Rio+20 side event: building marine ecosystem resilience to ocean acidification

Organizing partners

Pacific Small Island Developing States at the United Nations in New York (namely Fiji, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu) together with Earthjustice.

Introduction

The Pacific Small Island Developing States in partnership with Earthjustice will host a side event on “Building Marine Ecosystem Resilience to Ocean Acidification” during the Rio+20 final PrepComm. A significant body of science and experience shows that reducing pollution, overfishing, and other stressors builds resilience to ocean acidification in sensitive species and ecosystems, including coral reefs, critical for marine biodiversity, global food security and sustainable livelihoods and development in the Pacific and around the world. Building resilience is fundamental to the three pillars of sustainable development on which the Pacific depends. Legal, policy, and financial solutions will be examined with special attention given to successful efforts to build marine ecosystem resilience in the Small Island Developing States.

Meeting information: Review of the national ocean acidification research plan

Review of the National Ocean Acidification Research Plan
March 29, 2012 – March 29, 2012
Teleconference

Ocean Acidification in the Arctic – challenges and knowledge gaps

Friday seminar by Maria Fossheim 

Time and place: Mar 23, 2012 02:15 PM – 03:00 PM, Room 3508

Abstract

Ocean Acidification (OA) is the term used to describe the effect of oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO₂ primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels. This has resulted in decreased pH and carbonate ion concentrations [CO₃^2-]. Lower pH leads to a decrease in carbonate concentration and changes in the calcification process, which may have negative impacts on calcifying organisms, such as primary producers, zooplankton (e.g. pteropods and crustaceans) and cold water corals. The cold and relatively fresh waters at high latitudes promote CO2 solubility, and calcium carbonate dissolution, which makes these waters particularly vulnerable for OA impact. The Arctic Ocean is predicted to be the first to become undersaturated with respect to aragonite, which is the most labile form of calcium carbonate, hence aragonite-forming organisms such as pteropods may be particularly at risk.

Lecture: Climate change and ocean acidification

Sunday, Mar 25 7:00p to 8:30p

at Joyce Beers Community Center, San Diego, CA

Daniel Richter, a PhD candidate at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, will discuss Climate Change and Ocean Acidification for the March meeting of the SD Association for Rational Inquiry.

Whatcom Democrats: Ocean acidification seminar

Date: 22 March 2012 – 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Location: 10441 Bayview-Edison Rd., Mt Vernon, WA 98273

Are you curious about the effects of carbon pollution on our oceans?  Join two of Washington state’s leading science and policy experts to learn about this issue and new research in Washington state. This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Northwest Straits Commission, Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, and the Whatcom and Skagit Marine Resources Committees.   

TAMUCC ocean acidification seminar

The College of Science and Engineering Distinguished Lecture Series at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi will present Dr. Burke Hales, associate professor of ocean ecology and biogeochemistry at Oregon State University, who will speak on “Ocean Acidification” on Friday, March 23, at 3:30 p.m. in the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, conference room.

Discussion session for the forthcoming SOLAS open science conference in May 2012

Solas Open Science Conference
Washington State, USA
7th-10th May 2012

The discussion session title is: “How to detect and monitor potential ocean acidification large-scale impacts – what is needed today?“

Though we know much more details about potential consequences of ocean acidification for the marine environment today than 5 years ago, it is still difficult to identify related impacts on the large scale. Present international biogeochemical sampling programmes may not be ideally designed to provide the appropriate information for such an impact assessment. What may these large scale impacts be, at which time frame would they emerge, and which variables would we need to measure and simulate in order to confirm/reject postulated consequences of ocean acidification? Which variables have to be measured now systematically and through which kind of spatio-temporal data coverage in order to determine ocean acidification impacts by re-occupations of sampling locations in one, two, or three decades from now (legacy data sets)? What are the best early warning indicators for dangerous ocean acidification impacts (sustainability link)?

Darwin School on Biogeosciences 2012

Utrecht and Texel, the Netherlands
  

1-13 July 2012

The second edition of the Darwin Summer School will give you an update on the state-of-the-art research within the field of Biogeosciences. Main subjects will be ocean acidification, the carbon cycle, microbial ecology, biomarkers, terrestrial carbon cycling and climate reconstructions, in the past, present and future. The aim is to understand the functioning of global, regional and local ecosystems, focusing on change and feedback at all time scales in biotic and abiotic components of a changing Earth. This Summer School is all about interdisciplinary research: you are expected to work on the interface of biology, earth sciences, chemistry and physics.

Ocean acidification: An evening seminar

When: 22 March 2012, from 06:00pm to 08:00pm

Where: Padilla Bay Reserve; 10441 Bayview Edison Road; Mount Vernon, WA

Contact name: Caroline Gibson

Contact phone: 360-385-1153 OR 360-428-1057

Welcome - Ginny Broadhurst, Northwest Straits Commission

Ocean Acidification in the Salish Sea
The basic science of ocean acidification, how will it affect this region and why should we care?
Dr. Terrie Klinger
University of Washington

Third Symposium on The Ocean in a High-CO2 World: Travel support for early-career scientists and developing country scientists

A consortium of institutions and organizations from Monterey, California will host the third symposium on The Ocean in a High-CO2 World on 21-24 September 2012 (see symposium Web site at http://www.highco2-iii.org/main.cfm?cid=2259). Like the first two symposia in this series, the Monterey symposium is expected to attract many of the world’s leading ocean scientists to discuss the impacts of ocean acidification on marine organisms, ecosystems, and biogeochemical cycles, as well as social and economic consequences of ocean acidification. The first three days of the symposium will feature plenary, parallel, and poster sessions that will provide an opportunity for presentations of the latest scientific results and discussions of the state of research in ocean acidification. The fourth day will focus on the policy implications of ocean acidification, starting with a summary of the scientific presentations and continuing with panels of eminent policymakers who will comment on how the science of ocean acidification is impacting policy at national and international levels.