The Port of Seattle is leading many efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG emissions), the most important step towards combatting ocean acidification. The Port has been very active in enhancing shoreline habitat, reducing pollution, and engagement with communities. At Smith Cove in Elliott Bay, the Port of Seattle and its partners are conducting scientific research that will contribute to building resiliency in local ecosystems related to ocean acidification.   

As part of the Port of Seattle’s commitment to the International Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification (OA Alliance), the Port prepared its first ever Ocean Acidification Action Plan to detail steps we are taking to address ocean acidification.

“Last year, the Port of Seattle was the first port in the world to join the International Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification (OA Alliance), recognizing the many ways in which ocean acidification impacts the maritime sector and acknowledging the important role ports can play in leading environmental action,” said Stephanie Bowman, Port of Seattle Commissioner. “We encourage other ports to join in on these efforts.”

The Smith Cove Blue Carbon Pilot Project is located on Port and City-owned aquatic lands near Terminal 91. The goal of the project is to evaluate the potential benefits of marine habitat enhancement of kelp, eelgrass, and oysters on carbon sequestration, water quality (amelioration of seawater acidification), and habitat productivity.

Read More “Port continues fight against ocean acidification” »

When the state issued its budget for the coming year, it contained more than $61 million for projects and programs at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla.

The funds include $35 million to design and build a new coastal research vessel with a first-of-its-kind hydrogen-hybrid propulsion system, $15 million for the ALERTWildfire program to install 1,000 cameras, $10 million toward the state Department of Water Resources atmospheric rivers research program and $1.5 million for the state Parks and Recreation Department oceanography program to support observations maintained by the Coastal Data Information Program at Scripps.

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Research vessel

Margaret Leinen, vice chancellor for marine sciences at UC San Diego and director of Scripps Oceanography, said the largest expenditure — the yet-to-be-named research vessel — would replace the RV Robert Gordon Sproul, which has been in use since 1981, and will join the SIO fleet.

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The expeditions the vessels undertake “are keys to solving problems as well as just understanding them, really providing the solutions we so desperately need today,” Leinen said. They include studies of ocean acidification, marine fisheries, El Niño storms, harmful algae blooms, sea-level rise, atmospheric rivers and more.

The new vessel, by running largely on hydrogen, “will allow us to observe our rapidly changing coastal environment and protect that environment by not emitting CO2,” she said.

Read More “State allocates $61 million for Scripps Oceanography programs” »

Oceanic measurements collected during a scientific cruise on NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown last week confirmed that a large area of poorly oxygenated water is growing off the coast of Washington and Oregon. 

Oxygen-depleted bottom waters occur seasonally along the continental shelf of Washington and Oregon when strong winds blowing along the coast in spring and summer trigger upwellings that bring deep, cold, nutrient-rich water to the surface. These waters fuel blooms of plankton that feed small animals like krill, which are food for many marine creatures. When these blooms die off, they sink to the bottom, where their decomposition consumes oxygen, leaving less for organisms such as crabs and bottom-dwelling fish.

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Earliest onset in 35 years

“Low dissolved oxygen levels have become the norm ion the Pacific Northwest coast, but this event started much earlier than we’ve seen in our records,” said Oregon State University Professor Francis Chan, director of the NOAA cooperative institute CIMERS. “This is the earliest start to the upwelling season in 35 years.” Typically, hypoxic conditions don’t appear until  late June or early July, he said.  

Read More “Low-oxygen waters off Washington, Oregon coasts risk becoming large ‘dead zones’” »

On June 13, scientists aboard the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown set out on the West Coast Ocean Acidification Research Cruise to characterize conditions along the West Coast of North America and continue to build a unique time-series of carbon and hydrographic measurements in areas expected to be highly impacted by ocean acidification. Scientists have been collecting samples from CTDs, collecting plankton and water samples for genomics analysis, and conducting the first systematic regional survey of methane gas coming out of the thousands of seeps along the west coast.

