Ocean Acidification

OA Week 2021, Plenary Session 1

GOA-ON Goal #1 – Improve our understanding of global OA conditions

Dr. Richard Feely, Senior Scientist, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, USA

Description:

The ocean’s chemistry is changing due to the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. Over the course of the last 270 years, the global oceans have absorbed approximately160 ± 20 Pg C as carbon dioxide (CO2), which is roughly 25-32% of the total CO2 that has been released into the atmosphere by the combined effects of human activities. Upon exchanging with seawater at the air-sea interface, CO2 undergoes a chemical reaction with seawater to form carbonic acid which increases the hydrogen ion concentration of seawater in a process known as ocean acidification (OA). Since the late 1980s, surface ocean pH has decreased by a range of -0.07 to – 0.17 per decade, with measurable regional trends. The decline in pH generally decreases with depth within the ocean interior but temporal changes in acidification can be observed to depths as much as 2000 m below the surface. Current projections indicate that by 2100 the pH of the surface water is expected decrease by as much as -0.38 with substantial regional variations under the RCP8.5 CO2 emission scenario. Over this the century, it is anticipated that the seasonal amplitude of the H+ concentration will increase by as much as 80% under the same scenario.

Ocean Acidification Week 2021 was sponsored by the following organizations:

(1) GOA-ON, the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network,

(2) NOAA, the United States National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration,

(3) IAEA OA-ICC, the International Atomic Energy Agency – Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre, and

(4) IOC-UNESCO – the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

For more information, please visit www.goa-on.org

OA Week 2021, Plenary Session 1 GOA-ON Goal #1 – Improve our understanding of global OA conditions

Dr. Kim Currie, Marine Chemist, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), New Zealand

Description:

The recent IPCC AR6 report stated that changes to the ocean including ocean acidification are clearly linked to human activity. A decline in pH has been observed in all ocean basins, and ocean acidification is virtually certain. In the New Zealand region of the South Pacific Ocean, as in other regions, the pH is predicted, with high certainty, to continue to decline. The IPCC is able to make these statements with the associated high level of confidence because of the meticulous ocean carbon chemistry measurements made by scientists from many countries over many years. However, establishing such trends with high certainty in coastal locations is more difficult because the scale of variability is high, and the time of emergence of any long -term trend is long. Many countries do not have the resources or expertise needed to start and maintain the long term observations needed to directly quantify any change in the coastal carbon chemistry due to anthropogenic drivers. GOA-ON is directly involved in addressing this, providing resources, protocols and training to enable equitable participation for countries to monitor the OA status of their own coastal environments. New Zealand, like many countries, has begun this process of establishing current day conditions with the aim of documenting the changing OA condition of our coastal waters over the long-term. The New Zealand Ocean Acidification Observing Network (NZOA-ON) collaborates with a variety of stakeholders and local communities to inform management of our coastal ecosystems.

Ocean Acidification Week 2021 was sponsored by the following organizations:

(1) GOA-ON, the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network,

(2) NOAA, the United States National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration,

(3) IAEA OA-ICC, the International Atomic Energy Agency – Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre, and

(4) IOC-UNESCO – the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

For more information, please visit www.goa-on.org

OA Week 2021, Ocean Acidification Research for Sustainability (OARS) Overview and Community Discussion

Healing the Ocean, Restoring the Ocean

Ambassador Peter Thomson, The UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean

Ocean Acidification Week 2021 was sponsored by the following organizations:

(1) GOA-ON, the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network,

(2) NOAA, the United States National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration,

(3) IAEA OA-ICC, the International Atomic Energy Agency – Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre, and (4) IOC-UNESCO – the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

For more information, please visit www.goa-on.org

OA Week 2021, REMARCO regional observatory takes up the challenge: reporting marine acidity in Latin America and the Caribbean

Description:

The Marine-Coastal Stressors Research Network in Latin America and the Caribbean (REMARCO) is made up of institutions from 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries, participating in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) technical cooperation project RLA/7/025 for the strengthening of coastal marine research. The project currently includes research on aspects of harmful algal blooms, eutrophication, microplastics and ocean acidification with the aim of communicating with the different actors and generating tools for decision-makers.

The main objective of the acidification component is to build capacity in the region to measure ocean acidity and report on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 14.3.1 (pH).

To achieve this objective, the following activities are being carried out:

• Forming a working team with researchers from the 18 REMARCO countries.

• Identify the needs in the region that to date did not allow the indicator to be reported and a REMARCO plan to close the gaps.

• Establish agreements between those responsible for national reporting of the indicator and REMARCO.

