The U.S. Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry (OCB) Project Office with co-sponsorship from the European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA) coordinated and hosted a hands-on ocean acidification short course from 2-13 November 2009 in Woods Hole, MA USA. With representation from 14 countries, the course convened 20 instructors and 35 participants (postdoctoral and faculty level) from multiple sub-disciplines of biological and chemical oceanography.



Building upon recommendations from the recent Ocean Acidification Best Practices Workshop in Kiel, Germany, instructors educated participants on appropriate chemical and biological techniques and protocols related to ocean acidification research using a combination of lectures and hands-on laboratory experiences. The first segment of the course focused on water sampling and measurement techniques for inorganic carbon parameters in seawater. Instructors also provided demonstrations of software packages used to calculate CO2 system parameters (CO2SYS, seacarb). The second segment focused on key aspects of ocean acidification experimental design, such as manipulation of seawater chemistry, biological perturbation approaches, and lab- and field-based methods for measuring organism calcification and other physiological responses to seawater chemistry changes. The third segment included lectures and hands-on work with biogeochemical modeling and use of large global data sets in ocean acidification research. In the final segment, participants learned about ocean acidification data reporting requirements and metadata guidelines and gained hands-on experience with the Ocean Data View software.

For more information, please visit the course website at http://www.whoi.edu/courses/OCB-OA/. The Course Materials page includes a full course syllabus, background materials, and lectures from the course. In the coming weeks, we will also be posting video files of all course lectures.

Heather Benway
Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry (OCB) Project Office

Cephalopods play a key role in many marine trophic networks and constitute alternative fisheries resources, especially given the ongoing decline in finfish stocks. Along the European coast, the eggs of the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis are characterized by an increasing permeability of the eggshell during development, which leads to selective accumulation of essential and non-essential elements in the embryo. Temperature and pH are two critical factors that affect the metabolism of marine organisms in the coastal shallow waters. In this study, we investigated the effects of pH and temperature through a crossed (3×2; pH 8.1 (pCO₂, 400 ppm), 7.85 (900 ppm) and 7.6 (1400 ppm) at 16 and 19°C, respectively) laboratory experiment. Seawater pH showed a strong effect on the egg weight and non-significant impact on the weight of hatchlings at the end of development implying an egg swelling process and embryo growth disturbances. The lower the seawater pH, the more ^{110 m}Ag was accumulated in the tissues of hatchlings. The ¹⁰⁹Cd concentration factor (CF) decreased with decreasing pH and ⁶⁵Zn CF reached maximal values pH 7.85, independently of temperature. Our results suggest that pH and temperature affected both the permeability properties of the eggshell and embryonic metabolism. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first studies on the consequences of ocean acidification and ocean warming on metal uptake in marine organisms, and our results indicate the need to further evaluate the likely ecotoxicological impact of the global change on the early-life stages of the cuttlefish.



Lacoue-Labarthe, T., Martin, S., Oberhänsli, F., Teyssié, J.-L., Markich, S., Ross, J., & Bustamante, P., 2009. Effects of increased pCO2 and temperature on trace element (Ag, Cd and Zn) bioaccumulation in the eggs of the common cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis. Biogeosciences 6(11): 2561-2573. Article.

Everyone loves chemistry; it’s the difference between Pero and real coffee, Morton’s and sea salt. It’s the magic between Tracy and Hepburn.

But on the larger scale, we take chemistry for granted and it’s killing us. The earth has an insidious chemical change going on through the vast majority of its surface area where the oceans meet, belly to belly, with the sky. Our skies, now laden with unusually high and accelerating levels of carbon dioxide, are tainting our oceans with carbonic acid in a process called acidification. It’s a reaction we learned about in high school chemistry class, so there’s no real debate about it. And some forms of sea life are already beginning to falter.

In the Monaco Declaration, marine scientists revealed that in as little as four decades our oceans may be too acidic to support the formation of shells, or even the plankton and corals on which our oceans’ food webs rely.

Our problem with burning fossil fuels really is the carbon dioxide, not just the climate havoc it creates, and this harm cannot be mitigated by much ballyhooed notions of geo-engineering.

Now, aren’t you ready for a little good news?

