Projects Archive - Page 13 of 15 - NOAA Ocean Acidification Program

Alaska Ocean Acidification Research: Autonomous Observations of Ocean Acidification in Alaska Coastal Seas

This OAP project represents the first contribution of OAP to sustained coastal Alaska OA monitoring through three years (2015-2017) of maintenance of two previously established OA mooring sites located in critical fishing areas. In FY2015, It also supported a 19 day OA survey cruise along the continental shelf of the Gulf of Alaska in summer of 2015, designed to fill observing gaps that have made it difficult to quantify the extent of OA events. This support has been critical for continuing OA research in Alaska, as the initial infrastructure funding was not sufficient or intended for long-term operation.
These OAP-sponsored monitoring and observing activities support a number of cross-cutting research efforts. Firstly, the data itself will provide new insights into the seasonal progression of OA events caused by the progressive accumulation of anthropogenic CO2 into the region's coastal seas. The mooring and cruise data can also be used as an early warning system for stakeholders around the state, as well as to provide information for other types of OA research. Other projects within the OAP Alaska Enterprise focus on laboratory based evaluation of the impact of OA on commercially and ecologically important Alaskan species, especially during the vulnerable larval and juvenile life stages. This environmental monitoring informs those studies by describing the intensity, duration, and extent of OA events and providing a baseline for projecting future conditions. Finally, this observational data is used to validate new OA models that are currently being developed for the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea, and are applied in bio-economic models of crab and pollock abundance forecasts (e.g., Punt et al., 2014; Mathis et al., 2014).

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Effects of OA on Alaskan gadids: sensitivity to variation in prey quality and behavioural response

OA News / By Melissa Hiatt

To date many studies of the effects of ocean acidification on fishes have suggested that fish are somewhat resilient to effects on factors such as growth and survival. However, these experiments have generally not included potential interactive stressors which may increase the sensitivity to acidification stress. Further, experiments on some species have demonstrated the OA stress has significant potential to disrupt sensory and behavioral systems in fishes which could compromise survival in natural settings. In this project we will focus on examining the potential for behavioral disruptions due to OA and the interactive stresses of OA and nutritional state on critical Alaskan groundfishes.

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Forecasting the effects of OA on Alaska crabs and pollock abundance

OA News / By Melissa Hiatt

The aim of this project was to forecast effects of ocean acidification on the commercially important Alaska crab stocks including the Bristol Bay red king crab (BBRKC) fishery, which is part of a modern fisheries management program, the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) crab rationalization program. To investigate the biological and economic impacts of OA, a linked bioeconomic model was developed that a) integrates predictions regarding trends over time in ocean pH, b) separates life-history stages for growth and mortality of juveniles and adults, and c) includes fishery impacts by analyzing catch and effort in both biological and economic terms. By coupling a pre-recruitment component with post-recruitment dynamics, the BBRKC bioeconomic model incorporates effects of OA on vulnerable juvenile crabs in combination with effects of fishing on the BBRKC population as a whole. Many types of projections under management strategies can be made using linked bioeconomic models.

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Physiological response of commercially important crab species to predicted increases in carbon dioxide

OA News / By Melissa Hiatt

In 2010 and 2011, Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) scientists at the Kodiak Laboratory in Alaska tested the effects of lower pH due to increased carbon dioxide (CO₂) on the survival, condition, and growth of red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus). Commercially important shellfish are a priority for AFSC research related to ocean acidification because of their economic value and because calcifying species are likely to suffer direct effects due to increased acidity (and a decrease in calcium carbonate saturation state) of our oceans.
The multi-year project objectives are to test the effects of CO₂ enrichment (which leads to decreasing pH and lower saturation state) across a range of commercially important crab species and life stages (embryo, larvae, juveniles, and adults). The response variables currently measured include mortality, condition, growth, and calcification of the shell.

