From OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
CORVALLIS, Ore. – The ocean chemistry along the West Coast of North America is changing rapidly because of global carbon dioxide emissions, and the governments of Oregon, California, Washington and British Columbia can take actions now to offset and mitigate the effects of these changes.
That is the conclusion of a 20-member panel of leading West Coast ocean scientists, who presented a comprehensive report on Monday outlining a series of recommendations to address the increase in ocean acidification and hypoxia, or extremely low oxygen levels.
“Ocean acidification is a global problem that is having a disproportionate impact on productive West Coast ecosystems,” said Francis Chan, an Oregon State University marine ecologist and co-chair of the West Coast Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Science Panel. “There has been an attitude that there is not much we can do about this locally, but that just isn’t true. A lot of the solutions will come locally and through coordinated regional efforts.”
Ocean acidification and hypoxia are distinct phenomena that trigger a wide range of effects on marine ecosystems. They frequently occur together and represent two important facets of global ocean changes that have important implications for Oregon’s coastal oceans.
Among the panel’s recommendations:
- Develop new benchmarks for near-shore water quality as existing criteria were not developed to protect marine organisms from acidification;
- Improve methods of removing carbon dioxide from seawater through the use of kelp beds, eel grass and other plants;
- Enhance coastal ecosystems’ ability to adapt to changing ocean chemistry through better resource management, including marine reserves, adaptive breeding techniques for shellfish, and other methods.
“Communities around the country are increasingly vulnerable to ocean acidification and long-term environmental changes,” said Richard Spinrad, chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and former OSU vice president for research. “It is crucial that we comprehend how ocean chemistry is changing in different places, so we applaud the steps the West Coast Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Science Panel has put forward in understanding and addressing this issue. We continue to look to the West Coast as a leader on understanding ocean acidification.” Chan said regional awareness of the impact of changing ocean chemistry started in Oregon. Some of the first impacts were seen about 15 years ago when the state began experiencing seasonal hypoxia, or low-oxygen water, leading to some marine organism die-offs. Then the oyster industry was confronted with high mortality rates of juvenile oysters because of increasingly acidified water. It turns out that Oregon was on the leading edge of a much larger problem.
“It was a wakeup call for the region, which since has spread up and down the coast,” said Chan, an associate professor in the Department of Integrative Biology in OSU’s College of Science.
California responded to this call, and in partnership with Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, convened a panel of scientific experts to provide advice on the issue. The panel worked with federal and state agencies, local organizations and higher education institutions to identify concerns about ocean acidification and hypoxia, then developed a series of recommendations and actions that can be taken today.
“One of the things all of the scientists agree on is the need for better ocean monitoring or ‘listening posts,’ up and down the West Coast,” said Jack Barth, a professor and associate dean in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and a member of the panel. “It is a unifying issue that will require participation from state and federal agencies, as well as universities, ports, local governments and NGOs.”
Barth said one such “listening post” has been the Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery in Netarts Bay, Oregon, which was able to solve the die-off of juvenile oysters with the help of OSU scientists George Waldbusser and Burke Hales, who both served on the 20-member panel. Together, they determined that the ocean chemistry changed throughout the day and by taking in seawater in the afternoon, when photosynthesis peaked and CO2 levels were lower, juvenile oysters could survive.
The West Coast is a hotspot for acidification because of coastal upwelling, which brings nutrient-rich, low-oxygen and high carbon dioxide water from deep in the water column to the surface near the coast. These nutrients fertilize the water column, trigger phytoplankton blooms that die and sink to the bottom, producing even more carbon dioxide and lowering oxygen further.
“We’re just starting to see the impacts now, and we need to accelerate what we know about how increasingly acidified water will impact our ecosystems,” said panel member Waldo Wakefield, a research fisheries biologist with NOAA Fisheries in Newport and courtesy associate professor in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences.
“There’s a lot at stake. West Coast fisheries are economic drivers of many coastal communities, and the seafood we enjoy depends on a food web that is likely to be affected by more corrosive water.”
Last year, OSU researchers completed the deployment of moorings, buoys and gliders as part of the Endurance Array – a component of the $386 million National Science Foundation-funded Ocean Observatories Initiative, created to address ocean issues including acidification.
These and other ocean-monitoring efforts will be important to inform policy-makers about where to best focus their adaptation and mitigation strategies.
“The panel’s findings provide a road map to help us prepare for the changes ahead,” said Gabriela Goldfarb, natural resource policy adviser to Oregon Gov. Kate Brown. “How Oregon and the West Coast address ocean acidification will inform those confronting this issue around the country and world.”