How about a plan to reduce atmospheric CO2 at industrial scale in a safe and economically attractive scheme? At New Sky Energy, a new start-up here in Boulder, a Fairview High graduate named Deane Little has developed a technology for converting waste salt (from agricultural runoff or flue gas desulfurization), processing it with water electrolysis to yield oxygen, hydrogen, a strong acid and a strong base. That last one is the key — the base naturally attracts CO2 out of the air and traps it in crystals which can be used as high-value filler for countless common products like glass, plastics, dry wall, bricks, asphalt and concrete. Those crystals can make products which are up to 40 percent stored CO2.

NewSky’s CO2 collection comes with the production of four marketable products. The sale of the oxygen, acid and base (and its CO2 compounds) can subsidize the production of the hydrogen to one-third of the price point goal set by the Department of Energy, according to Little.

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Anne Butterfield, The Huffington Post, 16 November 2009. Full article.

You might have read this week about how our oceans are changing. A recent report by federal scientists confirmed what many fishermen already knew: the fish are on the move. Warmer waters are pushing species like cod, haddock and winter flounder further north, causing New England fishermen to have to go farther out to sea to get their traditional catch. Dr. Mike Sieracki from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in West Boothbay Maine, has gone farther afield to study the effect of climate change. He’s currently off the coast of Malta in the Mediterranean, doing a stint aboard a research sailing vessel which this year began a three-year circumnavigation of the world to study the acidification of the ocean. He spoke earlier with MPBN’s Tom Porter.



Dr. Mike Sieracki: So I’m on “Tara” which is a French sailing schooner which is on a voyage around the world, the voyage of discovery, and I joined her in Malta, about a week ago, and I’ll be on for a total of three weeks, on the legs from Malta to Tripoli, and then Tripoli to Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Tom Porter : Can you give us an idea of the scale of the expedition? What’s the big picture? Where’s it going to go on to? And who’s on the boat?

MS: The boat is a round-the-world expedition, it’s going to go for three years and it started in September in France going through the Mediterranean in the first year and we’ll finish the first year in Cape Town, South Africa, and the secondnd year we’ll take it through the southern Ocean, the South Atlantic and them across the Pacific to Australia, and the third year we’ll take it from Australia up through the Pacific north, up around Alaska and through the Northwest passage back to Boston, and then over to France.

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TP: And what effect does it appear that climate change could be having on the plankton and what are the implications for the rest of us?

MS: The newest concern has to do with ocean acidification. All the CO2 that we’re putting into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels is causing the ocean PH to start to change and that could have a more direct impact and it’s one of the things we’re going to be measuring on the Tara expedition.

TP: Now you’re out there in Mediterranean at the moment, but back here in Maine we’re seeing evidence of global warming in the ocean. We were just hearing about how warmer waters in the gulf of Maine are driving a lot fish away from the coast. Also scientists here are finding out that ocean acidification is posing a threat to clams and other bivalve populations. What are you noticing out there in terms of the impact climate change is having on marine life?

MS: Well, there are some things that we’ve seen changes in like terrapods which are little shelled animals, and their shells get absolved by the lower PH levels of acidification. We’re also worried about corals, we’re worred about any of the calcium-forming organisms like shellfish, but there’s very little research on what the effects of PH are on these organisms, because we never really thought it would be possible to change the PH of the ocean.

TP: This expedition really seems to exploring new ground and blazing a trail in terms of the scope and depth of the work it’s doing.

MS: Yeah it really is. There was a previous round-the-world trip but it really stayed in tropical waters and this expedition is really going to sample the important and interesting areas of the ocean including both the southern and northern polar regions.

Tom Porter, The Maine Public Broadcasting Network, 13 November 2009. Full article, video and audio.

Anyone who cares about wild salmon and tries to reconcile the tolerant attitude of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to the environmentally damaging practices of salmon farming must confront a bewildering question. If DFO is responsible for the well-being of Canada’s wild salmon stocks, why does it endorse salmon farming in principle and allow open net-pens in practice when such an industrial practice is a clear risk to wild stocks and causes demonstrable harm to the very species and habitat that DFO is legally mandated to protect?

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Concurrently, the emission of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is acidifying the world’s oceans. About a third of the CO2 we emit from industrial activity is added to the atmosphere to cause global warming, a third is absorbed by plants and a third is dissolved into oceans. When carbon dioxide mixes with salt water, it forms carbonic acid, and this process is lowering the ocean’s pH — making it more acidic.



