Managing and Mitigating Ocean Acidification in California and the Pacific

Submitted by bhooton on Tue, 2012-04-17 13:41
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Welcome to our blog! Here you can explore hot ocean topics and find postings that highlight a few of the most interesting new articles added in the Center for Ocean Solution’s Pacific Ocean Library. We hope to inspire you to participate in the ongoing conversation and encourage you to explore the resources of the Pacific Ocean Library.

April 2012: Managing and Mitigating Ocean Acidification in California and the Pacific

In April, we focus on ocean acidification. How is carbon dioxide (CO2) affecting our oceans, what are the consequences of increased levels for marine ecosystems, and what can we do to manage and mitigate rising CO2 in our oceans? As California takes steps to better understand the impacts of ocean acidification and how to develop a response, state leaders recently asked the Center for Ocean Solutions to analyze the issue.  Read more...

Not Your Parents' Water Pollution: Clean Water Act Failures in a New Climate

Submitted by bhooton on Tue, 2011-10-18 12:53
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Photo: MSVG, Flickr Creative Commons

by Ryan P. Kelly and Margaret R. Caldwell

This week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave California some tough love in the form of a ghastly report card on water quality along our coasts and in our rivers and streams: the state’s water pollution seems to have gotten much worse, with the number of polluted water bodies skyrocketing between 2006 and 2010.  Some of this change is due to more aggressive testing; the blame for the rest is solely our own.  And while this news is bad enough on its own, what’s often not discussed is that all of that polluted water ends up downstream in the coastal ocean, already hard hit by decades of abuse.

An Academic and Municipal Partnership Tackles Local Land-Sea Policy

Submitted by eloury on Tue, 2011-01-18 17:25
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Workshop participant Helen OBrien from UC Santa Cruz works between sessions (photo: A. Abeles).    by Julie Stewart, MARINE curriculum intern

It’s not every day that the mayor, city planners and press come to Hopkins Marine Station to hear students speak, particularly at 9 AM on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning. But on December 5, Mayor Carmelita Garcia and Councilman Bill Kampe of Pacific Grove, along with local and regional managers and a reporter from the Cedar Street Times, came to hear policy recommendations from local graduate students for a course sponsored by the Center for Ocean Solutions.

Graduate students from six local campuses (UCSC, Moss Landing Marine Labs, CSUMB, MIIS, Stanford and Hopkins Marine Station) were involved in this MARINE (Monterey Area Research Institutions’ Network for Education), course, which is part of COS’ education initiative. Stanford University Professor Nicole Ardoin was the faculty lead for the course and MARINE Program Manager Margaret Krebs was the course coordinator. I was also involved in this project, and although I was initially signed on to develop the course’s content, my role evolved and I also became a liaison, organizer, and facilitator.  Read more...

Carbon dioxide is polluting the ocean: tackling ocean acidification under the Clean Water Act

Submitted by eloury on Wed, 2010-12-01 15:58
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Animals like corals that depend on calcium carbonate to construct their skeletons are on the frontlines of the ocean's rising acidity. (photo: M. Fox)

by Melissa Foley, Science Early Career Fellow and Erin Loury, Science Communication Intern.

Ocean acidification, or the increase of low-pH, corrosive ocean waters, certainly qualifies as a process that impairs water quality.   Now the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has created guidance to address ocean acidification under the Clean Water Act. 

On November 15th, the EPA released a Memorandum to guide regions and states in reporting the impacts of ocean acidification under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act, which requires states to submit a list of impaired water bodies that do not meet water quality standards, and develop total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) for these waters.  A TMDL is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a body of water can receive and still safely meet water quality standards.  In the case of ocean acidification, the main pollutant in question is carbon dioxide (CO2).  Read more...

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