Session at the AGU Fall Meeting 2012: Understanding ocean acidification using multi-source data

Description:

Understanding the impacts of ocean acidification (OA) requires a multidisciplinary approach across multiple temporal/spatial scales to study how ecosystems respond to changing ocean chemistry. We seek abstracts for OA research and data syntheses that connect past, present, and future ocean chemical changes to impacts on marine ecosystems using data from laboratory/field experiments lasting 1 month, coastal/ocean monitoring programs using various sensors/platforms, models, and rely on information stewardship. Federal agencies are collaborating to improve access and discovery of quality controlled OA data. We hope that this session will reveal how PIs integrate information and where effort must be expended to improve the process.

Ocean acidification limits temperature-induced poleward expansion of coral habitats around Japan

Using results from four coupled global carbon cycle-climate models combined with in situ observations, we estimate the combined effects of future global warming and ocean acidification on potential habitats for tropical/subtropical and temperate coral communities in the seas around Japan. The suitability of the coral habitats are identified primarily on the basis of the currently observed ranges for temperature and saturation states Ω with regard to aragonite (Ω_arag). We find that under the “business as usual” SRES A2 scenario, coral habitats will expand northward by several hundred kilometers by the end of this century. At the same time, coral habitats are projected to become sandwiched between the tropical regions, where the frequency of coral bleaching will increase, and the temperate-to-subpolar latitudes, where Ω_arag will become too low to support sufficiently high calcification rates. As a result, the area of coral habitats around Japan that is suitable to tropical-subtropical communities will be reduced by half by the 2020s to 2030s, and is projected to disappear by the 2030s to 2040s. The suitable habitats for the temperate coral communities are also becoming smaller, although at a less pronounced rate due to their higher tolerance for low Ω_arag.

“Ocean acidification – acting on evidence” now available in Portuguese

The guide for policymakers “Ocean acidification – acting on evidence”, produced by the international Ocean Acidification Reference User group (iOA-RUG), is now available in Portuguese. This briefing paper provides essential information and highlights the actions needed on ocean acidification by Governments at Rio+20.

Rio+20: adressing ocean acidification (part I of II) (video)

Seawater chemistry is changing due to the ocean’s absorption of carbon dioxide. Ocean acidification is an emerging global issue with potentially serious impacts on the marine environment, marine biodiversity, and food security. This event explores our current understanding of ocean acidification and its potential impacts, discusses opportunities for international collaboration and capacity-building, and highlights the importance of ocean acidification research through an international observing network.

Global ocean acidification monitoring network to launch at Rio summit

Efforts to deal with increasing acidification of the oceans will get a signal of support Sunday with a U.S. announcement that it will provide $1 million over the next three years to launch a global monitoring network.

The creation of the International Coordinating Office for Ocean Acidification, which will be housed within the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Environment Laboratories in Monaco, marks the first worldwide effort to track how increasing carbon emissions are making the world’s oceans more acidic.

Officials from the United States, which, along with Australia and New Zealand, will establish the office, will make the announcement Sunday afternoon at the Rio+20 Earth Summit, a once-in-a-decade meeting that is convening in Rio de Janeiro this week. Also known as the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, the gathering aims to assess the state of the planet and take steps to solve its most critical problems.

Animation of the temporal evolution of ocean acidification in the California Current System

The left side shows the depth of the saturation horizon with regard to the CaCO3 mineral aragonite, and the right side shows the surface ocean pH. The video is related to the paper “Rapid Progression of Ocean Acidification in the California Current System,” by N. Gruber; C. Hauri; Z. Lachkar; D. Loher at ETH Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland; T.L. Frölicher at Princeton University in Princeton, NJ; G.-K. Plattner at University of Bern in Bern, Switzerland.”

Evidence for end-Permian ocean acidification from calcium isotopes in biogenic apatite

End-Permian (ca. 252 Ma) carbon isotope, paleobiological, and sedimentary data suggest that changes in ocean carbonate chemistry were directly linked to the mass extinction of marine organisms. Calcium isotopes provide a geochemical means to constrain the nature of these changes. The δ⁴⁴/⁴⁰Ca of carbonate rocks from southern China exhibits a negative excursion across the end-Permian extinction horizon, consistent with either a negative shift in the δ⁴⁴/⁴⁰Ca of seawater or a change in the calcite/aragonite ratio of carbonate sediments at the time of deposition. To test between these possibilities, we measured the δ⁴⁴/⁴⁰Ca of hydroxyapatite conodont microfossils from the global stratotype section and point (GSSP) for the Permian-Triassic boundary at Meishan, China. The conodont δ⁴⁴/⁴⁰Ca record shows a negative excursion similar in stratigraphic position and magnitude to that previously observed in carbonate rocks. Parallel negative excursions in the δ⁴⁴/⁴⁰Ca of carbonate rocks and conodont microfossils cannot be accounted for by a change in carbonate mineralogy, but are consistent with a negative shift in the δ⁴⁴/⁴⁰Ca of seawater. Such a shift is best accounted for by an episode of ocean acidification, pointing toward strong similarities between the greatest catastrophe in the history of animal life and anticipated global change during the twenty-first century.

Ocean Acidification at Rio+20 preparatory negotiations

Scott Doney and Sarah Cooley, both OCB scientists and Project Office staff members at WHOI, recently spoke at the United Nations as part of the informal negotiations on the zero draft of the outcome document for the Rio+20 Earth Summit, to be held in Rio de Janeiro on June 20-22, 2012.

A report from the ocean acidification data management workshop (March 13-15, 2012, Seattle, WA)

The NOAA Ocean Acidification Program, in partnership with the University of Washington and the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Regional Association Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems (NANOOS) hosted an invitational workshop on integrating ocean acidification (OA) data management for the U.S. March 13-15, 2012 in Seattle, Washington. The
workshop convened representatives from NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center, NOAA Fisheries, NOAA Oceans and Atmospheric Research division, U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System, NSF Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO), NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), NASA, Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS)-USA, U.S. Geological Survey, Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC)/DOE, OceanSITES, and various investigators involved in observations, experiments, modeling, and satellite research, including international participants. The goal of the workshop was to establish a framework for the handling of ocean acidification data that makes it possible for users to locate, understand, and utilize relevant data in support of scientific research and resource management. Outcomes included a shared vision for integrated OA data management and an initial OA Integrated Data Management Plan with an emphasis on near-term (2-year) goals.

EPOCA project ends

The four-year European Project on Ocean Acidification, or EPOCA, ended this spring. Since 2008, OCB and EPOCA scientists collaborated on a number of research projects and organizational activities, including (but not limited to!) the OA FAQs, the Oceanography Magazine special issue on ocean acidification (2010), the OCB Short Course on ocean acidification (2009), the Kiel short course on ocean acidification (2010), and the OA guide to best practices (2010). Congratulations to EPOCA on an extremely successful project! We at OCB have enjoyed collaborating with you.