The Gulf of Guinea (GoG) is host to many distinct ecosystems, among which is the Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem extending from the intense upwelling area of the Guinea Current in the north to the Benguela Current in the south. The GoG region is however, characterized by a high poverty rate within fishing communities, with an average daily income of USD 6.1 for over 610,000 artisanal fishers (IDAF, 1997), with the situation getting worse in recent times due to continual decline in fish landings. Dotted along the relatively wide continental shelf of the GoG are several lagoonal/estuarine systems including adjacent coastal marine waters that provide livelihood benefits i.e., nutrition and jobs to deprived communities living around them. The productive waters of the GoG support shellfish (oysters, mussels, clams, crabs etc.) and a diverse finfish fishery which provide significant livelihood income to coastal communities in countries such as Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria etc. Climate change in West Africa is characterized by increasing temperatures, changing ocean pH, erratic rainfall patterns and an increase in the number of extreme events. Changing ocean pH coupled with other climate and non-climate stressors such as pollution and overfishing present huge threats to the future of the fishery and other marine resources in the region. A lack of skills in the measurement of ocean acidification (OA) hinders ocean observation which puts the fishery and other marine biological resources in the GoG at a greater risk. This deficit in ocean acidification measurement skills forestalls our understanding of species vulnerability to changing pH. The BIOTTA working group will equip graduate students, early career ocean scientists and other marine science professionals in the GoG region with skills on sustainable OA data acquisition to expand our understanding of the threats, risks and impacts to marine ecosystems and chart pathways for sustainable management of marine resources at risk to OA in the GoG region.
Archive for the 'Projects' Category
Building CapacIty in Ocean AcidificaTion MoniToring in the Gulf of GuineA (BIOTTA)
Published 12 August 2020 Projects Leave a CommentVideo: What is the global community doing to address ocean acidification?
Published 9 July 2020 Projects Leave a CommentSOCAT version 2020 was released on the 16th of June 2020, containing data submitted on or before 15th of January 2020. Data submissions for the next version are welcome at any time, and will be included in the next SOCAT release in 2021.
SOCAT version 2020 contains 28.2 million in situ surface ocean fCO2 (fugacity of CO2) measurements for the global ocean and coastal seas with an accuracy < 5 μatm, while a further 2.3 million fCO2 values with an accuracy of 5 to 10 μatm are made available separately. The Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (www.socat.info) documents the increase in surface ocean CO2 (carbon dioxide), a critical measure as the oceans are taking up one quarter of the global CO2 emissions from human activity. The SOCAT community-led synthesis product is a key step in the value chain based on in situ inorganic carbon measurements of the oceans, which provides policy makers with essential information on ocean CO2 uptake in climate negotiations. The global need for accurate knowledge of ocean CO2 uptake and its variation makes sustained funding for in situ surface ocean CO2 observations imperative. The annual SOCAT release is a Voluntary Commitment for SDG 14.3 (#OceanAction20464) and contributes to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
Survey on ocean acidification impacts on coral reefs (in French)
Published 25 March 2020 Projects Leave a CommentLes récifs coralliens sont réputés pour leurs magnifiques paysages sous-marins colorés, mais ce sont des écosystèmes lointains pour une grande partie d’entre nous. Nous avons besoin de protéger ces écosystèmes exceptionnels et pour cela nous souhaitons faire un bilan sur l’état des connaissances sur les récifs coralliens. Aidez-nous en remplissant ce questionnaire.
Ce court sondage ne vous prendra pas plus de 10 minutes. Bien évidemment, vos réponses resteront totalement anonymes. Nous vous remercions par avance pour votre précieuse contribution !
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Call for manuscripts: Microbial response to a rapidly changing marine environment: global warming and ocean acidification
Published 19 March 2020 Projects , Science Leave a CommentSubmission Deadlines
30 June 2020: Abstract
31 October 2020: Manuscript
About this Research Topic
Under the global climate change, the world’s oceans are warming more quickly than previously thought. The ocean warming could lead to remarkable changes in marine environments, such as ocean deoxygenation, acidification, and sea ice melting. Marine ecosystems are undergoing significant changes due to the current environmental changes caused by a rapidly warming ocean.