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Multi-Scale Prediction of California Current Carbonate System Dynamics

OA News / By Melissa Hiatt

The California Current is a dynamic eastern boundary system that spans the Northeast Pacific from Canada to Baja California, Mexico. Upwelling of cold, nutrient rich water drives multi trophic level productivity throughout much of the domain, but also results in naturally acidic on-shelf waters on regional scales. In addition, anthropogenic CO2 on basin to global scales, and local inputs by eutrophication, fresh water inputs, and local respiration or carbon assimilation result in multiscale and context-specific perturbations to the carbonate system. Thus, to understand, manage, or mitigate the effect of ocean acidification on ocean ecosystems, we need to quantify a suite of carbonate system parameters along the Pacific Coast in a mechanistic, spatially explicit, and temporally dynamic fashion.
We propose to embed an improved semi-analytical carbonate-chemistry prediction model within a dynamic classification of pelagic seascapes derived from satellite remotely sensed variables, including, but not limited to, phytoplankton standing stock (chl-a), SST, and wind stress. We will produce synoptic time series and nowcasts of surface TCO2, TALK, pH and Ω that will facilitate regional comparisons of interannual trends in OA parameters. We will include metrics of model and spatiotemporal uncertainty to better inform management decisions. These maps will be validated with the wealth of multi-parameter OA data generated from recent NOAA-supported field-observational efforts, from coastal moorings, West-coast OA cruises, and shore-based Burke-o-Lators. Statistical analyses will quantify spatially explicit trends across OA parameters, and local deviations from seascape-based predictions will disentangle basin-scale oceanic vs. local drivers of the carbonate system. Maps will be served in near real time on IOOS data portals. Time series and maps will inform marine ecosystem management and provide metrics of ocean health for National Marine Sanctuary condition reports.

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Satellite view of the Mississippi River plume in the Gulf of America. You can see sediment discharging into the Gulf. Credit: NASA

Time series of ocean acidification and carbon system properties in the northern Gulf

OA News / By Liz Perotti

This project will provide time-series observations of coastal ocean pH and carbon system properties, along with other variables that affect carbon transformations, in the northern Gulf of Mexico in support of goals elucidated in the NOAA Ocean and Great Lakes Acidification Research Implementation Plan. This project most directly addresses Theme 1: Develop the monitoring capacity to quantify and track ocean acidification in open-ocean, coastal, and Great Lake systems, but also addresses the educational objectives of Theme 6. USM will maintain a 3- m discus buoy in the northern Gulf of Mexico with a PMEL MAPCO2 system that includes a CTD, dissolved oxygen, and pH sensors. Meteorological sensors on the buoy will be utilized for computing air-sea fluxes of CO2. Water samples and continuous vertical profiles will be taken at the buoy site during quarterly cruises. Water samples will be analyzed for DIC, TA, pH, dO, S, NUTS and chlorophyll a. Analyzed water samples and profile data will be submitted to NODC through standard NOAA OAP submission spreadsheets containing both data and associated metadata.
While this work is focused on the Gulf of Mexico additional time-series sites in the South Atlantic Bight and Gulf of Maine can provide a comparison over a wide range of coastal and latitudinal regimes. The northern Gulf of Mexico, Florida and South Atlantic Bight regions are all commonly influenced by one contiguous western boundary current system, which originates with the Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico and then becomes the Gulf Stream along the southeastern U.S. continental shelf. The Gulf of Mexico observations will be compared with the other western boundary current influenced site in the South Atlantic Bight maintained by the University of Georgia (UGA) and the high latitude site in the Gulf of Maine maintained by the University of New Hampshire (UNH).

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High-resolution ocean-biogeochemistry modeling for the East and Gulf coasts of the U.S.

