Ellie Simpson is a Ph.D. Candidate at the School of Resource and Environmental Management in the Climate Oceans and Paleoenvironments Lab at Simon Fraser University. She is also an Oceanographic Data Manager with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Ellie shares with us her background and expertise in ocean acidification and carbonate chemistry research. What is your background? I am currently working towards my PhD in Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University, working with Dr. Karen Kohfeld (SFU) and Dr. Debby Ianson (DFO). I am originally from the UK, where I studied Environmental Science at the University of Reading. Following my Bachelor’s degree I did my Masters in Renewable Energy, hoping to work towards tackling climate change. I worked as a project manager for three years, developing wind farm and solar farm projects, before deciding to do my PhD. I have been working part time at Fisheries and Oceans Canada for the past year (while trying to finish the PhD!), initially in the Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Program, but recently I have moved to the Science Branch where I quality control and format ocean carbon data. What is your interest or background in OA? I was very lucky to grow up in a rural area where I spent a lot of time outside, which fostered a love for nature and the outdoors. I have always wanted to pursue a career where I could be outside and work towards protecting and improving the environment. I have been interested in the effects of climate change, on both the environment and on people, since first learning about it in high school, and was excited to find a PhD project which combined the two - looking at nearshore coastal acidification in BC and the vulnerability of BC communities to ocean acidification. My PhD has been funded through the MEOPAR Integrated Coastal Acidification Program, and my research focuses on the drivers and variability of nearshore carbonate chemistry in BC, specifically in the Salish Sea. Can you tell us about your past or current contributions to OA research? I am researching nearshore carbonate chemistry variability in the Salish Sea and the vulnerability of BC communities to ocean acidification. Many calcifying species live and are farmed in nearshore estuarine environments where carbonate chemistry is highly variable. There are unfortunately, little baseline carbonate data collected from nearshore areas in the Canadian portion of the Salish Sea, as OA has typically been studied in the open ocean, using large research vessels which are not suitable for use in collecting nearshore data. I have collected carbonate data from nearshore locations in the Salish Sea from 2015 - 2018, either by wading directly into the water from the shore, or by small skiffs. I have been working in partnership with shellfish growers in BC, collecting discrete samples from their shellfish leases in Okeover Inlet, Baynes Sound, Maple Bay and Ladysmith. I aim to establish a baseline of the pH and calcium carbonate saturation state (an indicator of stressful conditions to shellfish) conditions in these nearshore areas, show the daily and seasonal variability at these sites and identify the drivers of that variability. I am currently working on a paper which I hope to publish soon, which is investigating the use of endmember models to estimate carbonate conditions in these nearshore areas. As well as being useful to researchers interested in carbonate conditions and OA, these could be simple tools that shellfish growers could use to estimate the pH or calcium carbonate saturation state at their farms, as they only require two measurements to be made (the salty and the fresh endmember total alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon). I’m also investigating how conditions vary across the salinity gradient in this paper. I’m aiming to identify the salinity ranges where minimum buffer zones occur, which are hotspots of acidity where the most rapid changes in pH will likely happen in the future. I’m hoping that shellfish growers can use this to inform their decisions as to where in the water column to hang their shellfish and where to locate their farms. I am also hoping to conduct a vulnerability assessment of coastal BC communities to ocean acidification, combining exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity scores to give an overall vulnerability score of BC municipalities. I’ll be using the nearshore data I have collected to inform the exposure part of this assessment, instead of coarse-resolution general circulation model data which have been typically used for this type of assessment in the past. I’m hoping that identifying which areas of BC are most vulnerable to future (and/or present!) OA, will be useful to policy makers, resource managers and the growers themselves. What do you see as the most pressing OA issue for Canadians? In my opinion, from a BC perspective, we need to establish a baseline of carbonate (OA) conditions in the nearshore. The majority of OA sensitive species live or are farmed in these areas, where there is currently little data available. We can’t predict what will happen in the future with OA if we don’t know what is happening now. What is the one take-home about OA that you wish all Canadians knew? That OA is already happening! What excites you most about the current or future of OA research in Canada? There are some very interesting ideas being investigated to mitigate ocean acidification (marine carbon dioxide removal), it will be exciting to see what comes out of this research in the next few years. Hopefully something to lessen the impact of OA can be developed – of course it would be nice if we could cut the carbon emissions too! Anything else you’d like to say? I received a lot of help from a large number of people in collecting the data and I’d like to acknowledge and thank everyone who baked in the sun and froze in their boots while collecting samples with me. Also, many thanks to Yves Perreault at Little Wing Oysters, Andre Comeau and Chris Roberts at Okeover Organic Oysters, Keith Reid at Stellar Bay Shellfish and Andrew Dryden at Evening Cove Oysters for access to their shellfish leases, boats, time and expertise. To learn more about Ellie’s research, please visit her LinkedIn and ORCID profiles.

