Ocean Acidification

For the first time, an international research team compiled a set of best practices to assess and report ocean acidification trends. Standardized procedures for measuring ocean carbon chemistry are already largely  established, but a common set of best practices for trend analysis are missing. These best practices will facilitate ocean acidification comparison of trends across different regions. They also allow the research community to establish enduring accurate records of change that communicate the current status of ocean acidification to the public.

Ocean acidification occurs when  the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, causing  a fundamental chemical change. The global rise in ocean acidity is fueled by human-emitted greenhouse gases. The global ocean has absorbed approximately 620 billion tons of carbon dioxide (~25%) from emissions released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. Impacts from ocean acidification will vary by region. In order to implement adaptation and mitigation strategies, managers need an accurate and comparable understanding of how ocean acidification progresses globally, regionally and locally. This requires standardized procedures at all levels of data collection, dissemination, and analysis.

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Around one quarter of the CO₂ emitted from human activities annually is absorbed by the ocean. This has been shown to affect the chemistry of the seawater, causing a drop in pH which has major implications for many marine species and ecosystems.

Despite the threat that ocean acidification (OA) poses, there is currently no global framework for monitoring its biological impacts, and this is hampering efforts to fully assess the rate and scale of the issue. As such, a team of ocean acidification experts, including scientists from Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), have created a new methodology designed to ensure best practice in future OA monitoring and improve globally-coordinated efforts to understand and mitigate its effects.

Drawing on a wealth of data from previous experiments and observations, the publication “Unifying biological field observations to detect and compare ocean acidification impacts across marine species and ecosystems: What to monitor and why” proposes five broad classes of biological indicators that, when coupled with environmental observations including carbonate chemistry, would create a far more advanced understanding of the rate and severity of the biological changes taking place due to ocean acidification globally.

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PHOTOGRAPH: FRANCOIS GOHIER/GETTY IMAGES

Taryn Foster believes Australia’s dying coral reefs can still be rescued—if she can speed up efforts to save them. For years, biologists like her have been lending a hand to reefs struggling with rising temperatures and ocean acidity: They’ve collected coral fragments and cut them into pieces to propagate and grow them in nurseries on land; they’ve crossbred species to build in heat-resistance; they’ve experimented with probiotics as a defense against deadly diseases.

But even transplanting thousands of these healthy and upgraded corals onto damaged reefs will not be enough to save entire ecosystems, Foster says. “We need some way of deploying corals at scale.” Sounds like a job for some robots.

In a healthy ocean, individual corals called polyps build their skeleton by extracting calcium carbonate from seawater. They then fuse with corals of the same genetic makeup to form huge colonies—coral reefs. But as the ocean absorbs more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the water becomes more acidic, making it difficult for the polyps to build their skeletons or to keep them from dissolving. Acidification inhibits reef growth, and with global ocean temperatures rising, corals are struggling to survive.

In the Great Barrier Reef, for instance, coral growth has slowed in recent decades, partly because during heat waves the corals expel the tiny algae that live inside their tissues and provide them with nutrients, causing them to bleach. Bleached corals are not dead but are more at risk of starvation and disease, and the loss of coral reefs has a devastating impact on the thousands of fish, crabs and other marine animals that rely on them for shelter and food.

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At an event entitled “Ocean Acidification: A Crisis in the making“, hosted by Back to Blue in Tokyo, Japan, on February 2rd, chairman of The Nippon Foundation Yohei Sasakawa, and chairman of The Economist Group Lord Deighton made opening remarks, inviting urgent action to tackle ocean acidification.

Peter Thomson, UN Special Envoy for Oceans, said, “In light of the biodiversity framework adopted at the end of last year, ocean acidification is an urgent issue. Today’s event is very significant. This year, the G7 meeting will be held in Japan, a maritime nation. I hope that Japan will show leadership in this regard.” Panellists included Steve Widdicombe, Scientific Director of Plymouth Marine Laboratory, a world authority on marine ecology, and Japanese fisheries researchers.

