a news stream provided by the Ocean Acidification International Coordination Center (OA-ICC)
There are vast unknowns about the future oceans, from what species or habitats may be most under threat to the continuity of earth system processes that maintain global climate. Modeling can be used to predict future states and explore the impacts of climate change, but several key uncertainties such as carbon-climate feedbacks hamper our predictive power.
Continue reading ‘Sensitivity of future ocean acidification to carbon-climate feedbacks’
The new edition of the “OA-ICC Highlights” summarizes the project’s main activities and achievements over the period January – March 2018. The content is structured around the three major areas of work of the OA-ICC: science, capacity building and communication. Links to the project’s main resources are also provided.
Continue reading ‘New edition of the “OA-ICC Highlights”, January – March 2018’
An updated version of the OA-ICC bibliographic database is available online.
The database currently contains more than 4600 references and includes citations, abstracts and assigned keywords. Updates are made every three months.
The database is available as a group on Mendeley. Subscribe online or, for a better user experience, download the Mendeley Desktop application and sync with the group Ocean Acidification (OA-ICC). Please see the “User instructions” for further details.
The Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) in partnership with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO), the IAEA Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre (OA-ICC) and the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON), is calling for proposals for establishing ocean acidification observation systems in the field, investigating biological response to ocean acidification stress using experimental set-ups in the laboratory, or a combination of both from institutions in the WIO region.
Deadline for completion of online survey: 19 May 2018
Submission of proposals: 26 May 2018
Lauren Bell is a PhD student at University of California Santa Cruz, studying algal communities’ responses to ocean acidification and warming. Originally from Homer, she completed her Masters degree in Sitka through UAF and has served as a research biologist at the Sitka Sound Science Center.
Continue reading ‘Alaska Ocean Acidification Network- Scientist interview: Lauren Bell’
Coral reefs are threatened by ocean warming and acidification. Researchers at the IAEA Environment Laboratories in Monaco study the effects of ocean acidification and other environmental stressors on marine organisms. (Photo: D. Calma/IAEA)
Scientists, policy-makers and representatives from the aquaculture sector came together last week in the first regional Latin American meeting of the Ocean Acidification international Reference User Group (OAiRUG) to develop an action plan to better understand and address ocean acidification.
Co-organised by the IAEA through the Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre (OA-ICC), the high-level meeting at Invemar in Santa Marta, Colombia from 19-21 March 2018, included an official address by HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco.
Deadline: 20 April 2018
The Ocean Foundation is seeking multi-year proposals under the Ocean Acidification
Monitoring and Mitigation project for blue carbon restoration (seagrass, mangrove,
or salt marsh) in the Pacific Islands. The Ocean Foundation will fund ONE proposal
for the region with a budget not to exceed $90,000 US. The Ocean Foundation is
soliciting multiple proposals which will then be reviewed by an expert panel for
selection. Projects must be focused in one of the following four countries: Fiji,
Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea or Palau and must be coordinated with ocean
acidification monitoring projects recently funded in these same countries by The
Ocean Foundation. Proposals are due by April 20th, 2018. Decisions will be
communicated by May 18th, 2018 for work to commence no later than December
2018.
Continue reading ‘Request for proposal: blue carbon restoration project (The Ocean Foundation)’
There are areas in the United States where marine resources and the communities and industries that depend on them are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of ocean acidification. In three US regions, our understanding of vulnerability is being advanced by coupling ocean and social science data to equip communities and industries with the information needed to evaluate, anticipate, and adapt to ocean acidification.
Continue reading ‘Assess, anticipate, adapt: vulnerability and responses to ocean acidification’
(Information on the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Program’s ocean acidification work starts at ca. 7 minutes.)
Sponsored by NASA and NSF, the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) program was established in 2006 to coordinate and facilitate activities relevant to carbon cycle science, climate, and global change issues. The scientific mission of OCB is to study the evolving role of the ocean in the global carbon cycle, in the face of environmental variability and change through studies of marine biogeochemical cycles and associated ecosystems.
Continue reading ‘The Ocean Carbon & Geochemistry Program (video)’
Dr. Katja Mintenbeck, marine biologist at Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, conducted a meta analysis as part of BIOACID. Results from more than 500 studies about effects of ocean acidification and warming were entered in a data base and analysed in relation to various research questions.
Continue reading ‘BIOACID Science Portrait: Katja Mintenbeck (video, in German; English subtitles)’
Prof. Hans-Otto Pörtner, marine biologist at Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, is both co-coordinator of BIOACID and co-chair of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Continue reading ‘BIOACID Science Portrait: Hans-Otto Pörtner (video, in German; English subtitles)’
The jurist, philosopher and sociologist Prof. Felix Ekardt is founder and director of the Research Unit Sustainability and Climate Policy and external professor for public law and legal philosophy at Rostock University.
Continue reading ‘BIOACID Science Portrait: Felix Ekardt (video, in German; English subtitles)’
When picturing Santa Monica, what comes to mind first and foremost is the ocean – shops, the ferris wheel, the pier – but mostly the ocean. However, what doesn’t usually come to mind is the toll ocean acidification is taking on the marine life and biodiversity just off our shores. The ocean acts as a carbon sink, absorbing a quarter to a third of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. As humans continue to emit increasing amounts of carbon dioxide, more and more is absorbed into the ocean. Absorbing this carbon dioxide lowers the seawater’s pH and increases the ocean’s acidity. These seemingly slight changes to the chemistry of our oceans threaten to disrupt the delicate balance of ocean life, resulting in habitat destruction and marine life loss. Ocean acidification is a silent, destructive force and eye grabbing headlines about its impacts usually come too late. One of the most tragic examples of this is the death of large sections of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, which is largely due to warming temperatures and increasing acidity. Unfortunately though, ocean acidification affects us here at home as well. We hope to gather data to curb acidification before it becomes too late.