We aren’t fooling! Here are some of the latest happenings in the world of ocean acidification in Canada and beyond! New on the Blog ICYMI (in case you missed it) Read our March Monthly Updates Research Recap We interviewed researchers Tyler Wilson and Dr. Travis Tai who share their insights from their new paper examining possible future socioeconomic outcomes of ocean acidification and climate change on fisheries in Atlantic Canada. Read the full post: New Paper: Socioeconomic impacts from OA and climate change effects on Atlantic Canadian fisheries Upcoming Webinars OA Community of Practice Webinar - Krysten Rutherford (Ph.D. candidate, Dalhousie University) “Source or Sink? A numerical modeling study of inorganic carbon fluxes on the Scotian Shelf” April 14th (2 pm ADT/10 am PDT) See the event details and register here (visit our Events webpage for more updates). OA Alliance Webinar - Accounting for OA Across Vulnerability and Risk Assessments “The 90 minute webinar will provide a snapshot of OA vulnerability and risks assessments that have already been conducted in the Pacific Islands Region and British Columbia, Canada and highlight strategies and methodologies that account for socio-economic and cultural vulnerabilities.” April 15th (4 pm EST/1 pm PST) Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4Bh8qKfkRXSr-J77AZPccw GOA-ON Webinar Series OA CoP coordinator, Kristina Barclay, will present an overview of the CoP and some of our new current and future projects. April 21st (3 pm AST/11 am PST) See the event details and register here. In the News “How to make an acid-proof oyster” Source: The Capital Daily Read the full article here. New Paper of Interest Ricart, A. M., M. Ward, T. M. Hill, E. Sanford, K. J. Kroeker, Y. Takeshita, S. Merolla, P. Shukla, A. T. Ninokawa, K. Elsmore, B. Gaylord. 2021.Coast‐wide evidence of low pH amelioration by seagrass ecosystems. Global Change Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15594 Have a news item you'd like us to feature? Email coordinator@oceanacidification.ca!

Here’s what’s new from the MEOPAR OA Community of Practice this month: March Quarterly Newsletter New Resources New Blog Posts Upcoming Events March Quarterly Newsletter We released our March Quarterly Newsletter on March 3rd! Take a look to see new resources, including a webinar on OA sensors, new blog posts from January and February, and our upcoming events! Find and download our March Newsletter here. New Resources A Look at Canada's OA Community On March 10th, our Coordinator, Kristina Barclay, gave a webinar on Canada's OA Community as part of MEOPAR's 2021 webinar series. You can watch the recording by visiting our newly refreshed About page, or on MEOPAR's YouTube channel! OA Sensor Webinar Ph.D. student and OA CoP Steering Committee Member, Patrick Duke, gives a breakdown on the pros and cons of the latest in OA sensor technology, including instrument specs., accuracy, drift, and price points. Watch the webinar here. New Blog Posts Here are our latest posts from February and March: Research Recaps: We interview researchers to hear about their latest projects, papers, and OA work. New Paper: Socioeconomic impacts from OA and climate change effects on Atlantic Canadian fisheries Scientist Spotlights: Learn more about the scientists leading the way in new ocean acidification research across Canada and beyond. Dr. Clara Mackenzie, Research Scientist (Fisheries and Oceans Canada) Meet the CoP: Get to know the people leading Canada’s OA Community of Practice and hear about their interests in ocean acidification. Dr. Brent