How serious is this acidification process? Studies at the Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic Ocean have found that north pole seawater will likely reach “corrosive” levels of acidity within 10 years. Professor Jean-Pierre Gattuso of France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, told an international oceanographic conference, “We knew that the seas were getting more acidic and this would disrupt the ability of shellfish — like mussels — to grow their shells. But now we realize the situation is much worse. The water will become so acidic it will actually dissolve the shells of living shellfish” (Globe & Mail, Oct. 7/09). The other oceans of the world are also becoming more acidic, and they will follow the fate of the Arctic Ocean. When this happens, the foundation of the marine food chain will collapse and sea life as we know it, including wild salmon, will cease to exist.

As well as acidifying, oceans are also warming — indeed, oceans are the principal heat sink that has been absorbing most of the planet’s warming. Warmer water contains less dissolved oxygen. Salmon, like other fish, breathe this vital gas. The research of Gary Shaffer at the University of Denmark calculates that in a worst case-scenario, the 400-plus “dead zones” in the world’s oceans could increase 20-fold if we don’t control greenhouse gas emissions (New Scientist, Jan. 31/09). Less oxygen means less vital salmon and lower survival rates at sea.

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Ray Grigg, canada.com, 13 November 2009. Full article.

Highly accurate and precise measurements of marine carbon components are required in the study of the marine carbon cycle, particularly when investigating the causes for its variability from seasonal to interannual timescales. This is especially true in the investigation of the consequences of anthropogenic influences.

The analysis of any marine carbon component requires elaborate instrumentation, most of which is currently used onboard ships, either in manual or automated mode. Technological developments result in more and more instruments that have sufficient long-term reliability so that they can be deployed on commercial ships, surface moorings, and buoys, whilst the great technological and operational challenges mean that only few sensors have been developed that can be used for sub-surface in situ measurements on floats, robots, or gliders. There is a special need for autonomous instruments and sensors that are able to measure a combination of different components, in order to increase the spatial and temporal coverage of marine carbon data.

This paper describes analytical techniques used for the measurement of the marine dissolved carbon components, both inorganic and organic: the fugacity of CO2, total dissolved inorganic carbon, pH, alkalinity, and dissolved organic carbon. By pointing out advantages, disadvantages, and/or challenges of the techniques employed in the analysis of each component, we aim to aid non-carbon marine scientists, sensor developers and technologists, in the decision of which challenges to address in further development.



Schuster, U., Hannides, A., Mintrop, L., & Körtzinger, A., 2009. Sensors and instruments for oceanic dissolved carbon measurements. Ocean Science 5(4):547-558. Article.

Ocean acidification, caused by rising CO₂ levels, is affecting not only coral reefs, but coastal ecosystems by changing everything from the ability of oysters to adhere to the riverbed to the extent of dead zones along the U.S. Pacific coast.

Ocean acidification is occurring because CO₂ from the burning of fossil fuels is dissolving in the seas, creating a weak carbonic acid solution. Much of the attention on the problem so far has focussed on coral reefs, which are particularly vulnerable to changes in pH (see “Oceans of acid”).

Combination of impacts

But riverine and other coastal environments may also be unusually vulnerable because they face a range of additional threats from problems such as pollution and variable levels of acidity and organic matter flowing into them, said Richard Feely, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, USA.

“Each estuary is different [and]… in coastal ecosystems, we have to think about combined impacts,” he said at a scientific meeting of the Coastal and Estuary Research Foundation in Portland, Oregon earlier this month.

Another danger is that coastal systems are highly variable. Adding the problem of acidification on top of their natural variability might push them over tipping points from which they cannot recover, added Burke Hales, an oceanographer at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

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Holly Hight, COSMOS Magazine, 12 November 2009. Full article.

Ocean acidification is dramatically changing the chemistry of our oceans and affecting sea creatures like the humpback whale. Is it too late to turn the problem around?

At first there may just be a wisp of spray amongst the waves.

Then suddenly a humpback whale launches itself bodily from the water. With a splash that gives a hint to its size, it once more sinks beneath the waves.

In June, humpbacks migrate from their feeding grounds in the Southern Ocean to the warmer tropics to breed. All along the east and west coasts of Australia people gather on cliff tops and beaches hoping to catch a glimpse of the estimated 17,000 whales that make the journey each year.