“With the best scientific recommendations in hand from the science panel, we now have the information on which to base our future management decisions,” added Caren Braby, marine resource manager at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “These are practical recommendations natural resource managers and communities can use to ensure we continue to have the rich and productive ecosystem Oregonians depend on for healthy fisheries, our coastal culture and economy.”
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“Some of the first impacts were seen about 15 years ago when the state began experiencing seasonal hypoxia, or low-oxygen water, leading to some marine organism die-offs. Then the oyster industry was confronted with high mortality rates of juvenile oysters because of increasingly acidified water.”
I might be mistaken, but that does not read like it is CO2 related at all..
This topic looks more like a nutrient related algae bloom leading to oxygen depleation.. in Europe there is a ban for phosphate containing detergent since the 90ties for that reason and huge restriction on agriculture related fertilization.. is there a link to CO2 I am missing (and even then it seems like a classic example of a natural CO2 contribution from deep sea water unrelated to anthropogenic release into the atmosphere)?
Michael, you will be on to something. gulf coast is having the algae bloom, which has happens from time to time.
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BEST PLACE TO EAT THEM
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Thanks for that.
I’m starving now.
How does AGW cause hypoxia? It’s not we are running out of oxygen.
Well, I reck’on just plain o’ fellers learn a thingy or two. Oceans, lakes and many water reservoirs have varying upwellings that cause low oxygen layers to flip from the lower parameters to the upper layers. Guess why we put water falls, sprinklers, and even pumps in aquariums? to add oxygen into the water. yelp
As an ex-aquariast, I aver that the trick is not in the bubbling. A power filter works fine and produces no bubbles. The idea is to continually overturn the surface layer so oxygen can dissolve into the water.
A bubble filter works, yes, but because it overturns the surface layer, not because the bubbles themselves dissolve.
Strange, I can go buy oysters today and they are essentially the same price they were a decade ago. You’d think that the farmers and marketers would be trying to recoup some of their huge acidification-based losses. /s
“The first impacts were seen about 15 years ago” Would that be as farming oysters increased and the little trick of letting the water in in the afternoon hadn’t been discovered yet? Hmmm. Also corresponds to the successive increases in salmon runs to largest in the post war period…not quite evah…but better and better every four years or so and, who knows, if we could keep the g’damn sea lions out of the fish ladders biting off heads only and forbid gill nets in the rivers (including tribal ones and no they are not “traditional”) how many more?
(1) the uncertainty in pH measurements is greater than any proposed effect from CO2 absorption from the atmosphere.
(2) while CO2 is a weakly acid gas, sulfur oxides produce very strong acids in water, and sulfur oxides are CONSTANTLY being injected into the oceans at submarine volcanoes, volcanic vents (i.e. ‘black smokers’), and active sea floor spreading centers like the Mid-Oceanic Ridge (the world’s longest mountain range!).
(3) the contribution to ocean heat and chemistry from *geological* process is inestimably HUGE, and so far almost unmeasured. It certainly does not appear in any ‘climate’ models.
tadchem,
pH measurements with glass electrodes were not accurate enough to measure the small differences over decades, but modern colorimetric methods are better than 0.001 pH unit.
One can calculate the pH from TA (total alkalinity) and DIC (total dissolved inorganic carbon), that is more accurate than from glass electrodes. More TA and DIC measurements were made in the past than pH measurements. See e.g. the measurements at Hawaii:
http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/decline-in-ph-measured-at
and Bermuda:
http://www.whoi.edu/OCB-OA/page.do?pid=112157
The pH drop is measured in the ocean surface. As far as I know there is no similar drop in the deep oceans if these were the cause. In the surface, pH shows a drop while DIC goes up. If pH was the cause, DIC should go down. That is only possible if CO2 enters from the atmosphere, not reverse…
Dear Ferdinand,
” That is only possible if CO2 enters from the atmosphere, not reverse…”
does this statement really hold, when you restict yourself to ocean surface sea water near the west coast with a massive CO2 upwelling of deep seawater as in this article?
I dont think so..