Else, OA CoP Co-Lead OA News (You Could Use): Find out the latest happenings in the world of OA in Canada and beyond, including new resources, papers, and news articles. Mar. 25, 2021 Mar. 18, 2021 Mar. 11, 2021 Mar. 4, 2021 Feb. 25, 2021 Feb. 18, 2021 Feb. 11, 2021 Feb. 4, 2021 Upcoming Events Wed., April 14, 2021 (2 pm ADT/10 am PDT) OA CoP Guest Webinar with Ph.D. Candidate, Krysten Rutherford (Dalhousie University) "Source or Sink? A numerical modeling study of inorganic carbon fluxes on the Scotian Shelf" See the event details and register here. Thurs., April 15, 2021 (5 pm ADT/1 pm PDT) OA Alliance Webinar Accounting for OA Across Vulnerability and Risk Assessments See the event details and register here. Wed., April 21, 2021 (3 pm ADT/11 am PDT) GOA-ON Webinar Series presentation by OA CoP Coordinator, Kristina Barclay Learn all about the CoP, our past activities, MEOPAR OA research, and our current and future research and activities! See the event details and register here. Wed., May 5, 2021 (9 am ADT/5 am PDT) MASTS Webinar series presentation by OA CoP coordinator, Kristina Barclay Take a virtual trip to Scotland! Kristina will present an overview of Canada's OA community to the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS). See the event details and register here! Check out oceanacidification.ca/events and follow us on social media for event updates! Have an idea for content? Want to contribute? We’re always looking for ideas and feedback! Email us at coordinator@oceanacidification.ca! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!

Here are some of the latest happenings in the world of ocean acidification in Canada and beyond! Past Webinars Missed the CRM Webinar by Andrew Dickson: “CO2-in-seawater reference materials: yesterday, today, and tomorrow”? You can view the slides and join the ongoing discussion on here on the OA Info Exchange! GOA-ON Webinar Series - David Long, William Pardis, Kalina Grabb (March 18th) “Measuring Protons with Photons: a pH Analyzer and community science program to change the relationship between humans and ocean science”. Watch the webinar here and join the conversation on the OA Info Exchange. Upcoming Webinars OA Community of Practice Webinar - Krysten Rutherford (Ph.D. candidate, Dalhousie University) “Source or Sink? A numerical modeling study of inorganic carbon fluxes on the Scotian Shelf” April 14th (2 pm ADT/10 am PDT) Event links and further details coming soon (visit our Events webpage for updates) OA Alliance Webinar - Accounting for OA Across Vulnerability and Risk Assessments “The 90 minute webinar will provide a snapshot of OA vulnerability and risks assessments that have already been conducted in the Pacific Islands Region and British Columbia, Canada and highlight strategies and methodologies that account for socio-economic and cultural vulnerabilities.” April 15th (4 pm EST/1 pm PST) Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4Bh8qKfkRXSr-J77AZPccw In the News “Smoke on the water: ocean monitoring buoy senses wildfires” Source: Newport News Times Read the full article here. “Mental Health and the Modern Fisherman” Source: Hakai Magazine CW: death, swear words, mental health, substance abuse Read the full article here. New Paper of Interest Ross, T., C. Du Preez, and D. Ianson. 2020. Rapid deep ocean deoxygenation and acidification threaten life on Northeast Pacific seamounts. Global Change Biology, 26:6424-6444. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15307 Have a news item you'd like us to feature? Email coordinator@oceanacidification.ca!

