Understanding the exposure of the nation’s living marine resources such as shellfish and corals to changing ocean chemistry is a primary goal for the NOAA OAP. Repeat hydrographic surveys, ship-based surface observations, and time series stations (mooring and ship-based) in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans have allowed us to begin to understand the long-term changes in carbonate chemistry in response to ocean acidification.
There are currently 19 OAP-supported buoys in coastal, open-ocean and coral reef waters which contribute to NOAA's Ocean Acidification Monitoring Program, with other deployments planned.
Currently, there are two types of floating devices which instruments can be added in order to measure various ocean characteristics - buoys and wave gliders. Buoys are moored, allowing them to remain stationary and for scientists to get measurements from the same place over time. The time series created from these measurements are key to understanding how ocean chemistry is changing over time. There are also buoys moored in the open-ocean and near coral reef ecosystems to monitor the changes in the carbonate chemistry in these ecosystems. The MAP CO2 sensors on these buoys measure pCO2 every three hours.
Access our buoy data
Research cruises are a way to collect information about a certain ecosystem or area of interest.
For decades, scientists have learned about physical, chemical and biological properties of the ocean and coasts by observations made at sea. Measurements taken during research cruises can be used to validate data taken by autonomous instruments. One instrument often used on research cruises is a conductivity, temperature, and depth sensor (CTD), which measures the physical state of the water (temperature, salinity, and depth). The sensor often goes in the water on a rosette, which also carries niskin bottles used to collect water samples from various depths in the water column. Numerous chemical and biological properties can be measured from water collected in niskin bottles.
Ships of Opportunity (SOPs) or Volunteer Observing Ships (VOSs) are vessels at sea for other reasons than ocean acidification studies, such as commercial cargo ships or ferries.
The owners of these vessels allow scientific instrumentation that measures ocean acidification (OA) parameters to be installed and collect data while the ship is underway. This allows data on ocean chemistry to be collected in many remote areas of the world's ocean, such as high latitude waters, long distances from land (e.g. mid-basin waters), and places not easily accessible by research cruises. These partnerships have greatly increased the spatial coverage of OA monitoring world-wide. To learn more, check out the Ships of Opportunity programs established by the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) and the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic Marine Laboratory (AOML).
Scientists at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) are working with engineers at Liquid Robotics, Inc. to optimize a Carbon Wave Glider.
This instrument (pictured above) can be driven via satellite from land. Carbon Wave Gliders can be outfitted with pCO2, pH, oxygen, temperature and salinity sensors, and the glider’s equipment takes measurements as it moves through the water. The glider’s motion is driven by wave energy, and its sensors are powered through solar cells and batteries, when needed.
NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) in partnership with OAP is engaged in a coordinated and targeted series of field observations, moorings and ecological monitoring efforts in coral reef ecosystems.
These efforts are designed to document the dynamics of ocean acidification (OA) in coral reef systems and track the status and trends in ecosystem response. This effort serves as a subset of a broader CRCP initiative referred to as the National Coral Reef Monitoring Plan, which was established to support conservation of the Nation’s coral reef ecosystems. The OAP contributes to this plan through overseeing and coordinating carbonate chemistry monitoring. This monitoring includes a broadly distributed spatial water sampling campaign complemented by a more limited set of moored instruments deployed at a small subset of representative sites in both the Atlantic/Caribbean and Pacific regions. Coral reef carbonate chemistry monitoring is implemented by researchers at the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) and NOAA's PIFSC Coral Reef Ecosystems Division.
Advancing Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring
The Interagency Working Group on Ocean Acidification of the National Science and Technology Council’s Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology released their Sixth Report on Federally Funded Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Activities. The report highlights a range of research activities from measuring where and when ocean acidification occurs, understanding the impact of ocean and coastal acidification on ecosystems and communities, to identifying potential ocean-based climate solutions. The report included projects that advance observations and modeling of ocean carbon, test new technology developments, study potential socioeconomic impacts of ocean acidification, and conduct public education and outreach. Collectively, this research provides important insights that will enable managers and communities to better anticipate and respond to ocean and coastal acidification.
