Two-year engineer contract, “Effects of ocean acidification on benthic communities in the Mediterranean Sea”

A research engineer position is available for two years within the project eFOCE (European Free-Ocean Carbon dioxide Enrichment experiments) funded by the “Fondation BNP-Paribas”

Ocean acidification and its impacts on organisms are the subject of growing research interest. Most of the data acquired so far have been obtained through laboratory perturbation experiments although only in situ studies will allow investigation of the effects of ocean acidification over long periods of time, on the structure and functioning of natural communities. Within the framework of the eFOCE project, an in situ benthic experimental system, that allows the continuous regulation of pH in coastal areas, will be constructed and tested to assess the effect of ocean acidification on key benthic communities of the Mediterranean Sea.

Responsibilities: The applicant will be in charge of construction, testing and deployment of this in situ perturbation system in the bay of Villefranche-sur-Mer. The work will involve close interaction with colleagues from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI; USA), who are partners of the project and have designed previous FOCE systems.

The acid test

Why ocean acidification matters to you.

Every day, the oceans do us a huge favor. Across the planet, they absorb nearly one million metric tons of carbon dioxide each hour, removing about a third of the greenhouse gases from the atmosphere that would otherwise speed up global warming. This seems, at first, to be a massively beneficial service.

But the oceans haven’t been able to soak up the extra carbon pollution without a cost.

The basic chemistry is simple: as oceans absorb more carbon dioxide, they become increasingly acidic and potentially harmful to a wide swath of sea life, from giant clams to tiny plankton that play a role in the diets of most things you might see at a local aquarium. Many of those species wind up on fishing boats, processing plants and dinner plates around the world.

Marine life—from clams to king crab, sea urchins to salmon—has supported the Northwest and its inhabitants for centuries. But a mix of ocean currents and chemistry has put local waters on the leading edge of ocean acidification, a phenomenon that could produce profound changes to the marine food web and industries built upon it.

Endangered gourmet sea snail could be doomed by increasing ocean acidity

Increasing levels of ocean acidity could spell doom for British Columbia’s already beleaguered northern abalone, according to the first study to provide direct experimental evidence that changing sea water chemistry is negatively affecting an endangered species.

The northern abalone–prized as a gourmet delicacy–has a range that extents along the North American west coast from Baja California to Alaska. Even though British Columbia’s northern abalone commercial fisheries where closed in 1990 to protect dwindling populations, the species has continued to struggle, largely due to poaching.

To better understand the impact climate change — and specifically, increasing ocean acidity — has on this endangered species, UBC researchers exposed northern abalone larvae to water containing increased levels of CO2. Increases from 400 to 1,800 parts per million killed 40 per cent of larvae, decreased the size of larvae that did survive, and increased the rate of shell abnormalities.

“This is quite bad news, not only in terms of the endangered populations of abalone in the wild, but also the impact it might have on the prospects for aquaculture and coastal economics,” says Christopher Harley, Associate Professor with the Department of Zoology and one of the authors of the study.