict specific responses is highly limited due to the taxonomic complexity of microbial assemblages and the limitations of the methodological and experimental tools presently available to test specific hypotheses. Research focusing on single microbes (typically well-studied cultured species) has begun to reveal important mechanistic insight into the potential effects of a changing CO2 regime. Much less, however, is known about how mixed (natural) assemblages may respond to ocean acidification. A central question is if the trends and patterns that are observed in microbial communities during short-term manipulations can be extrapolated to the responses of fully acclimated plankton communities over decadal or longer timescales. Further challenges arise from linking shifts in microbial assemblage structure to shifts in biogeochemistry at the base of the food web in response to changed global climate parameters (i.e. pCO2 and temperature). State-of-the-art molecular approaches allow researchers to tackle these challenges across an array of marine systems. These novel approaches will help us understand the impacts of OA on microbial communities in the SAB.

Continue reading ‘SOCAN webinar: “Deciphering the effects of OA on microbial assemblage structure and community function”, 15 September 2015, 12:00 pm ET’

Deadline for nominations through competent official authorities: 22 September 2015

Aim and structure of the course

The training course is organized by the Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre (OA-ICC) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and is hosted by the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, China.

Continue reading ‘IAEA OA-ICC Training Course on Best Practices in Ocean Acidification Research, State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, China, 19 to 23 October 2015’

Deadline for nominations through competent official authorities: 20 September 2015.

Organizers

The training course is organized by the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It will be hosted by IAEA Environment Laboratories in Monaco on 9-27 November 2015.

Aim and structure of the course

The course aims to provide trainees with hands-on laboratory training, practical training and lectures supporting an integrated approach to understanding, analysing and assessing the synergistic impact of stressors affecting marine ecosystems including, inter alia, ocean acidification.

The course is expected to result in an enhanced understanding of multiple stressors acting on marine ecosystems and an increased capacity to assess their environmental and economic impact.

The training will include lectures and presentations in plenary sessions, as well as hands-on laboratory experiments and practical work in smaller groups. The experimental core of the course will provide training in the use of radiotracers to measure the response of a representative marine bioindicator species to various stressors and in selected radioanalytical techniques for alpha, beta gamma emitting radionuclides. The emphasis during practical sessions will be on synergistic effects of ocean acidification and trace metal pollutants, whereas other stressors will be discussed during lectures. Experimental data will be processed, interpreted and explained in the context of multiple stressors. Lectures will provide participants with an introduction to the subject of multiple stressors in marine ecosystems, an overview of the tools available to study this subject, and presentations on environmental and economic risk assessment.

Continue reading ‘IAEA Training Course on Marine Ecosystems and Industries at Risk: Impact of Multiple Stressors, 9–27 November 2015, Monaco’

Deadline for nominations through competent official authorities: 11 September 2015

Aim and structure of the course

The training course is organized by the Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre (OA-ICC) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and is hosted by the University of Cape Town and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of South Africa.

The purpose of the course is to train early-career scientists and researchers from IAEA African Member States entering the ocean acidification field, with the goal to assist them in becoming able to measure ocean acidification and to set up pertinent experiments, avoiding typical pitfalls and ensuring comparability with other studies. Expected outputs also include increased networking among scientists working on ocean acidification in Africa.

Continue reading ‘IAEA OA-ICC Training Course on Ocean Acidification, 2-6 November 2015, Cape Town, South Africa’

Date & time: 25 August 2015, 12:00pm ET

Link for registration: http://bit.ly/1E2VRCs

Please join this discussion about ocean acidification and potential implications for fisheries in the Carolinas. Members of the shellfish industry, natural resource management, and ocean acidification and fisheries research fields will share their expertise and perspective during this virtual panel. Questions from the public will then be posed to the panelists and the panel will conclude with a discussion among panelists and those attending.

Please send any questions you have for the panelists to socan(at)secoora.org by Friday, 21 August 2015 with an email entitled “Carolinas Panel Question.”