Back to Blue released its Ocean Acidification programme in December 2022. The publication focuses on the need to address ocean acidification and is based on insights and research provided by some of the world’s leading ocean scientists. The publication highlights how time is rapidly running out to avoid the worst effects of ocean acidification and the worst impacts of ocean acidification on marine life, livelihoods, and economies.

Ocean acidification occurs when seawater absorbs CO2 generated by human activities such as burning fossil fuels. More than a quarter of the CO2 emitted by humans into the atmosphere has been absorbed by the oceans each year, but CO2 emissions are now increasing so rapidly that the oceans are no longer able to absorb it. As a result, the chemistry of the ocean is changing, acidity is increasing, and the ability of many marine organisms to protect themselves, grow, and reproduce is weakening.

The publication highlights that if we continue on our current high-emissions trajectory, many marine organisms, including molluscs, pteropods (“sea butterflies”) and warm-water corals, will be at very high risk from acidification as early as 2050. The adverse impacts from the decline of such organisms on ocean biodiversity and marine food chains are likely to be severe.

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On behalf of the SOLAS-IMBeR Ocean Acidification working group (SIOA), we are asking for your help in gathering information regarding the next “Ocean in a High CO₂ World Symposium.”

The International Symposium on the Ocean in a High CO₂ World was first initiated in 2004 in Paris, France and held every 4 years until its 5^th edition organized in Lima, Peru in 2022 (https://www.highco2-lima.org/). It gathers hundreds of researchers, students, and government and industry representatives with a common interest in ocean acidification and its impacts. It has been a pre-eminent forum for sharing the latest scientific findings in the field, and affords attendees opportunities to network, create new collaborations, and share knowledge with developing countries.

We have prepared a survey to evaluate the needs for a 6^th edition as well as its format. It takes between 5 and 10 minutes to fill out. You can find the survey at: https://forms.gle/wRdtCC9GL8xi7Umv6

Deadline for submission: March 15, 2023

Many thanks for your help and contribution,

Sam Dupont & Sarah Flickinger

The UN Decade program “Ocean Acidification Research for Sustainability” (OARS) is organizing a session on “Ocean Acidification 2.0 – From Chemistry to Society” at the next ASLO meeting in Palma de Mallorca (4-9 June 2023).  Consider submitting an abstract by February 23rd!

This session aims at providing a platform for the ocean acidification community together with those who have a shared interest of protecting and conserving biodiversity in the face of global changes. It will promote actions to address the need for broader, more diverse, inclusive, and interdisciplinary collaboration and co-design of science and action. There is a need for purposeful efforts to facilitate inclusion of all interested researchers in monitoring and ocean acidification research networks. We encourage submission of poster and presentation focusing on, for instance, co-design approach, new experimental designs encompassing the chemical and biological complexity (e.g. natural variability, ecology, evolution, multiple stressors), syntheses and meta-analyses, and unification of chemical and biological observations (see below for a full description of the session).

You can submit your abstract for the session “SS066 Ocean Acidification 2.0 – From Chemistry to Society” before February 23^rd at: https://www.aslo.org/palma-2023/abstract-preparation-guide/

For any questions, contact: sam.dupont@bioenv.gu.se

SS066 Ocean Acidification 2.0 – From Chemistry to Society

Sam Dupont, University of Gothenburg (sam.dupont@bioenv.gu.se)
Iris Hendriks, IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB) (iris@imedea.uib-csic.es)
Jan Newton, University of Washington (janewton@uw.edu)