Microbial communities are diverse and productive assemblages, including phytoplankton, protists, and the two main groups of prokaryotes (Bacteria and Archaea). Since they drive major biogeochemical cycles and support higher food-webs globally, microbes are a vital component of the marine ecosystem. Moreover, microbes can be an important indicator for the environmental changes, because physiological and ecological alterations in microbial communities can herald changes not only in pathways of energy transfer through food-web but also in biogeochemical cycles. Considering the microbial communities’ pivotal roles in ongoing climate change, it is important to understand which current changes in microbial communities have occurred to date and which future changes might arise under ongoing environmental forcing of the warming ocean.
NOAA graduate research fellowship in ocean, coastal, and estuarine acidification
Published 10 March 2020 Projects Leave a CommentThe Louisiana and Texas Sea Grant Programs, in partnership with the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program (OAP), are pleased to announce the availability of Ocean Acidification Graduate Research Fellowships for the two-year period covering the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 academic years. The fellowship provides a total award of $46,000 per year for two years.
The fellowship is open to full-time graduate students at any academic institution in Louisiana and Texas who are engaged in coastal and marine research relevant to regional ocean, coastal, and estuarine acidification. In addition to supporting the student’s academic expenses, the fellowship will provide additional professional development opportunities throughout its duration, focusing on science communication, management application, outreach, and other Sea Grant and OAP activities and mission priorities.
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Call for proposals: Ocean Acidification Information Exchange microgrants
Published 11 December 2019 Program , Projects Leave a CommentBackground:
The mission of the Ocean Acidification Information Exchange is to respond and adapt to ocean and coastal acidification by fostering an online environment built on trust, where our members, regardless of background, feel empowered to ask, answer, and learn from one another. By promoting the collegial exchange of information across disciplines and geographical boundaries, our goal is to facilitate the creation of more holistic, effective response strategies and share lessons learned. To that end, we are offering grants for members of the site who propose innovative strategies for leveraging the OA Information Exchange’s collaboration tools to advance our community’s mission, facilitate their own work related to ocean and coastal acidification and expand the reach/utility of the OA Information Exchange.
Project Ideas:
These are provided as examples of projects that would likely receive funding based on the criteria of this RFP.
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The US announces continued support to the IAEA Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre (OA-ICC) at 2019 Our Oceans Conference
Published 25 October 2019 Projects Leave a CommentThe United States announced USD 316,830 to two Nuclear Sciences and Applications projects through the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Peaceful Uses Initiative. The contributions include USD 251,670 to the Ocean Acidification International Coordination Center (OA-ICC) located at the Environment Laboratories in Monaco. The OA-ICC works to promote, facilitate, and communicate global activities on ocean acidification and serves as a hub to bring together scientists, policy makers, media, schools, the general public, and other ocean acidification stakeholders. Since 2010, the United States has allocated a total of more than USD 3.4 million to the OA-ICC. The United States also announced a contribution of USD 65,160 to a continuing IAEA project, “Marine Plastics: Tackling the Challenge Using Nuclear Applications.” This project seeks to develop and apply radio-labelling techniques to assess how marine microplastic particles and their associated adsorbed organic pollutants are bioaccumulated in marine organisms, and evaluate effects to organisms. Since 2010 the United States has allocated over USD 620,000 to this project.
Request review of manual for real-time quality control of pH data observations: a guide to quality control and quality assurance for pH observations
Published 5 July 2019 Projects , Science Leave a CommentThe U.S. IOOS QARTOD project (https://ioos.noaa.gov/project/qartod/) has initiated the development of a Manual for Real-Time Quality Control of pH Data Observations: A Guide to Quality Control and Quality Assurance for pH Observations in Coastal Oceans. The manual builds upon the existing twelve QARTOD manuals and the generous support from hundreds of contributors. They are unique in their focus on real-time QC, and are produced through an expanding series of reviews which ultimately result in a document that reflects present community thinking. They are living manuals, that are maintained and updated to ensure they remain accurate and relevant.
SOCAT version 2019 was released on the 18th of June 2019, containing data submitted on or before 15th of January 2019. New data submissions are welcome at any time, and will be included in the next SOCAT release.
SOCAT data are released in versions. Each succeeding version contains new data sets as well as updates of older ones. The first version of SOCAT was released in 2011, the second and third version followed biennially. Automation allowed annual public releases since version 4. The latest SOCAT version (version 2019) has 25.7 million observations from 1957 to 2019 for the global oceans and coastal seas. Calibrated sensor data are also available.
EPOCA
BIOACID
UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme
MedSeA project
xFOCE
eFOCE