Ocean acidification (OA) is expected to have negatives consequences for many marine organisms, particularly shellfish that build their hard parts from calcium carbonate. But what about the communities and people that depend on these potentially vulnerable organisms as part of their livelihoods and local economies? We spoke with two researchers, Tyler Wilson and Dr. Travis Tai, on a new paper examining the possible socioeconomic effects of climate change and OA on fisheries in Atlantic Canada (Wilson et al., 2020). Tyler Wilson, lead author of the study, conducted this research as part of his Master’s degree in Environmental Studies under the supervision of Dr. Peter Tyedmers at Dalhousie University (Halifax, N.S.). Mr. Wilson is currently working for Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) on a Live Gene Banking program for endangered Inner Bay of Fundy Atlantic Salmon. Prior to starting his graduate work, Mr. Wilson, who completed an undergraduate degree in Biology and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria, worked on salmon stock assessment for DFO in B.C.. Through his undergraduate degree, he began to see OA as a sort of “hidden” aspect of climate change that, while tangential to his main studies, drew his interest to pursue a graduate program that would allow him to examine some of the socio-economic impacts of OA (as part of the Canadian Ocean Acidification Research Program [COARp], funded by MEOPAR). Dr. Travis Tai, a co-author who conducted the species distribution modelling work underpinning the study, also works on OA and climate change impacts on fisheries species. Dr. Tai’s background is in OA, climate change, fisheries, biological responses, and integrated modelling. He is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, investigating climate change risk on freshwater life stages in Pacific salmon. “My research interests are on climate change and ocean acidification impacts on living marine organisms, and largely species of commercial value (i.e. fisheries),” Dr. Tai writes. “I use a variety of approaches to model how changes in environmental conditions due to anthropogenic accelerated climate change affect the biology, abundance, and distribution of marine species. One of these approaches includes integrating models of physiology, biology, population dynamics, and spatial movement to project future distribution and abundance. I also work on developing methods and frameworks—using various indicators of physical and biological change—to determine the relative risk of marine species to climate change.” With the help of Dr. Tai and other co-authors, Mr. Wilson set out to explore and produce a broad-scale picture of the effects of climate change and OA on fisheries, particularly the potential for impact on rural coastal communities and their economies in Atlantic Canada. The goal of the paper was to bring together both the potential biological and societal outcomes to answer the question: How will OA and climate change affect Canadian Atlantic Fisheries and their associated communities? “This study was built on previous modelling work on biological responses to ocean acidification and climate change of commercially valuable species,” says Dr. Tai. “We were interested in producing a more interdisciplinary approach to assess the impacts of climate change at the species level and how it carries over to impacts on society. One of the ways we can prepare for the impacts of climate change is through preparedness and developing plans and efforts to mitigate impacts. Exercises such as these provided in this study allow us to better understand the potential impacts of climate change on fisheries, given our current understanding of the underlying processes.” The study implemented an impact assessment framework that used models of species distributions to inform and assess potential future socioeconomic outcomes of climate change and OA. “We used a combination of modelling techniques in this study. First, we used species distribution models for changes in distribution and abundance of species populations. The outputs from these models were then used as inputs for measuring downstream effects on society. [Second], we used indicators for economic and societal impacts to gauge the overall risk of ocean acidification and climate change to fisheries,” Dr. Tai explains. Mr. Wilson says they built off socioeconomic indicators used in several previous papers. The indicators used in the study covered both economic and societal impacts, including metrics such as landings values, the number of fishing licences issued, and Statistics Canada data on unemployment and education. Mr. Wilson says that they also looked at how important fisheries were to local communities by looking at percentage changes, rather than just dollar values. These indicators were combined with the models of species distributions to assess the socioeconomic risks to Atlantic provinces and fishing regions. “We found that ocean acidification presents a relatively small impact to shellfish fisheries sectors in Atlantic Canada, but amount to much greater risk when compounded with other effects of climate change, particularly ocean warming. Provinces such as Nova Scotia and New Brunswick will see changes in resource availability, but have relatively high adaptive scores and [are] socially and economically robust to these impacts. Conversely, the provinces PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador scores lower in terms of adaptive capacity, but are projected to see smaller changes to species populations in their adjacent fishing regions,” writes Dr. Tai. Surprisingly, these results were not “hugely dramatic” with respect to OA, Mr. Wilson points out. While the model projections did show some decreases in some fisheries stocks, not all of the outcomes were negative. For example, snow crab were hardest hit in the model projections and declined across the region, but as this species