Tomorrow the Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey will head to the UN Climate Change Conference in Germany to discuss our world-class marine science and leading research into ocean acidification.

Defra: Saturday is ‘Oceans Action Day’ and the Minister will join leaders from around the world to address progress made on tackling climate change and its impacts on the marine environment.

The UK’s Ocean Acidification research programme was set up six years ago to improve our understanding of how oceans react to increasing acidity and how marine life will cope or adapt in the future. It has been a successful scientific partnership, particularly with the German BIOACID programme – which will be presenting the findings of its research into ocean acidity in Bonn.

While in Bonn the Environment Minister will also sign the UK up to the ‘Because the Oceans’ declaration, an agreement due to be signed by more than 30 countries around the world for action on marine-related climate change. Click here to read more

German research network on ocean acidification BIOACID (Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification) reports on eight years work

In November 2017, the German research network on ocean acidification BIOACID (Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification) reaches its conclusion after eight years of extensive interdisciplinary scientific activity.

Experiments and analyses carried out by more than 250 scientists from 20 German institutions clearly indicate that ocean acidification and warming, along with other environmental stressors, impair life in the ocean and compromise important ecosystem services it provides to humankind. A brochure summarizes major outcomes of the project for policymakers and the public. BIOACID members will also be present at the United Nations climate change conference COP23 in Bonn.

As a gigantic carbon sink, the ocean has taken up about a third of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) released into the atmosphere by human activities. But when absorbed by seawater, the greenhouse gas triggers chemical reactions, causing the ocean to acidify. Ocean acidification affects ecosystems and important services the ocean provides to humankind. This includes the regulation of the Earth’s climate, food provision, recreation as well as biodiversity as a condition for intact and functioning ecosystems.

“We need to see ourselves as part of a global system and understand the many ways in which we depend on the ocean and its services. Because everyone in this global community will be affected by climate change, it will be for our own benefit if we manage to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in such a way that global warming is limited to less than 2 degrees Celsius”, says Professor Ulf Riebesell, marine biologist at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and coordinator of BIOACID. Click here to visit the Bioacid site