The California Current System, running along the North American west coast from British Columbia to Baja California, is a region where seasonal upwelling brings nutrient- and carbon dioxide-rich and oxygen-poor waters to the surface. Increasing levels of carbon dioxide from upwelling and anthropogenic emissions, cause a series of chemical reactions that are ultimately increasing acidity in these waters. Because it is an area with high rates of primary production by phytoplankton, air-sea carbon dioxide exchange, and carbon export to the open ocean and sediments, it is particularly susceptible to the impacts of ocean acidification and hypoxia. Understanding the progression of ocean acidification in coastal areas in the context of these other natural processes is critical for developing management, mitigation, and adaptation strategies.

Read More “British Columbia to southern California: making headway with ocean change” »

Hereon scientists study marine ecosystem tipping points on international research expedition

An international group of 20 scientists will embark on a 2-week research cruise leaving from Nuuk, Greenland, on Saturday 17 July to investigate changes in the marine environment off Greenland´s west coast, and what these changes mean for the ocean´s ability to provide fish and store carbon from the atmosphere. On board are three scientists from Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon.

The research cruise aboard DANA, Denmark´s largest research vessel, will include scientists from Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Denmark´s Technical University, Aarhus University, the Arctic University of Norway, Åbo Akademi and the University of Vienna. DANA plans to arrive in Nuuk from Reykjavik, Iceland on the 13 July and set sail on 17 July once all scientists have arrived and are all installed. The Dana will return to Nuuk on the 30 July. The cruise is financed through the European Horizon 2020 research project ECOTIP.

Read More “Researching climate change in Greenland” »

When people think of climate change refugees, they usually think of island residents who have to move due to rising sea levels.

But climate change can alter the ocean in other ways that affect people — and their businesses.

Dave Nisbet is the owner of Hawaiian Shellfish LLC, a company that specializes in growing seed oysters for growers on the West Coast and Kaua‘i.

He moved to Hawai‘i Island from Washington State in 2009 because ocean acidification was causing deformation in his oysters.

The ocean absorbs roughly 30% of the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide. Excess CO2 becomes CO3 in saltwater. When the ocean absorbs too much CO2, the pH levels of the water decrease, he said.

“When it comes to acidification, areas that have upwelling and in the temperate zones and poles are the first to show the acidification. When you get into the tropics, that can occur later or is delayed,” Nisbet said.

“Hawaiʻi would have seen the issues that we see in the Northwest because we have the upwelling from the cold waters that come up from the bottom and go into the estuary and acidify,” he tells HPR.

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution over 200 years ago, the ocean’s acidity levels have increased by 30%. Acidic waters dissolve the shells and skeletons of shellfish and coral, and some species of fish experience difficulty navigating predators.

According to the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, with the pace of ocean acidification accelerating, ocean ecosystems will continue to die out before they can adapt.

Read More “Washington oyster farmer forced to relocate due to ocean acidification” »

Video

Chinese scientists set sail from Shanghai aboard Xuelong 2 on Monday, the country’s first domestically built polar icebreaker, for China’s 12th Arctic expedition.

It marks the first scientific expedition to the Arctic in China’s 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025). The vessel is expected to return to Shanghai in late September, after a trip of 15,000 nautical miles.

The expedition, organized by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources, will see a series of investigations conducted into climate change, ecosystems, ocean acidification, and new pollutants.

The findings are expected to further improve China’s scientific understanding of the mid-ocean ridge.

Read More “GLOBALink | China’s research icebreaker sets sail for Arctic expedition (text & video)” »

What is ocean acidification?

The ocean naturally absorbs over a quarter of the carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. So as a result of rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations from burning fossil fuels, levels of CO2 in the ocean are also increasing. When CO2 enters the ocean it reacts with sea water and forms carbonic acid (H2Co3). Carbonic acid is a weak acid which separates or dissociates into a hydrogen ion (H+) and a bicarbonate ion (HCO3-). As more hydrogen ions are formed from this reaction, the pH of the ocean is decreasing, meaning it is becoming more acidic. This is called ocean acidification (OA).

Over the last 200 years, the ocean has become 30% more acidic. The last time it was this acidic was over 300 million years ago. This is presenting new challenges for marine life, and especially for organisms with hard shells and skeletons like oysters, mussels, crabs, and corals.

Learn more about OA and how it impacts marine life in national parks.

