Derek Manzello Archives

Monitoring ocean acidification in Fagatele Bay, American Sāmoa

NCRMP OA Enterprise: National Coral Reef Monitoring Program – Ocean Acidification Atlantic

Why we care
Long-term observations of carbonate chemistry at U.S.-affiliated coral reef sites are critical to understanding the impact of ocean acidification on coral ecosystems over time.

What we are doing
Incorporating an interdisciplinary approach, this project will collect, process, analyze, and steward continuous data measuring parts of ocean carbonate system, the ocean’s buffering system. Specifically, this project will include partial pressure of carbon dioxide, pH (measure of acidity), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total alkalinity to document seawater carbonate chemistry at a newly established climate monitoring site in Fagatele Bay, American Sāmoa.

Benefits of our work
This work produces long-term, continuous, high-quality data of seawater carbonate chemistry needed to track where and how ocean chemistry is changing. The work will initially provide an increased understanding of the natural biogeochemical influences of reef carbon dioxide. In the future, this work will help determine if the magnitude of acidification occurring in the open ocean is also occurring at coral reefs. The buoy at this site will provide freely-available, high-quality carbon dioxide data people can use to better understand the carbon cycle of coral reefs in American Sāmoa and the impacts to coral ecosystems. This will be the only southern hemisphere Class III site in both the Atlantic and Pacific, spanning a large latitudinal gradient.

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MAPCO2 Buoys at NCRMP CLASS III Sites in US Coral Reefs

Projects / By Melissa Hiatt

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.

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Building Robust Reef Carbonate Projections from Synthesized NCRMP Ocean Acidification Datasets

Projects / By Melissa Hiatt

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.

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NCRMP – OA Enterprise

Projects / By Melissa Hiatt

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.

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