relies on colder temperatures, the results were not surprising. Conversely, some species were expected to see net increases in the region as a whole (with more localised declines). Overall, they found that OA was not as big of a driver of change as other climate change factors, such as warming temperatures. Dr. Tai also found the results unexpected. “One of the major surprises from our results was the relatively small effect of ocean acidification on species distribution and abundance,” he says. “While it is well known that temperature is one of the most important biological drivers, we expected ocean acidification to have considerable impacts on survival. However, our modelling results show that ocean acidification will largely have negative impacts on fisheries species but in most cases will be overshadowed by temperature induced changes.” With issues like climate change and ocean acidification, there is going to be some change, but it is also important to be aware of some potential opportunities that might be created, Mr. Wilson suggests. For example, their projections indicate increases in lobster stocks as a potential “silver-lining” for Atlantic Canada. However, this comes at a cost to fisheries in the U.S., because as the species’ range shifts northward, fisheries at the southern portion of their range will be negatively impacted. These “positive” outcomes for Atlantic Canada could also be potentially short-lived if the timeline is increased, Mr. Wilson indicates. Mr. Wilson points out that their results indicate why it is important to take big picture approaches in fisheries management. Not only should there be a push for more diverse management practices, but trans-boundary management between provinces and countries should be considered to capture the larger picture of climate change impacts. Including additional climate change variables in models is also important, rather than just focusing on OA. OA is happening in a larger context of global change, after all, and other factors, such as temperature, could be more important drivers of change than OA, at least in the short term. “Ocean acidification and climate change [are some] of the biggest threats to our oceans,” Dr. Tai adds. “Understanding how these environmental changes will affect natural resources that we depend on is essential for mitigation and adaptation.” While the overall results of the study may sound like good news for Atlantic Canada, Mr. Wilson cautions that it is important to “look down the road, rather than just at this year’s catch.” These “positive” outcomes might only be temporary. Should current projections of climate change and OA continue and species keep moving further north or into deeper waters (or start to lose their ideal habitats), we could still see negative consequences for Atlantic Canadian fisheries in the long term. Read Wilson et al., 2020 here (open access): Potential socioeconomic impacts from ocean acidification and climate change effects on Atlantic Canadian fisheries Citation: Wilson TJB, Cooley SR, Tai TC, Cheung WWL, Tyedmers PH. 2020. Potential socioeconomic impacts from ocean acidification and climate change effects on Atlantic Canadian fisheries. PLoS ONE 15(1): e0226544. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226544 Acknowledgments: Thanks to Tyler Wilson for his virtual “in-person” interview, and to Dr. Travis Tai for providing written responses to our questions. To learn more about Dr. Travis Tai and his research, please visit his Research Gate and Google Scholar profiles.

Here are some of the latest happenings in the world of ocean acidification in Canada and beyond! "About" Page Refresh We've given our "About" webpage a new look! Learn more about: who we are, what we do, our Team, and how OA impacts Canada. Visit our new page here. Past Webinars Missed our MEOPAR webinar on Canada’s OA Community last week? Never fear, the recording can be found here! Missed the CRM Webinar by Andrew Dickson: “CO2-in-seawater reference materials: yesterday, today, and tomorrow”? You can view the slides and join the ongoing discussion on here on the OA Info Exchange! Upcoming Webinars GOA-ON Webinar Series - David Long, William Pardis, Kalina Grabb “Measuring Protons with Photons: a pH Analyzer and community science program to change the relationship between humans and ocean science” March 18th (11 EDT) Register here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/rt/2312052364919044366 OA Community of Practice Webinar - Krysten Rutherford (Ph.D. candidate, Dalhousie University) “Source or Sink? A numerical modeling study of inorganic carbon fluxes on the Scotian Shelf” April 14th (2 pm ADT/10 am PDT) Event links and further details coming soon (visit our Events webpage for updates) OA Alliance Webinar - Accounting for OA Across Vulnerability and Risk Assessments “The 90 minute webinar will provide a snapshot of OA vulnerability and risks assessments that have already been conducted in the Pacific Islands Region and British Columbia, Canada and highlight strategies and methodologies that account for socio-economic and cultural vulnerabilities.” April 15th (4 pm EST/1 pm PST) Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4Bh8qKfkRXSr-J77AZPccw New Resource “OA in a Cup” A new resource and activity from Wood Hole Sea Grant for elementary or high school students. Use purple cabbage to test changes in pH! Find this activity here. In the News “P.E.I. researcher collaborates across borders to learn how climate change will impact lobster” Source: The Guardian Read the full article here. New Paper of Interest Holdsworth, A.M., L. Zhai, Y. Lu, and J. R. Christian. 2021. Future Changes in Oceanography and Biogeochemistry Along the Canadian Pacific Continental Margin. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8:602991. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.602991 Have a news item you'd like us to feature? Email coordinator@oceanacidification.ca!