Ocean acidification has gained increasing recognition across national and international policy frameworks, such as national ocean action plans, the 2030 Agenda and the UNFCCC. To fully address and minimize its effects, scientists, governments, and end-users will benefit from co-designing science, monitoring, research, and syntheses that support informed choices about national mitigation, adaptation, and preparedness strategies. An overwhelming body of evidence documents ocean acidification, with potential significant impacts on marine species and ecosystems. The increase of atmospheric CO₂ due to fossil fuel burning is the main driver of ocean acidification in the open ocean. In the coastal zone, the variability in pCO₂ and pH is also driven by biological, near-shore and land-based processes, such as river run-off, stratification, and tides. The complexity of bridging chemical and biological changes associated with ocean acidification is often under-estimated. Today, projections rely mainly on proxy variables like pH, carbonate saturation states, dissolved oxygen, temperature, and salinity, and simplistic thresholds to speculate about the status and trends of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Ecosystem response to ocean acidification can be only assessed when considering factors such as adaptation to local chemical variability, evolutionary processes, ecological interactions, and the modulating role of other environmental drivers or stressors. Therefore, global, regional, and local impacts on biology and ecology, whether gradual or stepwise, are not fully resolved. Experimental work often over-simplifies these processes, for instance by focusing on single species and stressors, short-term responses, and static conditions that do not incorporate natural variability. Ocean observing and data are often focused on one or a handful of physical and biogeochemical parameters, but generally do not include biology and ecosystem. On the other hand, results from experimental work and from in situ observing efforts are not always well integrated into synthesis and modeling efforts. As a consequence, although data are being generated about ocean acidification changes and separately about some ecological changes, we are not able to evaluate whether a local resource or ecosystem service is changing due to ocean acidification. The UN Decade program “Ocean Acidification Research for Sustainability” (OARS) aims to provide a road map to fill these gaps. In line with the vision of OARS, this session aims at providing a platform for the ocean acidification community together with those who have a shared interest of protecting and conserving biodiversity in the face of global changes. It will promote actions to address the need for broader, more diverse, inclusive, and interdisciplinary collaboration and co-design of science and action. There is a need for purposeful efforts to facilitate inclusion of all interested researchers in monitoring and ocean acidification research networks. We will encourage submission of poster and presentation focusing on, for instance, co-design approach, new experimental designs encompassing the chemical and biological complexity (e.g. natural variability, ecology, evolution, multiple stressors), syntheses and meta-analyses, and unification of chemical and biological observations.

Most people associate hurricanes with high winds, intense rain and rapid flooding on land. But these storms can also change the chemistry of coastal waters. Such shifts are less visible than damage on land, but they can have dire consequences for marine life and coastal ocean ecosystems.

We are oceanographers who study the effects of ocean acidification, including on organisms like oysters and corals. In a recent study, we examined how stormwater runoff from Hurricane Harvey in 2017 affected the water chemistry of Galveston Bay and the health of the bay’s oyster reefs. We wanted to understand how extreme rainfall and runoff from hurricanes influenced acidification of bay waters, and how long these changes could last.

Our findings were startling. Hurricane Harvey, which generated massive rainfall in the Houston metropolitan area, delivered a huge pulse of fresh water into Galveston Bay. As a result, the bay was two to four times more acidic than normal for at least three weeks after the storm.

This made bay water corrosive enough to damage oyster shells in the estuary. Because oyster growth and recovery rely on many factors, it is hard to tie specific changes to acidification. However, increased acidification certainly would have made it harder for oyster reefs damaged by Hurricane Harvey to recover. And while our study focused on Galveston Bay, we suspect that similar processes may be occurring in other coastal areas.

Continue reading Hurricane Harvey more than doubled the acidity of Texas’ Galveston Bay, threatening oyster reefs

The research puts modern oceanic climate change in context

The research vessel JOIDES Resolution collecting samples in the Indian Ocean off the western coast of Australia in 2017. Gabriel Tagliaro

During the Cretaceous Period around 100 million years ago, Earth’s oceans were nearly unrecognizable. Below the waves swam marine reptiles: lizard-like mosasaurs, long-necked plesiosaurs and gargantuan sea turtles. These behemoths lived alongside squid-like ammonites encased in tightly-coiled shells and a slew of bizarre fish.

