OAP Ocean Outlook

As we cross over to the next fiscal year, I want to express my sincere gratitude for the incredible dedication and hard work of the entire OA community. Significant accomplishments the past several months underscore our commitment to building ocean economy resilience to ocean acidification. Increased capacity of OA professionals through Pier2Peer graduations and the release of monitoring priorities bolster our ability to forecast changing ocean chemistry. Innovative collaborations, like that uniting scallop fishermen and researchers, are proving how powerful community engagement coupled with gold standard science can be in building resilience. Furthermore, the successful small-scale test of a novel ocean alkalinity enhancement method and the release of a crucial data management protocol demonstrate our nation's leadership in developing solutions.

Finally, I want to personally thank Dick Feely for his decades of service and contributions to ocean acidification research as he retired at the end of the last fiscal year. Nationally and internationally, his leadership was instrumental in establishing NOAA as a premier agency on this issue; he spearheaded the creation of the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON) and his work significantly contributed to the passage of the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act that directs NOAA’s continued research on this critical topic. We sincerely wish him the absolute best on his retirement and look forward to continuing to work with him in his new capacity.

Thank you for another impactful year. I look forward to what we will achieve together to strengthen our understanding of OA in the coming year as the government restarts. 

Dwight Gledhill, Acting Director

Building capacity for ocean acidification tracking and forecasting means going beyond U.S. waters. This summer, 20 mentees representing 17 different countries graduated from the Pier2Peer Program after successfully completing two years of one-on-one mentorship with experts in the field of ocean acidification. This cohort of Pier2Peer mentees pursued capacity building projects with the guidance of their mentors, advancing their regions’ ability to measure and address ocean acidification. The Pier2Peer program, coordinated through the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network and administered by The Ocean Foundation, meets this need by pairing experienced researchers with scientists new to the field of ocean acidification. 

We extend our deepest gratitude and appreciation to Dr. Dick Feely for his extraordinary contributions and unwavering dedication to NOAA’s mission over the past 50 years. Dr. Feely, a Senior Scientist at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), has been a pivotal figure in the field and was one of the first to demonstrate the global impact of acidification. Beyond authoring more than 350 scientific research publications and logging more than 1000 hours at sea over 50 expeditions, has profoundly shaped the science and public awareness of ocean acidification. He will continue to serve as a PMEL/CIMARS Volunteer Scientist for the next year.

Sequim Bay. Image credit: Wikimedia

A recent study published in Frontiers in Environmental Engineering details the successful small-scale testing of a novel method aimed at addressing ocean acidification through ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE). Trails demonstrated that the process used could comply with existing water quality requirements, changes in water quality were measurable, and that effects had short temporal and spatial reach at the low levels tested. This represents a crucial, small first step toward a larger proof of concept, with further research needed to assess its scalability and broader implications. This work is part of a three year project conducted in Sequim Bay by researchers at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and the University of Washington, the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and Ebb Carbon.

A tracer study for the development of in-water monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of ship-based ocean alkalinity enhancement

Differential performance of diploid, mated triploid, and induced triploid Pacific oysters under varied environmental conditions: Insights into impacts of temperature, dissolved oxygen, and pCO2

Perspectives on Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal from the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network

Three-dimensional photogrammetry-based monitoring to enhance site-level carbonate budget assessments of coral reefs 

Management considerations for establishing a coastal acidification monitoring system from U.S. Coastal Acidification Networks 

Navigating ocean acidification in shellfish aquaculture: Stakeholder perspectives of developing strategies in the U.S. Pacific Region

Mechanisms of Ocean Acidification in Massachusetts Bay: Insights from Modeling and Observations 

Open Ocean Versus Upwelling Regimes: Air-Sea CO2 Fluxes and pCO2 Inter-Annual Variability in the Southern California Current System

Unraveling natural carbonate variability in Narragansett Bay, RI using multiple high temporal resolution pH time series

Statistical Prediction of In Situ Coral Reef Carbonate Dynamics Using Endmember Chemistry, Hydrodynamic Models, And Benthic Composition

Did we miss your publication or highlight? Contact noaa.oceanacidification@noaa.gov.