Panelists:

• Industry Panelist- Bob Rheault, East Coast Shellfish Growers Association
• Natural Resource Management Panelist- Mel Bell, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
• Fisheries Science Panelist- James Morris, Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research
• Ocean Acidification Science Panelist- Erik Smith, North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve System

Continue reading ‘SOCAN webinar: “Science, industry, management: perception of ocean acidification and fisheries in the Carolinas Virtual Panel”, 25 August 2015’

Continue reading ‘SOCAN webinar: “Science, industry, management: perception of ocean acidification and fisheries in Georgia and Florida Virtual Panel, 18 August 2015’

Presented by Ruoying He, North Carolina State University

Date & time: Tuesday, 28 July 2015, 12:00pm ET

Abstract

Changing climate and rising atmospheric CO2 coupled with impacts of human activity, have the potential to dramatically alter coupled hydrologic-biogeochemical processes and associated movement of water, carbon, and nutrients through various terrestrial reservoirs. Such changes will result in dramatic alterations in terrestrial environments, biogeochemistry, and delivery of dissolved and particulate materials into rivers, estuaries, and coastal ocean waters. This may lead to vulnerabilities of coastal ecosystems to warming temperatures, stratification, altered freshwater and nutrient exports, eutrophication, hypoxia, and ocean acidification. Further, coastal and open ocean waters are impacted directly by increasing atmospheric CO2, compounding the effects. This presentation will describe a coupled physical-biogeochemical modeling effort that is aimed at stimulating and examining temporal and spatial variability of coastal circulation and biogeochemical cycling in the southeast U.S. coastal ocean and Gulf of Mexico. The model is driven by realistic atmospheric forcing, open boundary conditions from a data assimilative global ocean circulation model, and observed (or model predicted) freshwater and terrestrial nitrogen input from major rivers. Long-term model simulations were performed, and validated against in-situ and satellite observations. The ultimate goal is todevelop a regional impact assessment and predictive capabilities for coastal ocean ecosystems in the southeast U.S. and Gulf of Mexico to support decision making and management of the combined impacts of ocean acidification (OA), eutrophication, and hypoxia, and to offer a wider marine ecosystem context for carbonate system measurements and monitoring undertaken by NOAA and other agencies.

Continue reading ‘SOCAN webinar: “Modeling ocean circulation and biogeochemical variability in the Southeast U.S. coastal ocean and Gulf of Mexico”, 28 July 2015’

SOCAN Webinar, 14 July 2015, presented by Debra Hernandez, Southeast Coastal and Ocean Observing Regional Association (SECOORA), and Libby Jewett, NOAA Ocean Acidification Program

Continue reading ‘“Leveraging the IOOS Regional Associations to Achieve Ocean Acidification Program (OAP) Goals” (video & text)’

This webinar was organized by SOCAN on 30 June 2015. SOCAN is hosting a state-of-the-science webinar series on ocean acidification. The series will lay a foundation for the state of ocean acidification science in the Southeast region. These webinars are 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.

Presented by: J. Ruairidh Morrison, Northeast Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observation Systems; Todd Capson; Mel Cote, U.S. EPA; Dwight Gledhill, U.S. NOAA Ocean Acidification Program; Matt Liebman, U.S. EPA; Bill Mook, Mook Sea Farms; Joe Salisbury, University of New Hampshire; Esperanza Stancioff, University of Maine Sea Grant Extension; Cassie Stymiest, Northeast Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observation Systems; Helmuth Thomas, Dalhousie University; Elizabeth Turner, U.S. NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science.

Continue reading ‘The NECAN story – Linking Ocean and Coastal Acidification science to managers, policymakers, and coastal communities in the northeast United States and Canadian Maritimes (video)’

Date, time & location: 19 August 2015, 4 p.m., Bodega Marine Laboratory Lecture Hall, 2099 Westside Rd, Bodega Bay, CA 94923

Speaker: Rebecca Albright, Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Carnegie Institute for Science, Department of Global Ecology, Stanford

Host: T. Hill

More information.

The California Current Acidification Network (C-CAN) is a collaboration of interdisciplinary scientists, resource managers, industry and others from local, state, federal and tribal levels dedicated to advancing the understanding of ocean acidification and its effects on the biological resources of the US west coast.

