UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme

What is the UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme?

The UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme is a collaborative research programme, jointly supported by the Natural Environment Research Council, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department of Energy and Climate Change. It is closely linked to European and other nationally-funded ocean acidification research.

See story about this programme on the LWEC website

What will the programme do?

The programme will investigate

• effects of acidification on ocean biogeochemistry and biodiversity, including impacts on species, habitats and ecosystems
• past responses to acidification, on geological timescales
• socio-economic implications of ocean acidification.

The programme will also provide policy advice and recommendations, based on existing information and new results.

There are six main scientific components of the programme, supported by consortium awards. Research funding started in June 2010.

What are the issues of ocean acidification?

Around a quarter of the extra carbon dioxide released into the air by human activities has been taken up by the oceans.

Carbon dioxide dissolved in the oceans increases its acidity (although pH values will remain basic, that is, above pH 7.0) and this may affect many of the organisms that live there in decades to come.

The UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme covers a wide range of marine animals, plants and microbes, of different 'functional types' in order to assess impacts for the ecosystem as a whole.

There is particular interest in those groups that have shells or other external structures of calcium carbonate, collectively known as "calcifying organisms". For example:

• molluscs (such as mussels, scallops and marine snails)
• echinoderms (sea urchins and starfish)
• crustacea (crabs, lobsters and many zooplankton)
• corals (cold- and warm-water)
• foraminifera (single celled animals, some containing algae)
• coccolithophorids (single-celled algae)
• coralline algae (related to seaweed and forming a crusty covering on rocks etc).

Research to date has indicated that such groups can be highly sensitive to ocean acidification impacts, although a wide range of responses have been observed in experimental studies.

For more information, see “ Making it Clear: Ocean Acidification Questions Answered”, prepared by an international group of stakeholders and scientists, and available on the programme’s website, www.oceanacidification.org.uk

What tools are available?

• the programme will carry out surveys and monitoring using both research ships and commercial vessels
• experimental manipulations will be carried out in the laboratory and in mesocosms, over a range of conditions and at different levels of ecological complexity
• models will be produced on ocean acidification scenarios and impacts, taking account of other environmental change factors, such as temperature, and linked to the Hadley Centre climate models

How will the knowledge and outputs be used?

Policy links

Policy-relevant activities of the UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme include:

• contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change through its 5th Assessment Report on Climate Change (2014), for which preparation is already underway
• input to side events at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (for example at Copenhagen 2009 and Cancun, Mexico, December 2010)
• close involvement with major reports on marine environmental status at the national level, for example inputs on ocean acidification to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs-led Charting Progress 2, and to the Annual Report Cards of the the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership) and to international assessments (e.g. by the Convention on Biological Diversity, and by the Oslo and Paris Conventions for the protection of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic)
• provision of direct briefings to Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Department of Energy and Climate Change; for example, provided information to Department of Energy and Climate Change Secretary of State Chris Huhne for the UN climate negotiations in Cancun
• membership of and direct input into the international ocean acidification Reference User Group of key stakeholders

International links

The programme has formal collaboration with the German ocean acidification research programme (BIOACID) and the EU European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA), sharing the same Reference User Group of key stakeholders, including business organisations.

Links with relevant US research are being developed, with collaborations supported by a joint Foreign and Commonwealth-Businnes Innovation and Skills travel fund.

Wider contacts are supported through UK  representation on an international working group co-sponsored by the Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) and the Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) programmes.  

Business links

The programme has links with the shellfish industry, tourism, Rolls Royce and BP through the ocean acidification RUG. The Knowledge Exchange Coordinator has given presentations at the Seafood Summit in Paris, the Productive Seas Group (including key seafood producers like Findus) and other stakeholder events.

PROGRAMME FACTS AND FIGURES

Start and end dates: April 2009 to 2014

Website: Ocean Acidification