San Diego Ocean Acidification Meeting Wrap-Up and New Considerations

1. San Diego Ocean Acidification Meeting Wrap-Up and New Considerations Chris Langdon UM/RSMAS

2. Scoping Workshop on Ocean Acidification Research 9-11 October 2007 Scripps Institution of Oceanography

3. Scoping Workshop on Ocean Acidification Research • Steering Committee: • Barney Balch David Hutchins Andrew Dickson Joan Kleypas Victoria Fabry Chris Langdon Richard Feely Chris Sabine • Burke Hales

4. Workshop Goals • Develop coordinated research implementation strategies to address present and future ocean acidification impacts • Identify specific activities and timelines needed to advance research priorities

5. Workshop Approach • Previous meetings emphasized knowledge gaps at ecosystem level • Hence, workshop focused on developing comprehensive research strategies for four critical ecosystems: • Warm-water coral reefs • Estuarine/coastal regions • Subtropical/tropical pelagic regions • High latitudes • Highly diverse assemblage of 92 scientists (chemists, ecologists, physiologists, molecular biologists, fisheries experts, modelers)

6. Workshop Outcomes • Each of the four ecosystem focus groups devised research implementation strategies involving a mix of field observations and manipulative experiments to investigate potential impacts of ocean acidification on key ecosystem processes and organisms • Timelines of research activities for next 10 years were formulated by each ecosystem group • Specific research implementation strategies will be vetted by community and final report will be posted on OCB website

7. Synechococcus Photosynthesis versus irradiance curves:Different responses ofSynechococcus and Prochlorococcusto elevated pCO2 and temperature(Fu et al. 2007,J. Phycol. 43) Prochlorococcus

8. CO2 limitation ofTrichodesmium Last glacial maximum pCO2 (~190 ppm) Present day pCO2 (380 ppm) Year 2100 pCO2 (~750 ppm) • N2 fixation rates increase by 63% • between 380 and 750 ppm pCO2 • CO2 fixation rates increase by 54% • between 380 and 750 ppm pCO2 • Specific growth rates increase by 37% • between 380 and 750 ppm pCO2 • Trichodesmium was unable to grow at • all at a pCO2 of 150 ppm • N:P (and C:P) ratios increase by 35% • between 380 ppm and 1250 ppm CO2 (Hutchins et al. 2007, L&O 52(4): 1293- 1304)

9. Consensus Points • Urgent need for autonomous measurement of a second parameter of the seawater CO2 system (DIC or TAlk) • Urgent need for standardized protocols and data reporting guidelines that will allow comparison of ocean acidification research results in space and time • Calcification rate measurements • Manipulation of seawater CO2 chemistry for perturbation experiments • Respiration rate measurements • Dissolution rate measurements • Quantification of distribution and abundances of planktonic calcifying organisms

10. Consensus Points • Need for interdisciplinary training of graduate students, post-docs, and PI’s • Multi-disciplinary summer boot camp for experimentalists and modelers • Involve national and international scientists • Establish a national program that would coordinate activities among different Federal agencies • Supported need for a National Research Council Report on ocean acidification • Initiate international cooperation early to develop coordinated network of observations and process studies

11. Consensus Points • Public outreach and education activities needed • Educate coral reef and fisheries managers and other stakeholders • Contact policy makers • Hold workshops to engage specific communities in developing ideas for coping/mitigation strategies • Tap into existing programs to advance public education (e.g., teacher-at-sea program) • Create readily accessible presentations & fact sheets for public & schools • Website information for public (e.g., OCB website, ocean acidification network website)

12. Coral Reef Program Preliminary Research Objectives • Improve our predictive capability of the geochemical response of reef systems to continued ocean acidification in combination with other variables • Understand temperature/saturation state/nutrient interactions – (average changes as well as in variability) • Dissolution at multiple levels (organism to reef) also in terms of possibility of local buffering in certain reef habitats – atoll-size scale • What are the effects on community structure and their repercussions through the ecosystem - who are winners and losers in terms of ocean acidification? • Retrospective analyses (paleostudies of the last few 1000 years) provide a baseline of reef accretion processes • Resolve issues with solubility of mineral phases, kinetic issues • Develop carbonate chemistry measurement protocols • Improve remote sensing capabilities with high-spatial/high spectral resolution • Explore molecular/genomic level of calcification (relative sensitivities of different species to saturation state – then identify the genetics of least and most sensitive)

13. Group 1 (reefs) – Ocean Acidification Scoping Workshop I = Important U=Urgent

17. New considerations • How can we start monitoring calcification rates very precisely so we can see if they are changing? • Flow respirometry • Distribution of TA and water residence time • Residence time based on hydrodynamic models of circulation • Residence time based on geochemical tracer

18. Bight of Parguera, Puerto Rico

19. Distribution of TA in Bight of Parguera, PR 2291 2277 2317+/-2 2312+/-7 2318 +/-3 2311+/-6 Mid shelf 2331 Shelf edge 2340

20. Sami pCO2 and BIC sensors Discovery Bay Jamaica

21. Temporal variability of saturation state on a Caribbean reef Wa computed from Sami pCO2 and pH data Sarah Cullison

22. Calcification calculated by flow respirometry method