a news stream provided by the Ocean Acidification International Coordination Center (OA-ICC)
The ocean is getting more and more acidic. Can we solve it by emptying a giant bottle of antacid into the ocean? No… but the idea of lowering the ocean’s acidity in order to decrease global carbon dioxide levels isn’t all bad. Let’s dive into the science behind ocean alkalinization, and how it could be one part of a larger solution to our global climate crisis.
Can planktonic pteropods with thin shells, an important bioindicator, protect themselves against ocean acidification?
Watch the latest Hidden Gems from ICES Journal of Marine Science to learn more about adaptive strategies in marine ecosystems.
Evidence for an effective defence against ocean acidification in the key bioindicator pteropod https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsad059 ; M. R. Miller, R. L. Oakes, P. A., D. Ianson, J. F. Dower
Continue reading ‘Hidden gems – mechanisms of resistance: pteropod shell protection against ocean acidification (video)’
This new edition of the OA-ICC Highlights covers the main activities and events taken up by the project from the end of last year up until May of 2024. Including a virtual symposium during GOA-ON’s OA week 2023, the second edition of the GOOD-OARS-CLAP-COPAS International Summer School in Chile, a Workshop on Communicating Ocean Acidification in Costa Rica, the final meeting of a coordinated research project on “Evaluating the Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Seafood – A Global Approach”, the OA-ICC’s contribution to COP28 in Dubai, the OA-ICC’s contributions to multiple Monaco Ocean Week 2024 events, and finally the OA-ICC’s contributions to the UN Ocean Decade Conference in Barcelona. This edition also includes changes in OA-ICC staff as well as the upcoming OA-ICC events for 2024.
Previous editions of the “OA-ICC Highlights” can be viewed here.
OA-ICC, 3 July 2024. Newsletter.
Objective 2: Reduce threats from impacts of climate change, ocean acidification, overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution Climate change, ocean acidification, and pollution such as marine debris and toxic pollution have far-reaching and interconnected impacts on ocean ecosystems. Rising sea levels and warming waters, compounded by the effects of nutrient run-off, plastic pollution, and other stressors, threaten marine habitats and the economies they support. Investments in research, monitoring, observation, and international cooperation will facilitate science-based decision-making to address the individual and synergistic effects of threats such as hypoxia, marine debris, harmful algal blooms (HABs), and underwater noise pollution. Key Opportunities for Action:
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US Ocean Policy Committee, 2024. National strategy for a sustainable ocean economy. Article.
Ahead of World Oceans Day 2024 on June 8, the Center for the Blue Economy in partnership with more than 60 marine and environmental organizations released a report highlighting the Biden Administration’s leadership on ocean climate action and key next steps.
The progress report, entitled “Turning the Tide: Biden Administration Leadership on Ocean Climate Action & Recommended Next Steps,” urges action in 10 key areas:
Continue reading ‘Turning the tide: ocean climate action next steps’The UNESCO State of the Ocean Report offers insights on ocean-related scientific activities and analyses describing the current and future state of the ocean.
Discover the State of the Ocean Report 2024
The State of the Ocean Report has the ambition to inform policymakers about the state of the ocean and to stimulate research and policy actions towards ‘the ocean we need for the future we want’, contributing to the 2030 Agenda and in particular SDG 14, as well as other global processes such as the UNFCCC, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Structured around the seven UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development Outcomes, the Report provides important information about the achievement of the UN Ocean Decade objectives and, in the longer term, about ocean well-being.
More than 100 authors from 28 countries contributed to the Report. The different sections provide insights on ocean-related scientific activities and analyses describing the current and future state of the ocean, addressing physical, chemical, ecological, socio-economic and governance aspects.
Continue reading ‘State of the Ocean Report 2024’In 2024, the World Ocean Summit returned to Lisbon for its 11th year, bringing together a cross-section of global stakeholders to discuss how to continue building an ocean economy that supports conservation and sustainable use of the marine environment. Our summary report crystallises the key insights from panel sessions supported by Back to Blue, an ocean initiative led by Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation. These sessions looked at the rise and impact of ocean acidification, and the most promising means to combat the crisis, and looked ahead to the next phase of “A Global Ocean Free from the Harmful Impacts of Pollution: Roadmap for Action”, an ambitious vision set out by the Back to Blue initiative.
Our summary report crystallises the key insights from panel sessions supported by Back to Blue, an ocean initiative led by Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation.
Continue reading ‘Ocean acidification: a roadmap for progress at the World Ocean Summit’This is a survey tailored by members of the OA Med-Hub steering committee and endorsed by IMBeR on the Climate Intervention Challenge.
We would appreciate that you participate in this survey and to also disseminate it/sharing this newsletter within your network, not only with scientists but also with stakeholders, policymakers and all key actors you think might be relevant to the application of mCDR in the Mediterranean region. The implementation of the marine Carbon Dioxide Removal techniques (mCDR) requires the use of a comprehensive and interdisciplinary combination of different disciplines, as well as the identification of urgent knowledge gaps with the intent to provide clear recommendations/road map for future initiatives that might be applied in the Mediterranean basin.
Under mCDR, we can cite the following mitigation strategies: Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE), adaptation strategies such as Blue Carbon Ecosystem habitat and protection, restoration or recovery (ecosystem-based solutions), ocean nutrient fertilization, electrochemical engineering approaches, and artificial marine upwelling and downwelling. For a more detailed description, NASEM, 2022.
The interdisciplinarity of mCDR involves integrative, multipronged approaches tackling the following aspects: climate projections, biogeochemistry, biological risks assessment, socio-economics, policy and legal backgrounds framed into the governance framework.
The objective of this survey is to conduct a gap analysis to identify all the steps needed to consider potential implementation of mCDR efforts in the Mediterranean region.
Continue reading ‘Survey: marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) in the Mediterranean region’Valenti Sallares, director of the Spanish National Research Council’s Institute of Marine Sciences, explains to us how acidification is impacting our oceans.
Continue reading ‘Understanding how acidification impacts the ocean (video)’The ocean is getting more and more acidic. Can we solve it by emptying a giant bottle of antacid into the ocean? No… but the idea of lowering the ocean’s acidity in order to decrease global carbon dioxide levels isn’t all bad. Let’s dive into the science behind ocean alkalinization, and how it could be one part of a larger solution to our global climate crisis.
