Ocean Acidification
Programme background
The Ocean Acidification Research Programme directly relates to delivery of the NERC strategy (in particular the Earth system science and biodiversity science themes) and the UK government's strategic objectives with respect to the adaptation to, and mitigation of, climate change and ensuring a healthy, resilient, productive and diverse natural environment.
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations are increasing as a result of human activity and are likely to continue to do so in the future, although the future levels of CO2 are uncertain. In response to this rise, the oceans are taking up more CO2 and becoming more acidic. The associated increases in ocean acidity over coming decades are likely to be at a rate and on a scale that is unprecedented in at least the last 20 million years.
It is likely that large areas of the ocean could become under-saturated with respect to at least aragonite (one of two common polymorphs of biologically produced calcium carbonate) within this century. Under such conditions, organisms creating aragonite skeletons face serious challenges.
This acidification will clearly have major impacts on ocean biogeochemistry and biodiversity, but impacts will extend beyond this to the whole Earth system via impacts on air-sea gas exchange and sedimentation of material through the oceans. The scale and nature of the effects of acidification on marine systems and more widely are very poorly known.
It is proposed that this research programme will run for five-years. Research programme activities will be focused on the North-East Atlantic (including European shelf and slope), Antarctic and Arctic Oceans, and will include the effects of acidification on biochemistry and biodiversity, past responses to acidification, ecosystem structure and function, habitats and species, and socio-economic implications.