We've done a refresh on our About webpage! Please visit the link to learn more about: Who we are What we do Our Team How OA impacts Canada We've also included a recording of our MEOPAR webinar on March 10th (2021), where OA CoP Coordinator, Kristina Barclay, discusses our goals, past activities, new resources, and future plans. Visit our About page: oceanacidification.ca/about

Here are some of the latest happenings in the world of ocean acidification in Canada and beyond! Upcoming Webinars CRM Webinar by Andrew Dickson The U.S. Interagency Working Group on Ocean Acidification presents: CO2-in-seawater reference materials: yesterday, today, and tomorrow Presenter: Professor Andrew Dickson (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego) March 16, 2021, 9am Pacific Register here: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2842491957779599883 CMOS Tour Speaker – Dr. Katja Fennel The Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society will host a public lecture by their 2021 Tour Speaker, Dr. Katja Fennel. Presentation Title: What lies beneath? Views from a global fleet of ocean robots March 17, 2021, 2 pm ET Find out more and register here! New NECAN Webinar Recording On Feb. 25th, NECAN hosted a webinar by Dr. Melissa Melendez (University of Hawai’i at Manoa) entitled “Understanding Net Ecosystem Metabolism and Carbonate Chemistry at Near Coral Reef Ecosystems Using Moored Autonomous pCO2 Systems: Lessons From Puerto Rico and Florida” Watch the full presentation here! In the News “Why a Net‑Zero Future Depends on the Ocean's Ability to Absorb Carbon” Source: Dal News (Dalhousie University) Read the article here: https://www.dal.ca/news/2021/02/24/why-a-net-zero-future-depends-on-the-ocean-s-ability-to-absorb-c.html Canada’s Launch of the UN Ocean Decade On March 3, Canada and DFO hosted a workshop to launch the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021 – 2030). Canada’s activities, initiatives, and involvmenet in the Ocean Decade are ongoing. Please visit DFO’s new Ocean Decade webpage to learn more about how Canada will be involved in the Ocean Decade. Follow #OceanDecade and #OceanDecadeCanada for more info! New Paper of Interest Niemisto, M, Fields, DM, Clark, KF, Waller, JD, Greenwood, and SJ, Wahle, RA. 2020. American lobster postlarvae alter gene regulation in response to ocean warming and acidification. Ecology and Evolution, 11: 806– 819. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7083 Have a news item you'd like us to feature? Email coordinator@oceanacidification.ca!

