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Ocean Acidification Action Group
Terms of Reference for the Group
The oceans provide an important service in absorbing from anthropogenic CO2 perturbations of the natural carbon cycle and therefore lowering the warming effect of a larger atmospheric CO2 reservoir. To date, the oceans have absorbed around 50% of anthropogenic CO2 (defined as the excess CO2 in the system over the natural cycle) and at present are taking up about 25% annually. There is, however, a cost to this natural carbon mitigation. As carbon dioxide dissolves in seawater the speciation of dissolved inorganic carbon is altered - a process termed ocean acidification. There are measurable changes in marine carbonate chemistry that have been shown to change physiological and biogeochemical systems. Although there are developments towards a greater understanding of global acidification and development of observational and experimental strategies, the Southern Ocean is poorly represented. To date there has not been a group who focus specifically on coordination of Southern Ocean acidification research, hence SCAR approved the formation of the new group.
The Life Sciences and Physical Sciences groups support the setting up of an Action Group in Ocean Acidification and suggest a three year programme.
The initial form of the action group will consist of a cross-disciplinary team of ocean acidification experts representing the fields of marine carbonate chemistry, global and regional modelling, marine ecology, marine ecology, ecotoxicology/physiology and paleoceanography. The group is led by Richard Bellerby, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Norway (Richard.Bellerby@uni.no).
The Action Group will:
- define our present understanding of the contemporary rates and future scenarios of Southern Ocean acidification;
- document ecosystem and organism responses from experimental perturbations and geological records;
- identify present and planned observational and experimental strategies;
- identify gaps in our understanding of the rates and regionality of ocean acidification;
- define strategies for future Southern ocean acidification research.
The above workplan will be performed in consultation with existing global ocean acidification efforts (e.g SOLAS/IMBER Sub Group 3, US Ocean Carbon Biogeochemistry and the SCAR ICED and the SCAR Oceanography Expert Group).
Group Report, July 2012
A presentation reporting on progress to July 2012 and future plans:
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