Read More “West Coast National Parks work with NOAA to better understand ocean acidification in the rocky intertidal and beyond” »

Carla Edworthy tells us about the threat to the world’s marine environment, and research advances in South Africa

It is now widely accepted that ever-increasing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil-fuel burning and other human activities are causing global climate change. Some of the better-known consequences for our oceans are increasing temperatures, sea level rise and more frequent or intense storm events. But by continuously releasing CO2 into the atmosphere, humans are significantly altering the chemistry of the oceans too. Although it is not as widely known, ocean acidification is considered the ‘evil twin’ of global climate change.

The oceans act as a giant sink for carbon because CO2 dissolves rapidly in seawater, initiating a succession of chemical reactions. The ultimate result of these reactions is a decline in the pH of seawater. Although the global average pH is currently about 8.1, this is slowly decreasing as CO2 continues to be absorbed by the oceans from the atmosphere. By the end of the century, the global average pH is predicted to fall to approximately 7.7 if global CO2 emissions continue unabated, which is considered a worst case scenario. Since pH is measured on a log scale, a drop in pH of one unit actually represents a tenfold decrease in acidity. This means that even a small change in pH significantly changes the acidity of seawater.

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Read More “Ocean acidification” »

Researchers find ocean acidification threatens local fisheries

Read More “A microscopic killer lives in SF’s waters” »

This Wednesday a team of researchers from the Marine Research Center of the University of Vigo departed from Reykjavik on board the Sarmiento de Gamboa to start the first oceanographic campaign of the BOCATS2 project (Biennial observation of carbon, acidification, transport and sedimentation in the North Atlantic). This study comprises two subprojects, one focused on the characterization of the water column (physical and chemical properties) and the other on the characterization of the sediments to interpret the properties and dynamics of the water masses in the past, which would involve the last tens of thousands of years. This second part is coordinated by CIM-UVigo researchers Guillermo Francés, from the Geological and Biogeochemical Oceanography Group, and Gabriel Rosón, from the Physical Oceanography Group. It supposes a continuation of a first study carried out in 2016 (BOCATS) and has as main objective “to continue with the observational monitoring (recent and past) of the ocean circulation and ocean acidification in the North Atlantic”. The information they will obtain is “essential to advance in the accurate detection of anthropogenic impact and to improve the projections of the adjusted climate models that underpin the IPCC reports for the North Atlantic subpolar gyre (SPNA), a region known for its strong influence on the European climate”, as Guillermo Francés highlights.

On board after six days in confinement
This expedition is no stranger to the special circumstances of the covid-19 pandemic. The scientific team, formed by UVigo researchers Irene Alejo, Marta Pérez Arlucea, Miguel Ángel Nombela and Guillermo Francés, the student of Marine Sciences Mª Fernanda Copete, the technician Susa Álvarez, a researcher of the ICM-CSIC of Barcelona and a student of the Royal Holloway University, were forced to carry out a 6-day quarantine upon arrival in Iceland before being able to board the Sarmiento de Gamboa. Finally, this Tuesday they were able to board the oceanographic vessel, which left Vigo on May 28th with another scientific team that developed, in these weeks, studies framed within another subproject of BOCATS2. After a day on board to prepare last minute issues, yesterday Wednesday the ship left the port of Reykjavik. And as Guillermo Francés explains, the study coordinated by the CIM is part of a larger project, coordinated by the Institute of Marine Research (IIM, CSIC), and funded with 342,430 euros, of which 124,630 correspond to the subproject of the University of Vigo, under the Generation of Knowledge 2019 program of the Ministry of Science and Innovation. The overall objective is to study the millennial and submillennial variability of deep currents through the channels that cross the Reykjanes Ridge (Bight and Charlie-Gibbs fracture zones), southwest of Iceland. These two fracture zones, especially the CGFZ, constitute the main deepwater communication routes between the western and eastern North Atlantic basins, and their hydrography is rather unknown, both at present and in the past when they were under other global climatic conditions. BOCATS2 also intends to continue with the estimation of carbonate and organic carbon flux to sediments, along the lines of the preceding project, essential aspects related to the production, accumulation and preservation of these compounds (carbon cycling, acidification, etc.).