94 million years ago, these strange seas became nearly uninhabitable. Oxygen levels plummeted, and the ocean acidified during an episode known as the Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2) that sent ripples through marine ecosystems worldwide. “As geologists, we’re drawn to times when things went wrong during the past,” said Matt Jones, a former research fellow at the National Museum of Natural History who now works with the United States Geological Survey. “We’re trying to understand why the oceans lost so much oxygen content in the mid Cretaceous.”

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As they retrieved samples from the seafloor, the team noticed the pale-colored cores were punctuated by a green and black band of sediment several centimeters thick — a sign that something dramatic had happened to the oceanic environment. Based on its position in the core, they estimated that this band of dark sediment was deposited during the OAE2.

The black bands of mudstone in the cores represent periods when oxygen levels along the seafloor in the Mentelle Basin plummeted. Brian Huber, NMNH

Scientists from NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), and our cooperative institute partners, the University of Miami’s Cooperative Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Studies  and the Northern Gulf Institute, recently participated in Ocean Acidification Annual Community Meetings at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego, California. Over the course of multiple days, scientists attended various meetings on ocean acidification research topics, visited laboratories, met with fellow scientists, learned about new ocean acidification technologies, and much more. 

NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program (OAP) seeks to better prepare society to respond to changing ocean conditions by understanding the processes of ocean acidification through interdisciplinary partnerships both nationally and internationally. The goals of the OAP community meeting are to shape the future of the OAP; to inform community members of OAP updates, encourage collaborations with the ocean acidification research community, discuss research gaps and how to address them, and to make ocean acidification research more diverse and accessible.

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For the first time, an international research team compiled a set of best practices to assess and report ocean acidification trends. Standardized procedures for measuring ocean carbon chemistry are already largely  established, but a common set of best practices for trend analysis are missing. These best practices will facilitate ocean acidification comparison of trends across different regions. They also allow the research community to establish enduring accurate records of change that communicate the current status of ocean acidification to the public. 

Ocean acidification occurs when  the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, causing  a fundamental chemical change. The global rise in ocean acidity is fueled by human-emitted greenhouse gases. The global ocean has absorbed approximately 620 billion tons of carbon dioxide (~25%) from emissions released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. Impacts from ocean acidification will vary by region. In order to implement adaptation and mitigation strategies, managers need an accurate and comparable understanding of how ocean acidification progresses globally, regionally and locally. This requires standardized procedures at all levels of data collection, dissemination, and analysis.

Newly published work in Frontiers in Marine Science describes these best practices developed from input from the ocean carbon science community and established best practices already adopted for atmospheric greenhouse gases. Just as NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratories’ (ESRL) researchers played an active role in establishing standards for assessing trends in atmospheric CO₂, PMEL researchers are now doing the same for ocean carbonate records. 

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• Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) involves releasing certain minerals into the ocean, sparking a chemical reaction that enables the seawater to trap more CO₂ from the air and mitigating, albeit temporarily, ocean acidification.
• Some scientists believe OAE could be a vital tool for drawing down and securely storing some of the excess CO₂ humanity has added to the atmosphere that is now fueling climate change.
• Yet many questions about OAE remain, including most prominently how it would impact marine life and ecosystems.
• Several programs are aiming to spark the research needed to answer these questions, including field tests in the ocean.

Imagine showers of little green sand grains drifting through the ocean: collecting on coral reefs, rolling off the backs of whales, sprinkling schools of tuna — and helping to save all those creatures, and humanity, too. At least that’s the idea.

These green showers are crushed olivine, an abundant volcanic mineral, delivered by a fleet of ships. And it is climate change that launched these thousand ships, crisscrossing the ocean in a surreal bid to undo the damage we’ve done. You see, as the olivine settles on the ocean floor it disintegrates and chemically transforms, making that part of the ocean a little more alkaline and converting dissolved CO₂ into carbonate and bicarbonate molecules, a process that stores the carbon for hundreds of thousands of years. The seawater can then trap more CO₂ from the air to replace the stored carbon.