Here are some of the latest happenings in the world of ocean acidification in Canada and beyond! Upcoming MEOPAR OA CoP Webinar MEOPAR Webinar Series Canada’s Ocean Acidification Community of Practice Presenter: Kristina Barclay, OA CoP Coordinator March 10, 2021, 2 pm AST/10 am PST Read the abstract and register here: https://meopar.ca/upcoming-webinar-canadas-ocean-acidification-community-of-practice/ Our March Quarterly Newsletter We released our newest Quarterly Newsletter (March, 2021) yesterday! Read it here: https://www.oceanacidification.ca/post/quarterly-newsletter-march-2021 Other Upcoming Webinars CRM Webinar by Andrew Dickson The U.S. Interagency Working Group on Ocean Acidification presents: CO2-in-seawater reference materials: yesterday, today, and tomorrow Presenter: Professor Andrew Dickson (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego) March 16, 2021, 9am Pacific Register here: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2842491957779599883 CMOS Tour Speaker – Dr. Katja Fennel The Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society will host a public lecture by their 2021 Tour Speaker, Dr. Katja Fennel. Presentation Title: What lies beneath? Views from a global fleet of ocean robots March 17, 2021, 2 pm ET Find out more and register here! New GOA-ON Webinar Last week, GOA-ON hosted a webinar with Drs. Kirsten Isensee and Katherina Schoo entitled “Measuring OA to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – SDG target 14.3 and the related indicator 14.3.1.” Watch the full presentation here! Canada’s Launch of the UN Ocean Decade On March 3, Canada and DFO hosted a workshop to launch the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021 – 2030). Canada’s activities, initiatives, and involvmenet in the Ocean Decade are ongoing. Please visit DFO’s new Ocean Decade webpage to learn more about how Canada will be involved in the Ocean Decade. Follow #OceanDecade and #OceanDecadeCanada for more info! New Paper of Interest Onthank, Kirt L., Lloyd A. Trueblood, Taylir Schrock-Duff, and Lydia G. Kore. 2021. Impact of Short- and Long-Term Exposure to Elevated Seawater Pco2 on Metabolic Rate and Hypoxia Tolerance in Octopus rubescens. Physiological and biochemical Zoology, 94:1–11. https://doi.org/10.1086/712207 Have a news item you'd like us to feature? Email coordinator@oceanacidification.ca!

Our newest Quarterly Newsletter (March, 2021) has arrived and is full of exciting updates, including four upcoming webinars, snapshots from our blog, and new resources (our map of Canada's OA resources, and a webinar on OA sensors)! Download the full PDF version (high resolution with interactive links): Page images:

Here are some of the latest happenings in the world of ocean acidification in Canada and beyond! New on our Blog Join us for this video interview with Dr. Brent Else, Associate Professor (University of Calgary) and OA CoP Co-Lead, to learn about his research studying air-sea-ice carbon dioxide exchange in the Arctic and motivations for leading Canada's OA community! Watch the interview and read the audio transcript here: Dr. Brent Else, OA CoP Co-Lead Upcoming MEOPAR OA CoP Webinar MEOPAR Webinar Series Canada’s Ocean Acidification Community of Practice Presenter: Kristina Barclay, OA CoP Coordinator March 10, 2021, 2 pm AST/10 am PST Read the abstract and register here: https://meopar.ca/upcoming-webinar-canadas-ocean-acidification-community-of-practice/ Upcoming Webinar on CRMs The U.S. Interagency Working Group on Ocean Acidification presents: CO2-in-seawater reference materials: yesterday, today, and tomorrow Presenter: Professor Andrew Dickson (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego) March 16, 2021, 9am Pacific Register here: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2842491957779599883 New Resource New resource from Oregon Sea Grant for high school students: “Changing Ocean Chemistry: A High School Curriculum on Ocean Acidification’s Cause, Impacts, and Solutions” https://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/sites/seagrant.oregonstate.edu/files/e-19-002_new.pdf New Paper of Interest Miller, C. A., C. Bonsell, N. D. McTigue, and A. L. Kelley. 2021. The seasonal phases of an Arctic lagoon reveal the discontinuities of pH variability and CO2 flux at the air–sea interface. Biogeosciences, 18:1203–1221. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-1203-2021 Have a news item you'd like us to feature? Email coordinator@oceanacidification.ca!

