BC.203 Ocean Acidification, Ecosystems, Climate

1: Ocean Acidification - Northeastern Pacific Coastal Waters and Puget Sound:

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the most important green-house gases in the atmosphere affecting the radiative heat balance of the earth. As a direct result of the industrial and agricultural activities of humans over the past two centuries, atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased by about 100 ppm, They are now higher than experienced on Earth for at least the last 800,000 years, and are expected to continue to rise, leading to significant temperature increases in the atmosphere and oceans by the end of this century.

The global oceans are the largest natural long-term reservoir for this excess heat and CO2, absorbing approximately 85% of the heat and 30% of the anthropogenic carbon released into the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial era. Recent studies demonstrate significant changes in marine ecosystems due to the increased temperature and CO2. New findings show that organisms growing in estuaries or in coastal upwelling zones (such as those living near river mouths or along the continental shelf of west coast of the North America from Canada to Mexico) may already be experiencing significant biological impacts resulting from the combined effects of freshwater input, coastal upwelling and ocean acidification.

Dr. Feely will discuss the present and future implications of increased CO2 levels on the health of our ocean ecosystems and related ocean-based economies.

Note: On Saturday evening, Dr. Feely will introduce the award-winning film "A Sea Change" and lead a discussion afterwards.

2: Climate Change and the Pacific Northwest:

This session will feature an overview of the past and future global climate, a discussion of our expectations for the future climate of the Pacific Northwest, and a survey of the actions that can be taken on a personal level. Participants will be divided into small groups for one of two discovery-based learning activities.

Nick Bond, Richard Feely [related article]
 Nick Bond
Nick's primary research is on the weather and climate of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. A focus of this work is on how marine ecosystems respond to year to year variations in the weather and to longer-term trends in association with global climate change.
 Richard Feely
Dr. Richard A. Feely is a Senior Scientist at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. He also holds an affiliate full professor faculty position at the University of Washington School of Oceanography. His major research areas are carbon cycling in the oceans and ocean acidification processes. He received a B.A. in chemistry from the University of St. Thomas, in St Paul, Minnesota in 1969. He then went onto Texas A&M University where he received both an M.S. degree in 1971 and a Ph.D. degree in 1974. Both of his post-graduate degrees were in chemical oceanography. He is the co-chair of the U.S. CLIVAR/CO2 Repeat Hydrography Program. He is also a member of the U.S. Science Steering Committees for the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program, the U.S. Ocean Carbon and Climate Change Program, and the U.S. Carbon and Biochemistry Program. He is a member of the American Geophysical Union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Oceanography Society. Dr. Feely has authored more than 175 refereed research publications. He was awarded the Department of Commerce Gold Award in 2006 for his pioneering research on ocean acidification. In 2007, Dr. Feely was elected to be a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.