The long-term observations of carbonate chemistry at U.S.-affiliated coral reef sites are critical to understanding the impact of ocean acidification (OA) on coral ecosystems over time. This effort addresses NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program (OAP) requirements for Monitoring of Ocean Chemistry by building and maintaining the coral reef portion of the OA monitoring network. This supports funding shortfalls associated with the NCRMP Class III MAPCO2 buoys at Cheeca Rocks and Kaneohoe Bay. Furthermore, this provides resources for the procurement of a new MAPCO2 buoy slated for deployment in Fagatele Bay, American Samoa in FY18, to establish the 2nd of three planned NCRMP Class III sites in the U.S. Pacific.

This project will serve to (1) synthesize National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) OA Enterprise observations; (2) compare reef OA observations to oceanic end members to infer reefscale biogeochemical processes, and finally (3) use these synthesis products to better link projection models of oceanic carbonate systems to reef-scale OA impacts. The NCRMP OA enterprise supports: our collection of seawater samples from reef and surface observations; a set of MapCO2 buoys in the Caribbean and Hawaii; diurnal monitoring instruments (e.g. CREP's diurnal suite, AOML's/McGillis' BEAMS); and metrics of ecosystem response to OA (e.g. CAUs, coral coring, etc.). The datasets generated by these activities will be the focus of this wide-ranging synthesis.

NCRMP‐OA is a Joint Enterprise designed to address the Tier 1 Ocean Acidification (OA) components of the larger NCRMP strategic framework at Class 0, II, and III stations. Field work and laboratory analyses for the Atlantic/Caribbean region (Florida, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands [USVI], and Flower Garden Banks [FGB]) are executed by the OAR Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) and by the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System (CariCOOS). Field work in the Pacific region (Main Hawaiian Islands [MHI], Northwestern Hawaiian Islands [NWHI], Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands [CNMI], American Sāmoa, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas [PRIA]) is executed by the NMFS Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center [PIFSC] Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED); laboratory analyses for the Pacific region are executed by the OAR Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL). NCRMP‐OA Teams closely coordinate with other NCRMP elements (benthic, fish, water temperature, satellite, and socioeconomic teams), including PMEL’s NOAA Ocean Acidification Observing Network (NOA‐ON), other NOAA offices, Federal, State, and Territory agencies, and academic partners, in both the Atlantic and Pacific regions.  

This project monitors changes to coral reef carbonate chemistry over time, at US affiliated coral reef sites, through quantifying key chemical parameters that are expected to be impacted by ocean acidification. This effort addresses OAP programmatic themes 1 and 5 by maintaining the coral reef portion of the OA monitoring network and developing a procedure for data synthesis, assimilation, and distribution. Incorporating an interdisciplinary approach, this project will collect, process, analyze, and steward dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total alkalinity (TA) water sample data to document seawater carbonate chemistry at Class 0, II, III climate monitoring sites in coral reef areas of the US Atlantic and Pacific regions.