Ocean acidification

Everywhere we turned this month, we saw action on ocean acidification! The issue got lots of attention internationally at the United Nations and as part of World Oceans Day, nationally in the halls of Congress and across the nation by U.S. city mayors. Here’s a roundup.

(1) The United Nations Oceans Conference hosted a partnership dialogue on minimizing and addressing ocean acidification. Participants introduced a number of voluntary commitments designed to enhance scientific partnership, knowledge exchange and national efforts around ocean acidification, in support of U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 14.3.

(2) The International Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification (OA Alliance) hosted an official side event at the U.N. Oceans Conference to discuss how U.N. nations can take action as part of the Alliance, by investing in research and monitoring, educating the public and reducing carbon emissions causing acidification.

(3) Tuvalu became an official member of the International OA Alliance. Here, Prime Minister Enele Sosene Sopoaga of Tuvalu speaks at the full Oceans Conference.

(4) John Laird, California’s Secretary for Natural Resources, introduced the International OA Alliance during the formal proceedings at the Oceans Conference. He shared his thoughts on the importance of acting in an op-ed.

Continue reading ‘Eleven awesome actions on acidification in June’

When most people think of a coral reef they are imagining a sunny tropical beach, but many coral species are actually found in the dark, cold waters of the deep sea. These corals, commonly known as cold-water corals due to their preference for low temperatures, form beautiful ecosystems that are teeming with life. One of the largest threats to these slow-growing and fragile ecosystems is ocean acidification, the gradual reduction in the pH of our oceans caused by the excess carbon dioxide humans emit into the atmosphere. By the year 2100, it is expected that over 70% of stony corals in the deep sea will live in waters that are so acidic that they may corrode corals and make it difficult or even impossible for them to form hard skeletons.

In a previous publication scientists from Marine Conservation Institute and Temple University showed that cold-water corals in different ocean basins had completely opposite responses to ocean acidification, suggesting some populations may be much more resilient to climate change. What about individual corals within a population – could they also exhibit different responses? Enter the hunt for a ‘super coral’, corals with a genetic makeup that render them more resilient to ocean acidification. In an increasingly acidic ocean super corals would have higher survival and reproductive rates, and over many generations would comprise an increasingly large portion of the population. If these super corals already exist in the deep sea, there is a chance that cold-water coral populations may be able to adapt quickly enough to survive in the face of climate change.

Continue reading ‘The hunt for a super coral: can cold-water corals adapt to ocean acidification?’

(…) This week, Congress released a late, but welcome, federal budget for 2017. It is a budget that reflects our ocean values, with investments in agencies like the National Ocean Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. (…) The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) overall faces cuts under the new administration, with specific cuts proposed for Coastal Zone Management, Sea Grant and others.

Drumbeat of support

During the last 15 months, ocean champions ranging from business leaders to surfers and stay-at-home moms called their members of Congress, signed petitions and letters, shared their stories on Facebook and even hopped on flights to D.C. to meet with their senators in person. They talked about the importance of a healthy ocean to their lives and communities, as well as their jobs and their bottom line. (…)

Ocean acidification research will continue at current funding levels, supporting the on-the-water sensors and data that businesses, like shellfish harvesters, need to succeed in the face of changing oceans. (…)

Congress is paying attention, and they have heard from their constituents that cuts to ocean programs simply don’t have public support. (…)

Addie Haughey, Ocean Currents, 4 May 2017. Article.

In the second part of his WITNESS blog investigating the dangers of increasing ocean acidification, CONOR PURCELL learns that increase rates are already 10 times higher than at any time in the last 55 million years which, naturally, does not bode well for all ocean ecosystems

The continental shelf rolls out for some hundreds of kilometres west of Ireland’s Galway coast, before the Rockall Trough. Here the seafloor falls sharply off the shelf down to abyssal depths of over 3000 metres. Continentals shelves like this are host to a range of marine ecosystems, including cold water corals; a much less discussed variety compared to their warm water cousins.

According to Dr Tríona McGrath, a marine scientist at the National University of Ireland Galway, and funded by Ireland’s Marine Institute : “The Rockall Trough hosts an array of cold water coral ecosystems, interacting with a range of water masses along the Irish continental margin, Rockall Bank and Porcupine Bank. These deep water reef structures support a rich biodiversity and are particularly vulnerable in a more acidic ocean.”

Continue reading ‘WITNESS: Investigating ocean acidification (Part 2)’