Yet these gentle mammals are facing a threat many of the delighted spectators may not have heard of: ocean acidification.

Also known as “the other CO2 problem”, along with climate change it’s another side effect of the increasing amounts of carbon dioxide that humans are putting into the atmosphere.

Scientists say the problem is big enough that it will affect sea creatures from the tiniest microscopic crustaceans to marine giants, such as humpback whales.

Acid oceans

It’s well known that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing because of the fossil fuels we’re burning.

It’s less well known that the ocean soaks up a lot of this carbon dioxide, buffering humans from some of the impacts of climate change. However in acting as a giant CO2 sponge, the ocean’s chemistry is affected, causing ocean acidification.

Dr Ben McNeil, a climate scientist at the University of New South Wales explains that acidity is measured on the pH scale from one to 14, with one being very acidic, seven being neutral and 14 being very basic or alkaline. Measuring the amount of free hydrogen ions in a substance gives the pH value.

“Normal pH of seawater is around 8.1. It’s weakly alkaline,” he says.

Dissolved CO2 reacts with ocean water to form carbonic acid. Until the industrial revolution this chemical reaction had not been a problem because it was — quite literally — a drop in the ocean. But then humans started burning fossil fuels more rapidly which ramped up CO2 production.

The Monaco Declaration, a statement signed by more than 150 marine scientists at the beginning of 2009, said that as much as a quarter of the carbon dioxide we produce is absorbed by the ocean.

With more carbonic acid than ever being formed, the pH of seawater has dropped slightly towards the more acidic end of the scale.

“In the last 200 years we’ve seen a 0.1 drop ,” says McNeil, who was a signatory to the Monaco Declaration.

“But pH is measured in a logarithmic scale and decreasing pH by 0.1 doubles the amount of hydrogen ions which measure acidity… It essentially means we’ve increased [surface ocean] acidity by 30 per cent.”

In June 2009, the InterAcademy Panel, a worldwide network of national science academies, stated that this “current rate of change is much more rapid than during any event over the last 65 million years”.

“If we don’t do anything [to slow carbon dioxide emissions] we’ll essentially double the acidity [of the oceans] by the end of the century,” warns McNeil.

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Sara Phillips, ABC Science, 11 November 2009. Full article.

Unlike some sexual processes in the animal world, coral reproduction remains a rather magical and mysterious event. And Dr Selina Ward loves it. The thousands of little red bundles of eggs and sperm are, she says, “beautiful”.

But at Heron Island Research Station, as she waits patiently for her corals to spawn, there’s now something more to Dr Ward’s research than simply untangling the mysteries of how corals release their egg and sperm bundles to the ocean currents.

Dr Ward, from the University of Queensland’s Centre for Marine Studies, is looking at how changes in the ocean’s chemistry – driven by increasing greenhouse gases – will affect the reproduction of corals and their ability to “settle” and build new reefs. And her preliminary results are not looking good.

When coral scientists first looked at the impact of global warming on reefs, they focused on rising sea temperatures and bleaching. This is still a concern and likely to impact large parts of the Great Barrier Reef, but the scientists now believe ocean acidification could be the process that will push the world’s reefs to the edge.



The oceans act as a big sponge for carbon dioxide produced by human industry. Since the industrial revolution, the oceans have soaked up about half of the greenhouse gases produced by humans. That carbon dioxide has reacted with the water, making the ocean more acidic. As the oceans’ pH levels drop, life becomes harder for organisms that rely on making calcium carbonate – such as corals and shell fish, and even tiny but important creatures such as krill.

Coral scientists are scrambling to understand what this process will mean for reef systems. Dr Ward’s colleagues, including well-known reef scientist Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, wrote a paper in 2007 showing that, as carbon dioxide levels increase, the worldwide area reefs can grow will shrink dramatically. Even at carbon dioxide levels of 450 and 500 parts per million (the atmosphere is now at 378 ppm) the area is very small, and does not include the Great Barrier Reef. This slide shows a graph of that work and the basic process of ocean acidification.

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Melissa Fyfe, Brisbane Times, 9 November 2009. Full article.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego honors His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco for his stewardship of the water planet.




YouTube, 2 November 2009. Video.