Date & time: 27 May 2015, 3pm PDT (6pm EDT)

Presented by Nina Bednarsek, Washington Ocean Acidification Center, with perspective offered by Brad Warren of Global Ocean Health

Abstract

Pteropods are pelagic sea snails with aragonite shells. Numerous laboratory studies have shown that ocean acidification (OA) affects their vital biological functions in ways that can be quantified. Consequently, pteropods are a good candidate for use in water quality assessments pertaining to OA, for example those required under the U.S. Clean Water Act. The principal challenge in using pteropods for this purpose lies in connecting laboratory studies that show effects on individuals with population effects occurring in the natural environment. Nonetheless, several lines of evidence suggest that pteropods in natural settings are affected by exposure to OA, and that these effects encompass multiple levels of biological organization, ranging from physiological to individual, population, and community levels. These responses correspond to specific aragonite saturation states and are both quantifiable and repeatable, making pteropods a potential bioindicator of aragonite saturation state in the natural environment. Moreover, pteropods contribute up to 50-60% of the diet of fish species such as salmon, indicating their importance to the health of the broader biological community and adding to their potential use as an indicator in regulatory water quality assessment.

Continue reading ‘Webinar: C-CAN 2nd roundtable discussion “Using pteropods as a case study in water quality assessment”, 27 May 2015’

Presented by Dr Sue-Ann Watson, Research Associate at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University

Date & time: Tuesday, 12 May 2015, 11:30-12:30

Location: Building 19, Room #106, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia

Abstract

Global change, including ocean acidification and warming, poses a serious threat to marine life. Ocean chemistry is changing 100 times faster than any period in the last 650,000 years and the oceans are already 30 % more acidic than 250 years ago. The effects of ocean acidification include reductions in growth, and altered development and physiological processes in marine organisms. Marine invertebrates are fundamental to global ecosystem function and provide significant goods and services to human societies; however, they are particularly susceptible to ocean acidification, especially highly calcifying taxa such as molluscs, echinoderms and corals. I will present research on the effects of ocean acidification, warming and calcium carbonate saturation state on both calcifying and non-calcifying organisms including acute responses, transgenerational acclimation and potentially adaptive responses. I will also show that ocean acidification impairs marine invertebrate behaviour including essential predator-escape responses, and discuss potential mechanisms. This previously unrecognized impact of ocean acidification on invertebrate behaviour could have far-reaching consequences for ecological processes and ecosystem function. Determining the capacity for rapid acclimation and evolutionary adaptation in life-history, physiological and behavioural traits is now critical for predicting the future consequences of global change on marine organisms.

Continue reading ‘Lecture: “Responses of marine organisms to global change”, 12 May 2015, Townsville, Australia’

Presented by Lou Burnett, Grice Marine Laboratory, College of Charleston and the Hollings Marine Laboratory

Date & time: Tuesday, 2 June 2015, 12:00pm ET

Link to register: http://bit.ly/1c0PWRf 

Abstract

Animals living in coastal and estuarine waters along the southern coast of the United States experience dramatic changes in water chemistry and, in particular, they experience carbon dioxide levels far above those predicted in 2100 for the open ocean. This webinar will review the responses of select marine organisms to elevated CO2 showing some of the behavioral, immunological, and physiological responses. The changes organisms experience in CO2 can occur because of their behavior in addition to their habitat. Furthermore, CO2 in coastal waters is tightly linked to oxygen levels, such that during bouts of severe hypoxia waters become acidic. Organisms can adapt to hypoxia, but new evidence suggests that, at least in some crustaceans, adaptation to hypoxia is muted by elevated CO2.

Continue reading ‘Webinar: “Oceans Acidic and Low in Oxygen: Lessons from Estuarine Organism”, 2 June 2015’

Continue reading ‘SOCAN webinar: “Crumbling Coral: Cold-water Reefs in the Acidic Northeast Pacific and their Implications for Other Regions of the USA”, 5 May 2015’