Scientists call this ocean alkalinity enhancement, or OAE, and some believe it could be a vital tool for drawing down and securely storing a portion of the 1.5 trillion tons of CO₂ that we’ve added to the atmosphere since the industrial revolution, not to mention the billions more we’ll add before we hit net zero.

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Antacid treatment

In 2014, Rebecca Albright, an expert on corals at the time with the Carnegie Institution, worked with colleagues to mix seawater and sodium hydroxide in a tank and then release the solution into the wild in the Great Barrier Reef.

“After mixing, we pumped the [treated] water onto the reef flat and let it traverse the reef flat naturally, bathing the reef with alkaline water, and we measured the calcification response,” said Albright, now with the California Academy of Sciences. “We used a dye tracer to be able to differentiate the treatment water from the ambient seawater.”

The researchers were not trying to test OAE, but to prove once and for all that ocean acidification was a major reason behind coral decline. Their research showed that when they returned the seawater’s chemistry to a more alkaline state — similar to that of the preindustrial past — the coral reefs began to calcify more quickly. In other words, ocean acidification was indeed a culprit.

Ocean acidification happens when seawater absorbs excess CO₂ from the atmosphere. Since the Industrial Revolution, ocean acidity has jumped by 30%, making life more difficult for many marine organisms. It has damaged not only coral reefs but oysters and clams as well. Scientists are also concerned about pteropods (free-swimming sea snails and slugs) and some types of phytoplankton as acidity grows. Declines in these species would impact animals higher up the food web.

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The Pacific Islands consist of 98 percent ocean and two percent land. With Pacific people already impacted by climate change, the threats posed by ocean acidification are overwhelming, adding yet another layer to the long list they must suffer.

Amplifying our Pacific voice at every opportunity available, the UN Ocean Conference now underway in Lisbon, Portugal, has heard the Pacific Small Islands Developing States (PSIDS) call upon the global community, yet again, to do more.

“Small Islands Developing States are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of ocean acidification, especially in relation to coral depletion.  Coral reefs play a key role in ocean ecosystems,” stated Hon. John M. Silk, the Minister of Natural Resources and Commerce of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

Speaking on behalf of PSIDS during a special session – the Interactive Dialogue on Minimising and addressing ocean acidification, deoxygenation and ocean warming, the Minister stressed the important role of coral reefs upon our livelihoods and security.

“Weakened coral reefs also mean that SIDS are more vulnerable to the impacts of rising sea levels, increasing severity of tropical cyclones and increasing occurrence of king tides. Globally, over 50% of the countries that have a high dependence on coral reefs are located in the Pacific.”

Our global ocean has absorbed approximately 30 percent of CO₂ released into the atmosphere.  This CO₂ combines with seawater to produce carbonic acid which acidifies seawater and depletes it of carbonate. 

This will make it difficult for some marine life such as shellfish, sea urchins and corals to build their skeletons and shells resulting in a reduction in growth for many of these species and ecosystems.

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A researcher counts fish swimming around a coral reef at Palmyra Atoll in the central Pacific: Half of all marine life is at risk from acidification.   © Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

“How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly ocean,” science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke once wrote.

But even he could not have foretold the heavy burden our oceans now shoulder from the escalating climate crisis. The oceans absorb over 90% of the heat generated by global warming, produce 50% to 80% of the world’s oxygen and soak up roughly 25% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

Oceans are our greatest ally in combating climate change. However, their waters are rapidly becoming more acidic, especially along coastlines. This will be potentially catastrophic for marine life and the billions of people whose livelihoods depend on it.

Since the preindustrial era, our oceans have become 30% more acidic, the fastest measured change in ocean chemistry in the last 50 million years.

Carbon dioxide is the culprit. Human activities, principally the burning of fossil fuels, have generated an estimated 1.5 trillion tons of CO2 pollution. As the sea absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere, it dissolves to form carbonic acid, increasing oceanic acidity levels.