White House Announcement
Link to Report
NOAA invests $18.9M in a coordinated effort to maximize advances in harmful algal bloom (HAB) mitigation, monitoring and forecasting. Four of new research awards support ($1.5M) funded in partnership by NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) and NOAA’s Ocean Acidification program will determine interactive effects of HABs and ocean acidification. Other projects supported through this effort will establish a U.S. Harmful Algal Bloom Control Incubator, enhance detection of HAB toxins and improve forecasts and investigate the socioeconomic impacts of HABs. Read more
Project Highlights
University of Michigan, University of Minnesota Duluth, Oberlin College, University of Kentucky, and University of Toledo received $281,975 to improve our understanding of the synergistic impacts of acidification, temperature, total alkalinity, and nutrients on toxic cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms in the Great Lakes.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Bowdoin College, and NERACOOS received $499,999 to address gaps in understanding relationships between harmful algal bloom behavior and ocean acidification in the northeast Atlantic, especially where it is associated with coastal eutrophication and hypoxia.
Stony Brook University, Adelphi University, and St. Joseph's College received $364,265 to establish a comprehensive understanding of how three of the most prominent HABs on the US east coast respond to ocean acidification, and how their co-occurrence will economically impact fisheries and shellfisheries.
Northwest Indian College, San Francisco State University, and University of Washington received $355,281 to understand the current relationships between ocean acidification and harmful algal bloom interactions in the Salish Sea, and to quantify how ocean acidification influences growth and toxicity.
Autonomous glider collects information to track harmful algal blooms and water quality. Credit: Ben Yair Raanan, MBARI
NOAA OAP convenes community meeting in San Diego, CA!
Every three years, the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program convenes researchers, communicators and others in the OA community for a meeting to discuss and share the latest research and future needs and directions. We want your participation! Registration is free. Meeting Goals
Shape the future strategic direction of the OAP
Inform community members of recent OAP-supported efforts
Foster collaborations within the OA research community
Identify critical research gaps and efforts to address them
Highlight and discuss diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and justice in OA research and our community
Find more details and register HERE.
Effects of predicted changes in ocean pCO2 and interactions with other stressors on the physiology and behavior of commercially important crabs in Alaska
Why we care Ocean acidification disrupts the internal acid-base balance of crabs and may hinder the creation and maintenance of shells. Previous studies on commercially important crab species in Alaska found that ocean acidification changes physiology, decreases growth and condition, increases mortality, decreases hatching success, and changes exoskeleton (shell) hardness and structure in many Alaska crab species. Ocean temperature is a co-stressor, which may either decrease or increase the effects of ocean acidification on crabs. These individual effects may lead to population level decreases and impact coastal communities that rely on them if these crabs are unable to acclimate or adapt.
What we are doing The Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) aims to enhance our understanding of species responses to ocean acidification, predict how changes in ocean chemistry will affect marine ecosystems and organisms, assess socioeconomic impacts, and provide ocean acidification education and outreach. This project continues to assess the physiological response to ocean acidification of early life history stages in crabs. Researchers will examine the potential for acclimation of crab species through experimentation. Experimental data will be used to inform modeling efforts to assess the dynamics of the crab populations and coastal community resilience to future environmental changes in the ocean.
Benefits of our work The AFSC team will continue to address individual physiological responses that can be scaled to population level effects. Additionally, we will focus on cellular and molecular responses to better understand the potential for acclimation or adaptation. Results from this project will inform models, including stock assessments for long-term fisheries management through the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council.
Sustained Observations of Ocean Acidification in Alaska Coastal Seas
Why we care Coastal regions around Alaska experience some of the most rapid and extensive progressions of ocean acidification (OA) in the United States. Assessments indicate that Alaska coastal communities have a varying degree of vulnerability to OA ranging from moderate to severe. Economically vital fishing regions are the most vulnerable. Sustained monitoring is critical to track the extent and impact of ocean acidification in habitats that are home to sensitive species such as red king crab in the Bering Sea.
What we are doing This project “rethinks” the coastal Alaskan OA monitoring effort (initiated in 2015) by sampling Alaska waters directly through the annual population survey program of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC). This new vision doubles the spatial footprint of Alaska OA observations, increases the time resolution of these observations, and complements shipboard surveys in Alaska. Carbonate chemistry samples will be combined with fisheries population surveys to assess OA in the habitats of keystone organisms in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska.
Benefits of our work This project enhances our understanding of how the accumulation of anthropogenic carbon dioxide affects the seasonal progression of carbonate carbonate chemistry variables in the Gulf of Alaska. The observations can also be used to validate new OA models developed for the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea. Additionally, it can be applied to bioeconomic forecast models of crab and walleye pollock providing insight on how to adapt and build resilience to impacted industries and communities.