Projects
address concerns for acidifying marine ecosystems
With increasing levels of carbon dioxide
accumulating in the atmosphere and moving into marine systems, the world's
oceans are becoming more acidic.
The oceans may be acidifying faster
today than at anytime in the past 300 million years, scientists have found.
To address the concern for acidifying
marine ecosystems, the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently awarded new
grants totaling $12 million in its Ocean Acidification program.
The program is part of NSF's Science,
Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) investment.
The awards, the second round in this
program, are supported by NSF's Directorates for Geosciences and Biological
Sciences, and Office of Polar Programs.
From tropical oceans to icy seas, the
projects will foster research on the nature, extent and effects of ocean
acidification on marine environments and organisms in the past, present and
future.
"With this round of awards, NSF has
an increasingly diverse portfolio of research projects on ocean
acidification," says David Garrison, program director in NSF's Directorate
for Geosciences and chair of NSF's Ocean Acidification Working Group.
"These scientists will make major
contributions to understanding this serious environmental threat," says
Garrison.
"We look forward to building on
this effort over the next few years, and expect that ocean acidification
research will be a major contribution to SEES efforts at NSF."
Ocean acidification affects marine ecosystems,
organisms' life histories, ocean food webs and biogeochemical cycling,
scientists have discovered.
The researchers believe there is a need
to understand the chemistry of ocean acidification and its interplay with
marine biochemical and physiological processes before Earth's seas become
inhospitable to life as it is known today.
Animal species from pteropods--delicate,
butterfly-like planktonic drifters--to hard corals are affected by ocean
acidification. So, too, are the unseen microbes that fuel ocean productivity
and influence the chemical functioning of ocean waters.
As the oceans become more acidic, the
balance of molecules needed for shell-bearing organisms to manufacture shells
and skeletons is altered.
The physiology of many marine species,
from microbes to fish, may be affected.
A myriad of chemical reactions and cycles are influenced by the pH, or
acidity, of the oceans.
"The Ocean Acidification awards
address how organisms detect carbon dioxide and levels of acidity, and regulate
these variables in their cells and body fluids," says William Zamer,
program director in NSF's Directorate for Biological Sciences.
"These projects include studies of
whether populations of animals have the genetic capacity to adapt to ocean
acidification. The findings will yield new insights about how a future more
acidic ocean will affect marine life."
Has ocean life faced similar challenges
in our planet's past?
Earth system history informs our
understanding of the effects of ocean acidification in the present and the
future, says Garrison.
For a true comprehension of how
acidification will change the oceans, he says, we must integrate paleoecology
with marine chemistry, physics, ecology and an understanding of the past
environmental conditions on Earth.
Overall, Ocean Acidification grantees
will ask questions such as will regional differences in marine chemistry and
physics increase acidification? Are there complex interactions, cascades and
bottlenecks that will emerge as the oceans acidify, and what are their
ecosystem implications? And if current trends continue, how far-reaching will
the changes be?
-NSF-
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