Emerging Themes in Ocean Acidification Science

In June 2015,Oceanography released a special issue on Emerging Themes in Ocean Acidification Science. The papers in this issue were written in conjunction with the 2013 Ocean Acidification Principle Investigator’s Meeting, organized by the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Project’s Ocean Acidification subcommittee and sponsored by NSF, NOAA, and NASA. This meeting brought together the US-funded OA research community to assess the state of the science and to identify opportunities and needs in future research.

These discussions highlighted that there are still many unanswered scientific and societal questions posed by coastal resource users and decision makers despite the rapid growth in ocean acidification (OA) research. Both ecological and social avenues of OA research require more information about the long-term, holistic responses of marine ecosystems to a multitude of environmental changes. In order to address these broad-scale questions and meet stakeholder needs, OA research needs to (1) incorporate OA responses in the context of multiple other stressors, such as rising temperatures; (2) focus on physiological responses over the long time scale (years–decades) rather than individual responses over short time, scales (weeks–months); (3) move from single-species research to communities, food webs, and ecosystems; and (4) include the human perspective and explore mitigation and human adaptation options. The papers in this special issue of Oceanography assessed the current state of OA research in the context of these four research transitions, including seven papers focusing on original discussion groups from the 2015 OAPI meeting, and nine additional papers reviewing the state of knowledge on ocean acidification.

Ten PMEL scientists contributed to this issue, including special issue guest editor Dr. Jeremy Mathis, recently selected as NOAA’s Climate Program Office director for the Arctic Research program. Dr. Mathis introduced the special issue and contributed to a review of the present applications of satellite data for aspects of carbonate system studies related to OA (Salisbury et al.). Dr. Mathis also led a study exploring the state of knowledge concerning OA impacts on the Arctic, including contributions from colleagues Drs. Jessica Cross and Wiley Evans of the PMEL Arctic Group (Mathis et al.). This study showed that OA may place substantial pressure on the massive commercial and subsistence fisheries in this highly vulnerable area by mid-century.

Dr. Richard Feely of PMEL’s Carbon group worked on several papers related to human adaptation, addressing the intersection of OA research, monitoring, and regional decision making along the US West Coast. Barton et al. discuss how the investigation of a massive die-off of oyster larvae in Pacific Northwest hatcheries in the last decade led to the discovery that upwelled water with naturally low pH further acidified by OA was responsible, prompting shellfish hatchery owners to implement new monitoring and culturing techniques to safeguard their businesses. McLaughlin et al. reviewed the California Current Acidification Network (C-CAN), which works to monitor and improve understanding of OA and its impacts on this coastal environment along the entire US West Coast.

Other studies focused on the developing structure and design of OA monitoring and research programs. Drs. Simone Alin and Adrienne Sutton, also of PMEL’s Carbon group, led reviews of monitoring networks for coastal areas (Alin et al.) and coral reef ecosystems (Sutton et al.), highlighting the need for integrated and ecosystem-based monitoring. Along similar lines, Andersson et al. discussed the necessary structure for ecosystem response experiments and researching different time scales of response. Dr. Nina Bednaršek, another PMEL carbon group member, co-authored both the Alin et al. and Andersson et al. reviews. PMEL scientists Cathy Cosca, Kevin O’Brien, and Steve Hankin contributed to a discussion paper exploring the critical issue of data management that involves collaboration and expertise beyond the ocean carbon cycle community (Garcia et al.). Yates et al., including Dr. Cross, considered research coordination in a societal context.

Overall, this issue highlights that the scientific knowledge from OA studies is already more closely aligning with the needs of decision makers and has already supported evidence-based decision making, a central NOAA mission goal.

• Mathis, J.T., S.R. Cooley, K.K. Yates, and P. Williamson (2015): Introduction to this special issue on ocean acidification: The pathway from science to policy. Oceanography, 28(2), 10–15, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2015.26.

• Salisbury, J., D. Vandemark, B. Jönsson, W. Balch, S. Chakraborty, S. Lohrenz, B. Chapron, B. Hales, A. Mannino, J.T. Mathis, N. Reul, S.R. Signorini, R. Wanninkhof, and K.K. Yates (2015): How can present and future satellite missions support scientific studies that address ocean acidification? Oceanography, 28(2), 108–121, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2015.35.

• Mathis, J.T., J.N. Cross, W. Evans, and S.C. Doney (2015): Ocean acidification in the surface waters of the Pacific-Arctic boundary regions. Oceanography, 28(2), 122–135, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2015.36.

• Barton, A., G.G. Waldbusser, R.A. Feely, S.B. Weisberg, J.A. Newton, B. Hales, S. Cudd, B. Eudeline, C.J. Langdon, I. Jefferds, T. King, A. Suhrbier, and K. McLaughlin (2015): Impacts of coastal acidification on the Pacific Northwest shellfish industry and adaptation strategies implemented in response. Oceanography, 28(2), 146–159, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2015.38.

• McLaughlin, K., S.B. Weisberg, A.G. Dickson, G.E. Hofmann, J.A. Newton, D. Aseltine-Neilson, A. Barton, S. Cudd, R.A. Feely, I.W. Jefferds, E.B. Jewett, T. King, C.J. Langdon, S. McAfee, D. Pleschner-Steele, and B. Steele (2015): Core principles of the California Current Acidification Network: Linking chemistry, physics, and ecological effects. Oceanography, 28(2), 160–169, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2015.39.

• Alin, S.R., R.E. Brainard, N.N. Price, J.A. Newton, A. Cohen, W.T. Peterson, E.H. De Carlo, E.H. Shadwick, S. Noakes, and N. Bednaršek (2015): Characterizing the natural system: Toward sustained, integrated coastal ocean acidification observing networks to facilitate resource management and decision support. Oceanography, 28(2), 92–107, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2015.34.

• Sutton, A., D. Manzello, and B. Gintert (2015): Coupling chemical and biological monitoring to understand the impact of ocean acidification on coral reef ecosystems. Oceanography, 28(2), 28–29, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2015.28.

• Andersson, A.J., D.I. Kline, P.J. Edmunds, S.D. Archer, N. Bednaršek, R.C. Carpenter, M. Chadsey, P. Goldstein, A.G. Grottoli, T.P. Hurst, A.L. King, J.E. Kübler, I.B. Kuffner, K.R.M. Mackey, B.A. Menge, A. Paytan, U. Riebesell, A. Schnetzer, M.E. Warner, and R.C. Zimmerman (2015): Understanding ocean acidification impacts on organismal to ecological scales. Oceanography, 28(2), 16–27, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2015.27.

• Garcia, H.E., C. Cosca, A. Kozyr, E. Mayorga, C. Chandler, R.W. Thomas, K. O’Brien, W. Appeltans,S. Hankin, J.A. Newton, A. Gutierrez, J.-P. Gattuso, L. Hansson, M. Zweng, and B. Pfeil (2015): Data management strategy to improve global use of ocean acidification data and information.Oceanography, 28(2), 226–228, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2015.45.

• Yates, K.K., C. Turley, B.M. Hopkinson, A.E. Todgham, J.N. Cross, H. Greening, P. Williamson, R. Van Hooidonk, D.D. Deheyn, and Z. Johnson (2015): Transdisciplinary science: A path to understanding the interactions among ocean acidification, ecosystems, and society.Oceanography, 28(2), 212–225, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2015.43.