Continue reading ‘Turning the tides: Santa Monica Bay ocean acidification project’
In the framework of the project CARIOCA (Coral reef acclimatization to ocean acidification at CO2 seeps) funded by the French National Agency ANR, Riccardo Rodolfo-Metalpa and the team IRD Entropie investigated a new promising CO2 vents system located in Papua New Guinea.
Als „das andere Kohlendioxid-Problem“, als „böser kleiner Bruder der Erwärmung“ und, zusammen mit Temperaturanstieg und Sauerstoffverlust, als Teileines „tödlichen Trios“ ist die Ozeanversauerung bekannt geworden – eine chemische Veränderung, die ausgelöst wird, wenn sich Kohlendioxid (CO2) aus der Atmosphäre im Meerwasser löst. Einerseits bremst die CO2-Aufnahme den globalen Klimawandel. Andererseits beeinflusst sie das Leben und die Stoffkreisläufe im Ozean – mit Folgen für alle, die von ihm abhängen.
Der deutsche Forschungsverbund BIOACID – Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification (Biologische Auswirkungen von Ozeanversauerung) untersuchte von 2009 bis 2017, wie marine Lebensgemeinschaften auf Ozeanversauerung reagieren und welche Konsequenzen dies für das Nahrungs – netz und die Stoff- und Energieumsätze im Meer sowie schließlich auch für die Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft hat. An dem Projekt, das am GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozean forschung Kiel koordiniert wurde, beteiligten sich mehr als 250 Forschende verschiedener meereswissen – schaftlicher Disziplinen aus 20 deutschen Instituten. Mit rund 580 fachlich begutachteten Publikationen trug BIOACID maßgeblich zum internationalen wissenschaftlichen Diskurs bei. Das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung unter stützte das Projekt über drei Förderphasen mit insgesamt 22 Millionen Euro.
“The other carbon dioxide problem”, “the evil twin of global warming”, or part of a “deadly trio”, together with increasing temperatures and loss of oxygen: Many names have been coined to describe the problem of ocean acidification – a change in the ocean chemistry that occurs when carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere dissolves in seawater. On the one hand, the ocean’s CO2 uptake slows down global climate change. On the other, this absorption affects the life and material cycles of the ocean – and all those who depend on it.
Between 2009 and 2017, the German research network BIOACID (Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification) investigated how different marine species respond to ocean acidification, how these reactions impact the food web as
well as material cycles and energy turnover in the ocean, and what consequences these changes have for economy and society.
Continue reading ‘Exploring ocean change: BIOACID – Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification’
The Fourth WESTPAC Workshop on Research and Monitoring of the Ecological Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Coral Reef Ecosystems will take place in Phuket, Thailand, on 14–15 December 2017. Hosted by the Phuket Marine Biological Center, this workshop is being planned as a follow-up to the previous three workshops (19-21 January 2015, 26-28 August 2015 and 29-31 August 2016, respectively).
Through the previous three regional workshops, participants shared and reviewed various ocean acidification monitoring and research approaches, methods and techniques; committed themselves to developing a joint long-term programme monitoring the ecological impacts of ocean acidification on coral reefs in the region. Moreover, ocean acidification pilot sites were identified at the first workshop with a view to analyzing their current monitoring capacity, identifying common monitoring methods, and developing a set of consistent, comparable and cost-effective “Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)” for all pilot sites to monitor the ecological impact of ocean acidification on coral reefs.
SUMMARY
• The factors that determine climate are complex. Oceans store about one quarter of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted through human activities, and play an important role in limiting impacts of climate change.
• Increasing carbon emissions and rising temperatures are disrupting oceanic processes,
with potentially major consequences for marine ecosystems, the global climate, shoreline protection and coastal industries such as fisheries and tourism.
• In order to understand and anticipate potential changes in the climate, it is important to understand the processes involved in the global carbon cycle.
• Increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere cause global warming leading to ocean temperature increase, but also ocean acidification, sometimes referred to as ‘the other CO2 problem’ alongside climate change.
• The IAEA supports Member States in using radioisotopes to understand the ocean carbon cycle and the ways ocean acidification can affect the marine environment and critical ecosystem services.
The Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Program is soliciting proposals for OCB activities that will take place during the 2018 calendar year. OCB seeks proposals for scoping workshops and smaller group activities in OCB-relevant research areas, including ocean acidification.
New research under the joint NCCOS Competitive Research Program and NOAA Ocean Acidification Program finds the combined effects of anthropogenic and biological carbon dioxide (CO2) inputs may lead to more rapid acidification in Chesapeake Bay and other coastal water compared to the open ocean. The results indicate that eutrophication can exacerbate ocean acidification (OA) where animal and plant respiration contributes a far greater acidification in the coastal oceans relative to the open ocean.
The study, led by Dr. Wei-Jun Cai of the University of Delaware, is part of a NCCOS-sponsored project team studying interactions between OA and eutrophication in estuaries. “The study shows for the first time that the oxidation of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia from the bottom waters could be a major contributor to lower pH in coastal oceans and may lead to more rapid acidification in coastal waters compared to the open ocean” says Dr. Cai, in the online University of Delaware’s UDaily. Increased acidification can dissolve the calcium carbonate in the shells of valuable clams, oysters, and certain plankton and lead to poor acid buffering capacity of the water.
Continue reading ‘Ocean acidification more rapid in coastal oceans’