Laws of Nature,
That is only the case for surface waters away from upwelling and estuaries, as these have a quite different chemical composition…
In the case of upwelling, the deep oceans contain much more CO2 and derivatives and have a lower pH and less oxygen…
But that has nothing to do with global warming/change/pause or human emissions…
i got a headache trying to read that drivel, but my main takeaway was the same that always seems to be the answer from these sorts of “studies”…
“MOAR Government and MOAR spending!”
i’d take them a bit more seriously if they didn’t always propose the same solution… and what could possibly go wrong with “adaptive breeding”? why can’t we just leave that to Mother Nature? she’s done ok so far…
The upwelling has been going on for time immemorial. The Alarmists feel left out, and want to go on for time immemorial as well.
Jebus science the institution is in ragged order, this is ludicrous, abuse of scientific method.
To put it very simply, there are over 100 large deadzones on coastal areas around the world and the problem is increasing, biological waste and pollution cause exponential growth in microbial life that consumed oxygen, low oxygen waters absorb more CO2 which will cause a local shift in the upper column of the water’s chemical makeup, low oxygen waters absorb more CO2, which btw is why the our atmosphere cannot acidify the oceans, oxygen rich surface water is not a good transporter of CO2, in fact it is a very poor one in a warming environment as that is another limiting factor on water absorbing CO2.
But ask yourself, a scenario of CO2 being absorbed in the ocean in amounts to overpower alkalinity (and oceanic alkalinity inputs of which there are too many unknown unknowns, which is a mean feat, but the absorption would need to be A. affect atmospheric measurements, and B, the start of our fossil fuel usage should not be apparent in atmospheric measurements, given the oceans’ capacity to exchange CO2(by IPCC logic).
Surely the exchange required to cause such a shift in alkalinity would require CO2 amounts a few orders of magnitude than current atmospheric levels to overcome buffering.
As for shellies and such, once there are the carbonates and such to build their shells, things have to get pretty acidic for there to be a problem, as in 6.0 and below, CO2 pushes down alkalinity, but it is a tightrope, lose CO2 and there is an immediate shift and alkalinity shoots right back up, so the presence of how much CO2 in any one place is very relevant, which relates to the article.
.. relates as in they are taking local problems and making them a global problem.
You can read more at their web site. Lots of little pieces to go through, some of them pay-walled.
http://westcoastoah.org/executivesummary/
“Ocean acidification and hypoxia are distinct phenomena that trigger a wide range of effects on marine ecosystems.”
“Hypoxia”? Isn’t that, like, a medical term used in reference to the human body? As someone with a lung condition I’m familiar with that term. But, to be sure, I looked it up in various dictionaries: no mention of “ocean hypoxia.” Except for one source; that wanted to be in with the latest fashion.
Did these people co-opt that term? Is the planet now to be considered a living organism and not a big rock orbiting a massive scale ongoing hydrogen bomb? Does the planet now get diseases? Are we the disease producing parasites? Gimme’ a break.
Careful now or Mother Earth will slap you with a lawsuit and take you for everything you own..
.. cos Mother Earth needs money and sht.
Boy oh boy, if I took such unrepresentative samples from a mineral deposit for metallurgical and other evaluations, I would have my engineering license lifted! The coastal waters receive fresh water run-off, various qualities of effluents from sewage treatment, fertilizers, ship and port facilities spills and drainage, flood drainage structures, manufacturing, etc. etc. If the coastal waters aren’t showing lowered pH and some hypoxia, then I would suspect the instrumentation of being faulty. CO2 has absolutely nothing to do with the special problems of coastal waters.
Geez, we have had hammered into our heads that CO2 is well mixed in the atmosphere. How in hell would CO2 be so selective as to acidify the coastal waters. No!no!no! CO2 has absolutely nothing to do with the special problems of coastal waters. God save us from the last several crops of bozo scientists coming out our universities!!!
“The panel’s findings provide a road map to help us prepare for the changes ahead,”
Oh and have any of these ‘paneled scientists’ read recent papers on how lousy a job measurements and research projects on ocean pH and its affect on biota has been. Here is one:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/04/14/another-sad-claim-about-ocean-acidification-where-researchers-fool-themselves-into-thinking-they-can-replicate-the-ocean-in-a-fish-tank/
Spot on, I’ve kept been working with salty and reef projects for a long time and have far more experience than some scientists doing a study.
It is difficult to say create the environment for Sea Horses to breed for example, which is a regional set of variables and such, and this is a problem for pros with 30 years of experience. That’s how little we still understand.