The effect is not uniform: pH levels in the subsurface waters of the Pacific are lower than the global average, while the coastal waters of northwest Africa and the Pacific seaboard of the Americas now experience CO2-rich waters welling up from the deep ocean.

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This study reviews progress and knowledge gaps in ocean acidification and aquacultured seaweeds and concludes current knowledge gaps regarding mitigation approaches are unbalanced and mostly focused on seaweed monitoring and cultivation methods. Photo of seaweed farming at Uroa, a fishermen’s village on Zanzibar’s east coast, by Moongateclimber, via Wikimedia Commons.

The global seaweed aquaculture industry contributes significantly to the production of various downstream and upstream products like food, biopolymers, cosmetics, nutraceuticals, bioenergy compounds, and pharmaceuticals. And the production of seaweed-based biofuel as an alternative to fossil fuel has managed to reduce up to 1,500 tons of carbon dioxide per square kilometer per year when compared to emissions from fossil fuels. Among its other functions, the open ocean aquaculture of seaweeds provides shoreline protection from storms and waves.

Seaweed production can also help to reduce ocean eutrophication by absorbing nutrients required for seaweed growth. With a wide distribution of biomass at the global level, Seaweed Aquaculture Beds (SABs) have the potential to at least act as a temporary carbon sink to mitigate the immediate effects of climate change. This is due to the capacity of seaweeds for carbon assimilation and accumulation, and carbon dioxide sequestration in a relatively short period.

On the other hand, there is evidence indicating that certain naturally growing seaweeds have the capacity for carbon sequestration and accumulation, which can be exported and buried in deep-sea regions. However, with the elevation in atmospheric carbon dioxide, ocean acidification (OA), as one of the impacts of climate change, will negatively affect entire marine systems. Although this is a globally pressing matter, the discourse on the potential ecological or economic impacts of seaweed production is still limited.

The physiological responses of non-calcifying seaweed towards OA are species-specific and inconsistent at different developmental stages, mostly due to different carbon-uptake strategies. Furthermore, the interactive effects of OA and other environmental variables such as temperature complicate any definitive prediction about the exact impacts of OA effects on fleshy seaweed.

This article – adapted and summarized from the original publication (Hengjie, T. et al. 2023. Ocean Acidification and Aquacultured Seaweeds: Progress and Knowledge Gaps. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(1), 78) – discusses how the increase in dissolved carbon dioxide with pH variation will affect the physiological responses of aquacultured seaweeds.

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The Great Lakes have endured a lot the past century, from supersized algae blobs to invasive mussels and bloodsucking sea lamprey that nearly wiped out fish populations.

Now, another danger: They, and other big lakes around the world, might be getting more acidic, which could make them less hospitable for some fish and plants.

Scientists are building a sensor network to spot Lake Huron water chemistry trends. It’s a first step toward a hoped-for system that would track carbon dioxide and pH in all five Great Lakes over multiple years, said project co-leader Reagan Errera of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“If you change things chemically, you’re going to change how things behave and work and that includes the food web,” said Errera, a research ecologist with NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

“Does that mean your favorite fish might not be around any more? We don’t know that, but we know things will change. Maybe where and when they spawn, where they’re located, what they eat.”

Oceans are becoming more acidic as they absorb carbon dioxide that human activity pumps into the atmosphere — the primary cause of climate change. Acidification endangers coral reefs and other marine life.

Studies based on computer models suggest the same thing may be happening in big freshwater systems. But few programs are conducting long-term monitoring to find out — or to investigate the ecological ripple effects.

“This doesn’t mean the waters are going to be unsafe to swim in. It’s not like we’re making super acid battery liquid,” said Galen McKinley, a Columbia University environmental sciences professor. “We’re talking about long-term change in the environment that to humans would be imperceptible.”

A 2018 study of four German reservoirs found their pH levels had declined — moving closer to acidity — three times faster in 35 years than in oceans since the Industrial Revolution.