• Establish a regional observatory to generate local and regional data of global interest.

• Develop standardized protocols for sampling, measurement and uncertainty estimation of total alkalinity, pHT and dissolved inorganic carbon.

• Conduct (virtual) training courses for analysts and indicator reporters.

• Deliver kits of equipment, materials and reagents for indicator reporting with the required quality.

• Strengthen regional capacities to purify m-cresol and develop working standards.

• Report indicator 14.3.1 (3 countries by 2020).

A “round table” will be held with representatives of the ocean acidification component from different REMARCO countries (Spanish, English and Portuguese languages) and a representative of IAEA. The representatives will make 5 min interventions and after each presentation a question and answer session will be opened for discussion with the audience (each question will be answered in the language in which the question is generated).

Ocean Acidification Week 2021 was sponsored by the following organizations:

(1) GOA-ON, the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network,

(2) NOAA, the United States National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration,

(3) IAEA OA-ICC, the International Atomic Energy Agency – Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre, and

(4) IOC-UNESCO – the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

For more information, please visit www.goa-on.org.

OA Week 2021, Ocean Acidification Research for Sustainability (OARS) Overview and Community Discussion

Dr. Steve Widdicombe & Dr. Jan Newton, Co-chairs of GOA-ON

Ocean Acidification Week 2021 was sponsored by the following organizations:

(1) GOA-ON, the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network,

(2) NOAA, the United States National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration,

(3) IAEA OA-ICC, the International Atomic Energy Agency – Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre, and

(4) IOC-UNESCO – the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

For more information about GOA-ON, please visit http://www.goa-on.org

For more information about OARS, please visit http://www.goa-on.org/oars/overview.php

OA Week 2021, LAOCA (Latin America & Caribbean) Hub Session

Dr. Paulo Horta, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil

Description: Brazil’s Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) extends from 5o N to 33o S along more than 8,000 km and corresponds to 3.5 million km². This huge marine area is also called the “Blue Amazon”; it is rich in biodiversity, fisheries resources, growing aquaculture, and key ecosystems such as mangroves, coral reefs, seamounts, seagrass meadows, rhodolith beds provide services such as shore protection, carbonate deposits and atmospheric CO2 sink. The Brazilian Ocean Acidification Network (BrOA; www.broa.furg.br) comprises 41 associated researchers from 9 Brazilian institutions, distributed along almost all country regions. The network has been working on local monitoring in LTER programs, regional ocean observational initiatives, experimental and modelling efforts to investigate trends and impacts of OA in the western South Atlantic Ocean (WSAO). Besides important advances with some isolated monitoring programs and experimental facilities, Brazil still experiences knowledge gaps, infrastructure deficiencies, and other OA-related issues in the WSAO. This presentation outlines the main BrOA network results and advances in the last 10 years, as well as our challenges facing marine ecosystem management in Brazil’s EEZ through the UN Ocean Decade and under a climate change scenario and a hostile government environmental agenda.

Ocean Acidification Week 2021 was sponsored by the following organizations:

(1) GOA-ON, the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network,

(2) NOAA, the United States National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration,

(3) IAEA OA-ICC, the International Atomic Energy Agency – Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre, and

(4) IOC-UNESCO – the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

For more information, please visit www.goa-on.org

OA Week 2021, LAOCA (Latin America & Caribbean) Hub ​Session

Dr. Leticia Espinosa Carreón, Instituto Politécnico Nacional – CIIDIR Sinaloa, Mexico

Description: With the support of the Secretariat of the Navy, Mexican Navy (SEMAR) and the National Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (INAPESCA), it has participated in 13 oceanographic cruises from Tijuana, BC, to Chiapas, covering the entire Mexican Pacific since 2016 to 2021. Six students are developing their Master of Science and PhD thesis. Some of the results obtained are presented. In 2016, CO2 sequestration was recorded in five of six areas of the Gulf of California. In the tropical Pacific zone, it was registered in April 2017 as a source of CO2, while, in the same region, in April 2018, a sink. In the Baja California Sur region in 2019, the relationship between DIC and water masses was presented. In Baja California and Baja California Sur, a latitudinal transect shows the sinking of the isotherms and the influence of the water of the California Current from north to south, as well as the latitudinal variation of some species of coccolithophores.

Ocean Acidification Week 2021 was sponsored by the following organizations:

(1) GOA-ON, the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network,

(2) NOAA, the United States National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration,

(3) IAEA OA-ICC, the International Atomic Energy Agency – Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre, and

(4) IOC-UNESCO – the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

For more information, please visit www.goa-on.org