OA News / By Melissa Hiatt

Analysis of the data collected during the first (2007) and the second (2012) Gulf of Mexico and East Coast Carbon (GOMECC) cruises showed measurable temporal pH and aragonite saturation state (ΩAr) changes along the eight major transects. However, it is challenging to determine how much of this temporal change between the two cruises is due to ocean acidification and how much is due to variability on seasonal to interannual scales. Indeed, the expected 2% average decrease in ΩAr due to increasing atmospheric CO2 levels over the 5-year period was largely overshadowed by local and regional variability from changes in ocean circulation, remineralization/respiration and riverine inputs (Wanninkhof et al., 2015). Therefore, in order to provide useful products for the ocean acidification (OA) research community and resource managers, it is important to filter out seasonal cycles and other variability from the multi-annual trend. Here, we propose to use a high-resolution regional ocean-biogeochemistry model simulation for the period of 1979 – present day (real-time run) to fill the temporal gap between the 1st and 2nd GOMECC cruise data. In addition we will fine-tune and validate the model by using extensive surface water pCO2 observations from the ships of opportunity in the coastal region (SOOP-OA), and using the carbon observations from the East Coast Ocean Acidification Cruises (ECOA-1) and OAP mooring stations and from remotely sensed data. Then, we will use the real-time model run to estimate the 5-year trends (2012 – 2007) of OA and the carbon and biogeochemical variables along the East and Gulf coasts of the U.S. We will also examine the future OA variability in the East and Gulf coasts of the U.S. by downscaling the future climate projections under different emission scenarios developed for the IPCC-AR5. Based on the results obtained from the proposed model simulations, we will contribute to an observational strategy suitable for elucidating multi-annual trend of carbon and biogeochemical variables along the East and Gulf coasts of the U.S.

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Ship of Opportunity work in support of OA monitoring (SOOP-OA)

OA News / By Melissa Hiatt

NOAA operates the largest ship of opportunity (SOOP) effort for surface CO2 observations in the world. The objective of the ocean acidification (OA) monitoring effort in the coastal ocean on NOAA fisheries ships Gordon Gunter and Henry B. Bigelow is to obtain data for a data-based ocean acidification product suite for the East Coast and Gulf Coast. The ship of opportunity (SOOP) in support of OA monitoring (SOOP-OA) is in direct response to the needs expressed in the NOAA OA strategic plan, national and international program documentation, to understand how the rates and magnitude of acidification will vary across time and space, as a consequence of local and regional geochemical, hydrological, and biological variability and trends. The core of understanding rests upon monitoring the carbon system and related physical and biogeochemical parameters that are used to characterize the state of the coastal ocean in the project area.
The NOAA fisheries ships Gunter and Bigelow provide regular cruise tracks used in stock assessments such that over time correlations and causality can be obtained between OA and fisheries interests. The repeatability also provides good snapshots of change. As there are robust correlations between surface CO2 levels and remotely sensed parameters, these data are critical for the mapping of OA parameters. The development of algorithms to perform this mapping is done from support measurements on the SOOP-OA, other SOOP data under our purview, and from the dedicated research cruises.

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GOMECC-3

OA News / By Melissa Hiatt

Dedicated research cruises are used to obtain subsurface measurements and a comprehensive suite of biogeochemical observations to gain a process level understanding of OA. OAP provides funds to carry out the Gulf of Mexico and East Coast Carbon (GOMECC) research cruises every 5 years. These cruises provide a data set of unprecedented quality of physical and chemical coastal ocean parameters that is used both for improved spatial understanding of OA and also to provide a general understanding of changing patterns over time by comparison with previous cruises. The monitoring component is an essential part of the OAP, providing a long-term assessment of changes of biogeochemistry and ecology in response to increasing CO2 atmospheric levels and large-scale changes in coastal dynamics.
The climate quality data from the research cruises provide an important link to the Global Ocean Acidification Network (GOAN) effort, and contribute to a long-term record of dynamics and processes controlling OA on the coastal shelves. The data are used for validation measurements of autonomous assets, applying the data for algorithm development utilizing remotely sensed signals that are used to characterize saturation states, and to project the future state of ocean acidification in the project area. The GOMECC research cruises have now been divided into two cruises, one focused on the east coast, the “East Coast Ocean Acidification” (ECOA) cruise and the other covering the Gulf of Mexico, the “Gulf of Mexico Ecosystems and Carbon Cycle” (GOMECC) cruise.

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