Researchers say Great Lakes also could approach acidity around the same rate as in oceans by 2100. Data from the Lake Huron project will help determine if they’re right.

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As a student pursuing a dual degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Political Science on the pre-law track at the University of Connecticut, I came into COP27 with great excitement to witness firsthand the collaborative bridging of knowledge that will facilitate climate solutions.

Paired with my love for the ocean and the beauty of its vast biodiversity, my academic path in ecology has primed me for the discussions at COP27 surrounding the detrimental impact of climate change on marine life. I strongly believe that the combined efforts of scientific and legislative expertise are imperative in not only achieving the UN’s net zero goals but other important environmental issues as well.

Discussing ocean ecology at COP27

Coral reefs are central to hosting thousands of important marine species that uphold our biosphere and providing a wide variety of crucial ecosystem services. Many serve as a pillar of income and benefit to the economy for nations that rely on these ecosystems for ecotourism.

However, these reefs are especially under threat by ocean acidification, caused by anthropogenic activities like the agricultural industry and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Ocean acidification is a ubiquitous and burgeoning problem that plagues our world’s oceans, and efficient action is needed immediately to mitigate its impact and spread. The multifaceted means by which we take action must be elevated as a priority, therefore I strongly believe in the vast potential of taking on an interdisciplinary approach toward addressing ocean acidification and its impacts on coastal communities and ecosystems.

I had the privilege and opportunity to attend a panel discussion called “OA Action Plans: Increasing ambition for climate action & transforming planning and response to climate-ocean change” at the Ocean Pavilion during my first day at COP27. This event was composed of government leaders and organizations from around the world who have been committing their efforts to the protection of coastal communities, livelihoods, and species from ocean acidification and other climate-related issues.

Three speakers stood out to me in particular: Ambassador Ilana Seid, the permanent representative to UN Palau, Arthur Tuda, Ph.D., the executive director of the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association, and Congressman Eduardo Murat from the General Congress of the United Mexican States.

Ambassador Seid discussed the significant strides taken by researchers from Stanford University and the University of Hawaii within the collaborative space of science in the protection of marine biodiversity. One innovation that I found to be especially interesting was the development of ocean antacid tablets to mitigate the effects of ocean acidification and thus help prevent food shortages for reliant coastal communities and during biological catastrophes.

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Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14^Footnote1 aims to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources. It recognizes that the health of oceans and seas directly affects:

• rainwater
• drinking water
• weather
• climate
• coastlines
• much of our food
• the oxygen in our air

SDG 14 aims for results such as:

• significantly reduced marine pollution
• more sustainable management, protection and conservation of marine and coastal ecosystems
• an end to overfishing and ghost gear

Canadian ambition under Life below water

Canada’s ambition for his goal is to protect and conserve marine areas and sustainably manages ocean fish stocks. With the world’s longest coastline, SDG 14 is highly relevant to Canada. Changing ocean conditions are already directly affecting communities along our Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic coasts, including Indigenous communities. These include, rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, ocean acidification, and thinning sea ice. The Government of Canada has placed a high priority on conserving and protecting the oceans and ensuring sustainable fisheries.

The national targets are:

• to conserve 25% of Canada’s oceans by 2025, and 30% by 2030
• for key fish^Footnote2 and invertebrate stocks to be managed and harvested at levels considered to be sustainable by 2023, from a baseline of 96% in 2016

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What are we doing to improve life below water in Canada

Canada continues to make progress on marine conservation. Budget 2021 included $976.8 million towards the goal of conserving 25 per cent of Canada’s oceans by 2025, and 30 per cent by 2030. These targets will be achieved through the establishment of marine protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, including marine refuges. This builds on Canada’s success in exceeding its commitment to conserve 10 per cent of its marine and coastal areas by 2020. As of the end of 2020, 13.8 per cent of Canada’s coastal and marine areas were recognized as conserved through a network of marine protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures.