Towards the Bight Fracture Zone
The team aboard the Sarmiento de Gamboa will focus its work on the Bight Fracture Zone, a large transforming ridge that cuts the Reykjanes Ridge and is one of the main pathways for deep water masses between the eastern and western basins of the North Atlantic”. The other ond, he adds, “is the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone”. The scientific plan for the coming weeks comprises two phases. On the one hand, “the acoustic characterization of the seabed with multi-beam and parametric echo sounders in order to obtain a detailed mapping, the internal structure of the first meters of the sedimentary filling, and the most suitable choice of the sampling points”. The second part of the work will consist of obtaining surface sediment samples using a box- corer type dredge”, to then carry out “the sedimentary registry by means of gravity sieve sampling”. Both operations will be carried out at four different points along the fracture zone, “two to the west of the ridge and two to the east”. The team will return to the port of Vigo in mid-July, but this oceanographic campaign will be followed by a second one in 2023, which will complete the project.

Read More “Starts the scientific campaign to analyze the ocean circulation and acidification of the North Atlantic” »

Read More “Virtual dialogue addresses ocean acidification” »

Ocean acidification is on the rise as our seas soak up rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Although the increase in the last 200 years over the industrial age has been modest, the change is noticeable. A recent presentation at the annual Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology conference showed that when the ocean is more acid, bioluminescence is brighter.

The presentation highlighted work by researchers from the University of Hawaii, who mimicked the anticipated rise in ocean acidity to investigate its effect on secretory bioluminescence, as Science News reports. After extracting the bioluminescence chemicals from various marine organisms, the light reaction generated in the increased acidity was up to 15% brighter, according to the presentation abstract. This suggests ocean acidification could have a major effect on light generation in a host of bioluminescent ocean organisms and seriously affect the marine sensory environment.

Ocean Life and Bioluminescence

Bioluminescence is a way of life for millions of sea creatures who generate their own light sources to feed, mate and escape predators in the gloomy depths. Some organisms, such as the dinoflagellates that create red tides, make the light internally. But for others, the process is external or secretory. Because it requires a chemical reaction, bioluminescence is often governed by surrounding acidity. For secretory bioluminescence, it’s the pH of the surrounding seawater that is important.

Read More “In a flash: how bioluminescent organisms signal ocean acidification” »

The Earth’s atmosphere contains more carbon dioxide (CO₂₎ than at any time in the last 20 million years, researchers say. The levels would be even higher if it weren’t for the ocean, which slurps up carbon emissions and stores roughly 60 times more carbon than the atmosphere. But high carbon levels in the ocean are causing the pH of seawater to drop and ocean acidity to rise. This phenomenon, known as ocean acidification, has given our top ally in the fight against climate change a serious case of heartburn.

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Fortunately, the weathering of rocks on land produces alkalinity, which has an “antacid” effect once it washes into the ocean. Researchers estimate there is currently the equivalent of 200 billion antacid tablets in the global ocean. Alkalinity also plays a critical role in helping the ocean store carbon. But there’s a problem: alkalization of the ocean from the natural geological cycle is slow, sometimes taking hundreds of thousands of years to occur.

Adam Subhas, a marine chemist at WHOI, wants to speed up the process. He is investigating the viability of an ocean intervention-based process known as ocean alkalinity enhancement, which he loosely describes as adding “Tums” to the ocean.

Read More “The ocean has a serious case of heartburn. Is relief on the way?” »

Katie Barott of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts & Sciences led a study to see if climate-change resistant corals could grow on battered reefs after transplantation. Her team took corals that survived a severe bleaching event and transplanted them to a new reef where they retained their resilient qualities.

This is excellent news because the looming threat of the climate crisis, acidification, and warming oceans hangs heavy on the world’s coral reefs. Most of them are struggling to adapt to the increasingly inhospitable waters.

Scientists are concerned that corals will fall victim to global warming very soon because mass bleaching events occur more frequently. This new study’s findings offer hope that hardy corals could be the saviors, restoring ruined reefs in the future. Barott and colleagues believe this strategy can buy corals more time as the world battles climate change.

Coral bleaching occurs when the ocean warms to higher-than-normal temperatures, prompting corals to expel the algae they contain, which is their food source. Without sustenance, the coral turns white and eventually dies. The phenomenon has plagued Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and Hawaii’s reefs in recent years.

Read More “Transplanted bleaching-resistant coral retain their resistance to heat” »