The Ocean Acidification Program announces is now accepting applications for its 2020 education mini-grant initiative.Topics suitable under this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) should fill needs identified in the NOAA Ocean Acidification Needs Assessment including: 

(1) Education and outreach products that incorporate data interpretation and/or visualization;

(2) Multimedia educational tools (such as video, infographics and apps); 

(3) Discrete hands-on lab modules that incorporate inquiry-based learning and align with Next Generation Science and/or Common Core Standards to be used in a formal education setting; and/or 

(4) Protocol or tools for ocean and/or coastal acidification citizen science programs.

Pending appropriation of funds, NOAA Ocean Acidification Program anticipates awarding between four and five education and outreach projects totaling $150,000 dollars in FY2020. Projects must have amaximum duration of two years.

Questions about the content of your submission can be directed to jennifer.mintz@noaa.gov. 

For information regarding your grant submission contact emily.osborne@noaa.gov.

Formal Notice of Funding Opportunity on grants.gov

Please submit a cover letter and CV using Bigelow's online application portal. Screening of candidates will begin February 24, 2020 with expectation candidate will be available in April of 2020.

The absorption of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) into the oceans has caused ocean acidification and associated shifts in marine carbonate chemistry. In coastal waters, excessive nutrient runoff can also create regions of low oxygen, high CO2, and acidification. These conditions have been shown to be detrimental to growth and survival of larval and juvenile shellfish such as oysters, clams and scallops in laboratory studies, but the consequences of these effects on wild populations have been unknown.

Now, a new publication shows that the levels of impairment observed in laboratory experiments have the potential to cause increased risk to wild populations of marine bivalves in the northeastern USA.

This virtual seminar will focus coupled a comprehensive measurement program to retrospective and future model simulations to quantify controls on estuarine acidification in Chesapeake Bay,a large estuarine complex with strong gradients of salinity, oxygen, metabolicrates, and bathymetry. Researched found that estuarine acidification may be even more complex (and interesting!) than originally posited, owing to self-buffering processes within macrophyte communities, connections of acidification rates to watershed management aimed at oxygen improvements, and a varying buffering of acidification through altered carbonate chemistry within freshwater sources. This new understanding presents both challenges and opportunities to managing future acidification along the coast.

 Please register at: https://noaabroadcast.adobeconnect.com/testa/event/registration.html