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The Government of Canada conducts ocean monitoring to assess the state of coastal and offshore waters. This aims to better understand and predict the future state of Canada’s oceans. Canada works with domestic and international partners, particularly the United States, to coordinate ocean acidification observing and monitoring activities.

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What Canada is doing to improve life below water abroad

The Government of Canada is addressing marine pollution by spearheading the Ocean Plastics Charter. The Charter is the only global framework that takes a comprehensive life-cycle approach to addressing marine plastic pollution. The Charter addresses plastic waste in developing countries, sparks innovation to beat plastic pollution, and supports innovative private-public partnerships. Canada’s funding includes $69 million through the World Bank for an international fund to address plastic waste in developing countries, and investments in made-in-Canada innovative approaches and technologies that help to stop the flow of plastics to the oceans.

The federal government works to protect marine and coastal ecosystems through involvement in international activities such as the International Coral Reef Initiative.

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Time is running out to avoid the worst impacts of ocean acidification on marine life, livelihoods and economies. A climate-change impact on the ocean, alongside warming seas and deoxygenation, ocean acidification is belatedly finding its way onto the global climate and ocean agendas, even as the gravity of its impact on ocean health and on the stability of the ocean as a vital earth system remains underappreciated.

A Back to Blue roundtable discussion at the World Ocean Summit Asia-Pacific, led by Charles Goddard, editorial director at Economist Impact and supported by the Nippon Foundation, explored the state of the science on ocean acidification and the most promising approaches to remediation. The key takeaways from the session were as follows:

The science is clear: the ocean is becoming more acidic, threatening marine life and health, and undermining the planet’s ability to fight climate change

The ocean absorbs around one-third of the carbon dioxide produced by humans; the absorbed carbon dioxide then reacts with seawater to create carbonic acid, resulting in an increase in the acidity of the ocean. The open ocean is 40% more acidic than before the industrial revolution.

This is weakening the ability of marine organisms that rely on calcium carbonate to build their shells and skeletons. Marine organisms also have to use more energy to deal with environmental stresses, as energy is drawn away from growth and reproduction, threatening species sustainability. Evidence also shows that acidification is more variable and extreme in coastal areas due to the interactions with rivers and the seabed. This is worrying because coastal areas are where human interactions with oceans and goods and services provided are more heavily relied on.

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Rapid action to redress acidification is needed, but geoengineering approaches need to be carefully tested before being conducted at scale.

A rapid reduction in carbon emissions is clearly a priority to protect our ocean from further harm, but carbon dioxide removal techniques should also be explored in earnest to offer a faster, more scalable route. These range from nature-based solutions such as restoring or nurturing mangroves which increase alkalinity to more radical approaches like ocean iron fertilisation, a technique based on the theory that stimulating phytoplankton growth with iron increases atmospheric carbon absorption into the ocean, as part of the biological pump system. Such projects are now already underway, having been more theoretical in the past, but there is no global discussion about what techniques are acceptable and who controls implementation.

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Ocean acidification needs to be made relevant at the local level.

Ocean acidification is not well-understood, in layman’s terms, at the local community level. In geographies where scientific capacity is limited, citizen science and participation is key. In the Maldives, experts actively engage with fishers and communities to guide them on what to look out for, and on activities they should and should not engage in at specific times, like dredging. Acidification needs to be framed in relevant ways, like the dissolution of coral reefs which impacts fisheries and tourism, which would gain more attention from those who use the ocean daily.

Vulnerable countries need funding for regulation and monitoring and to build capacity to lead the science

Geopolitical factors and regional engagement are crucial to a well-coordinated response to ocean health, as actions at individual nation level are undermined by lower standards elsewhere. The Maldives has among the most sustainable tuna fishing industries in the world, using pole and line approaches, but this is a migratory species and if there are nearby trawlers, the country’s efforts are diluted. Several speakers said there was a need for more public funding and support, and crucially, efforts to help countries generate the science, knowledge and evidence they need on ocean sustainability, rather than relying on academic researchers in the global North.

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