Session on climate change and ocean acidification in ICES international symposium

We would like to draw your attention to the upcoming ICES International Symposium “Issues Confronting the Deep Oceans”, April 27-30.

Aim of the meeting

With increasing pursuit of new food, energy, mineral, and medicinal resources, technological advancements have made exploration and exploitation of the deep ocean (depths >200m) more possible today than ever before. With human activities expanding into the deep ocean, issues such as understanding deep ocean ecosystems, resilience of deep ocean resources to human disturbance, developing science-based regulations to ensure protection and sustainability, and being able to enforce existing and future management regulations are becoming priorities. Whether it be assessing deep ocean fisheries, habitats, potential energy and mineral resources, or potential development of high sea marine protected areas, pulling all interested stakeholders together (e.g., industry, enforcement, scientists, decision makers) under one symposia is thought never to have ever adequately occurred. This proposed symposium clearly addresses ICES goals of understanding the physical, chemical, and biological functioning of marine ecosystems as well as quantifying human impacts on marine ecosystems, including living marine resources.

Session D “Climate change and ocean acidification”.

EPOCA best practices workshop for ocean acidification research

November 19-21, 2008, Kiel, Germany

Maria Hood, Ulf Riebesell, Jean-Pierre Gattuso, Anne-Marin Nisumaa, and Lina Hansson on behalf of all workshop participants

The Best Practices Workshop convened approximately 40 scientists from 10 countries at IFM-GEOMAR in Kiel, Germany to establish an international agreement on best practices for ocean acidification research. The workshop was sponsored by the European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA), the International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (IOCCP), the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Program (OCB), and the Kiel “Future Ocean” Excellence Cluster. It covered seawater carbonate chemistry, experimental design of perturbation experiments, measurements of CO2- sensitive processes, and data reporting and usage. The participants agreed on the recommendations that would appear in a guide as well as on authors and timelines for drafting each section.

OceanObs09 Whitepaper: “An Ocean Acidification Observational Network”

Richard Feely recently solicited input for a community white paper for the OceanObs09 Conference next fall. The white paper would contribute to two sessions at the conference: 1) Large-scale physical properties and 2) Carbon and ecosystems, and will outline a strategy for a global ocean acidification observing system in the major ocean basins and marginal seas, warm water coral reefs, coastal margins, tropical to subtropical open-ocean regions, and high-latitude regions. The white paper will provide observing program recommendations, including temporal and spatial sampling requirements, core variables, measurement methods and protocols, data sharing and release policy, data assembly and archival, data products and synthesis activities, together with a proposal for a sustained network of ocean acidification observations. Please contact Richard Feely for more information.

NRC Study on Ocean Acidification

The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences is assembling a panel of 10-12 scientists to undertake an 18-month study to examine the impacts of ocean acidification on fisheries, marine mammals, coral reefs, and other natural resources. The committee membership will include expertise in chemical and biological oceanography, marine ecology, physiology, ocean-climate modeling, paleoceanography, and resource management and economics. Two OCB documents, the ocean acidification white paper and the ocean acidification scoping workshop report will provide a strong foundation for the NRC study.

OCB Ocean Acidification White Paper

Ocean acidification is a high priority research topic identified by OCB. The far-reaching effects of ocean acidification on marine biogeochemical cycles and biology, combined with the increasing interest in the topic both nationally and internationally, prompted the OCB-SSC to recommend the formation of an Ocean Acidification Subcommittee. The Subcommittee is being co-chaired by Joan Kleypas (NCAR) and Richard Feely (NOAA/PMEL). With approval from the OCB-SSC, the Ocean Acidification subcommittee members were invited from the U.S. community of researchers. The collective expertise of the Subcommittee encompasses the broad spectrum of topics relevant to ocean acidification.

Fishermen fighting together to conserve livelihood

The Alaska fishing industry and the conservation community have aligned often on the same side of policy issues impacting our way of life and the resources on which we depend.

This happened during the fight banning high seas drift nets, which indiscriminately caught millions of Alaska salmon. The fight to prohibit fish farming in federal waters off the coast of Alaska and collaboration on the protection of water quality are other examples.

Issues involving global climate change and ocean acidification represent one more area where the fishing industry can join forces with the environmental movement.

Ocean acidification and global climate change are both result from excessive carbon dumping into the atmosphere. While climate change encompasses the varied impacts resulting from the greenhouse effect, ocean acidification is a straightforward chemical response to carbon dioxide emissions and is measured and predicted with a high degree of certainty.