I mean, when do you ever hear these kids in white coats exclaim that coral skeletons are calcium reactors, which are an input for alkalinity, the Maldives and other atolls are huge calcium reactors, you never hear that, these places only matter for sea level rises, but their effects on alkalinity of surrounding waters is conveniently ignored
“Among the panel’s recommendations:
Develop new benchmarks for near-shore water quality as existing criteria were not developed to protect marine organisms from acidification;”
really, so no one thought dumping, waste and runoff were not an issue..
http://i41.tinypic.com/2na06t4.jpg
Spot on Gary – and not only would you had your engineering license lifted but you would have had your a$$ handed to you on a plate.
So when the atmospheric CO2 content was ten times what it is today (as we’re told it was) that’s when all forms of life in the oceans was killed off and has never returned – is that right?
Somebody needs to tell these guys, “If you lie about the easy stuff (acidification while over pH 7), then there is no way we can trust you on the difficult stuff. If we can’t trust you, you won’t get one penny.”
Not surprised to see this coming from Oregon State. They chase dissenting voices off their campus like witches.
Why isn’t exaggeration and distortion (otherwise known as lying) from a professional platform a crime? Why isn’t fear-mongering a crime? Is this panel going to be held responsible when their “professional” findings prove to be exaggerated and millions more taxpayer $$$ wasted so that politicians can look as though they are “doing something”? This is professional misconduct. I hope someone is taking note.
“The West Coast is a hotspot for acidification because of coastal upwelling, which brings nutrient-rich, low-oxygen and high carbon dioxide water from deep in the water column to the surface near the coast.”
Upwelling I have also mentioned often, nice. The low oxygen deeper water with a warmer in low pressure warmer surface water topped off with a 400ppm atmosphere means a transport of net release into the atmosphere, not the other way around, so there is that too 🙂
Upwelling in coral regions in places like Panama also makes the corals less resilient to sudden evens like El Nino.
Add that to the the natural transport of CO2 via upwelling, and you are left with the notion that the whole claim is pseudo science, like with Venus kicking off “tipping points of doom” vents in Italy that create local problems are used as a Venus type doomsday scenario.
Putting the total CO2 content of the atmosphere into the ocean, and it will not push back alkalinity much, maybe not even a detectable change, alkalinity changes of a significant rate in the oceans are caused by changes in the oceans not the atmosphere
Oh great, another “we’re altering the chemistry of _(fill in the blank)_” meme. The CAGW alarmists cry that it’s chemistry of the atmosphere we’re ruining, these people say it’s the ocean, some other crowd says the soil or food chemistry is what we’re wrecking. Yawn…
This is one-eyed nonsense : “These nutrients fertilize the water column, trigger phytoplankton blooms that die and sink to the bottom, producing even more carbon dioxide and lowering oxygen further.“. The nutrients are carbon-based. They get carried up from the bottom, the phytoplankton take the carbon back to the bottom. Eventually the carbon rises again as a nutrient. It’s a cycle.
There is no empirical evidence that CO2 drives temperatures and not the other way round, for which latter there is some evidence. Warmer water holds less CO2, Oceans are not acidifying, they may be getting less basic, but they are far from going into acid zones. There is also no evidence that CO2 levels in the atmosphere are related to fossil fuel emissions. The whole article seems like nonsense from begining to end.
Two lines from my Al Gore poem
“If acid rain scared you think about this
Oceans acidic and warmer than piss!
Remember acid rain causing acid lakes? Remember planes flying over them and bombing lakes with lime? Hahahaha! What ended the “acid rain crisis”? Global warming came along and sucked up all the media attention and acid rain just fell off the radar. Pseudo-problem solved!
So we need a new crisis bigger than global warming to end global warming. How about the solar system entering an unrecognizable field of dark matter, the sun sucking it in thus increasing its mass and gravitational pull and throwing all the planets out of their orbits? Besides Earthlings the Martians and Venusians will be destroyed too!!! Sounds like a winner to me. And the beauty of it is — how can you disprove the existence of something that is not recognizable?
Eugene WR Gallun
“These nutrients fertilize the water column, trigger phytoplankton blooms that die and sink to the bottom, producing even more carbon dioxide and lowering oxygen further”
Hold on: Phytoplankton are photosynthetic right? : i.e. they convert CO2 into carbon to build their shells (eg diatoms) and emit oxygen. Of course they die, fall to the seafloor, become buried and eventually become carbonate rock (if the concentrations are rich enough) .
Sure this is a simplistic explanation but it is essentially correct, right?
Much ocean life in deep oceans decay before ever reaching the ocean floor, only “snow” makes it down that far and it supports life in the depths, a whole ecology depends on that “snow”