In this video interview, Ocean Acidification Community of Practice Coordinator, Kristina Barclay, sat down with one of our two OA CoP Co-Leads, Dr. Brent Else (University of Calgary), to learn more about his OA research and interests, and motivations behind leading Canada's OA community. This video is captioned. For the full audio transcript, please see text below. Audio Transcript: Kristina: So welcome to our Ocean Acidification Community of Practice "Meet the CoP" blog series where we get to know a little bit more about the research and leadership team guiding our OA Community of Practice. Today I'm speaking with Dr. Brent Else, Associate Professor at the University of Calgary. Welcome! Brent: Great, thanks. Kristina: Could you tell us a little bit about your background and your interest in ocean acidification? Brent: Yes, I'm a geographer, really. I did all my degrees in geography departments. I started out at the University of Calgary and then moved to the University of Manitoba. But of course, the nice thing about geography is that you can study many different things within that field. So I typically consider myself to be, well depending on who I'm talking to, I might consider myself to be an oceanographer, but I've also spent a lot of time working on atmospheric processes so I know a little bit about meteorology, particularly boundary layer meteorology. And then within the field of oceanography, most of my work focuses on marine chemistry and in particular carbonate chemistry. And to answer the question about what my interest is in ocean acidification or how I got into ocean acidification, my main field of research is understanding how greenhouse gases move between the ocean and the atmosphere, specifically carbon dioxide. So that's where I come at this from, you know, understanding how much CO2 moves between the ocean and the atmosphere is pretty important for understanding the global carbon balance. And I work specifically in the arctic to understand how that process occurs in Arctic oceans, well in Arctic seas I guess I should say. And so I'm really coming at it from that angle. I study how the CO2 gets into the ocean. Then when I was, actually I think when I was a master's student, I was working on this and to be honest I don't think I'd even heard of ocean acidification at that point, I think I learned about it somewhere in my PhD and then I realized, oh you know, I'm working on the part where the CO2 gets into the ocean and then starts to drive that ocean acidification so I should probably learn more about ocean acidification itself. And so I started to align my research a little bit more with that and seeing how I could support ocean acidification studies through a little bit more of the chemistry side of things. Kristina: That's awesome. So can you tell us any bit about (you sort of already answered this) but maybe any highlights in terms of your contributions to ocean acidification research from recent papers or studies that you've done? Brent: Yeah, I think probably our biggest recent contribution, well there's a few I'll talk about, and a few students that have been working under my supervision for the last little while. One PhD student who's now a postdoc, Mohamed Ahmed, has published a few papers recently trying to put some numbers on how much CO2 is being absorbed in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. So if you're not familiar with the geography, if you go north in Canada, eventually you hit the edge of the continent and then if you keep going further north, there's thousands of little islands that make up the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Mohamed's work has looked at a bunch of data that we collected over several years measuring dissolved CO2 concentrations in the sea water from the research ice breaker, Amundsen, and from that we were able to put some numbers on how much CO2 is is getting into the ocean in those areas. And it turns out that that area is a pretty strong sink for CO2 - there's quite a lot of CO2 that moves into the ocean there and we actually suspect that that absorption of CO2 is increasing, or has been increasing, over the last three or four decades as the sea ice concentration in that area has has declined. So less sea ice means more open water; more open water means more opportunity for CO2 to get into the ocean, and that's one of the big things that he has found. And you know, that's pretty typical of the type of work that my research group does, really trying to put some numbers on CO2 absorption into the ocean. But I'll mention too, in doing that, we've got a little bit more involved in in the chemistry. So CO2 gets into the ocean, whether or not that might be a problem for marine organisms, it doesn't necessarily depend on how much CO2 is in there, but more on this what we call the carbonate saturation state, which is sort of a complicated end of a long chemical equation. But I had a student working out at Cambridge Bay who was able to calculate that for the ocean right around Cambridge Bay and he was able to do that by collecting some really detailed measurements of pH and CO2 concentration. And one of the exciting things we found there was that there's a fairly long period of time over the winter in that particular region where the sea water is undersaturated with respect to the aragonite saturation state. We couldn't really find any other papers that have shown that for the Arctic Ocean for that depth, so this is measured in pretty shallow water. So I think that's an interesting finding and it's one of the first findings where my research group has really taken one step closer to understanding the potential connections to marine organisms. So that's a cool study too. Kristina: That's great! Those studies both sound really interesting. And for people listening, if you are interested in learning a little bit more about Mohamed Ahmed's research, please check out our "Research Recap" blog series for that post. Moving on to the next question for you, why did you decide to lead the Ocean Acidification Community of Practice? You're one of the two co-leads of the program, so what was the motivation there? Brent: Right, good question. I come at this because I was, or I am, a MEOPAR researcher. So of course the Ocean Acidification Community of Practice is funded by MEOPAR and I was lucky enough to join MEOPAR as an early career researcher. Actually, the first research grant I ever got came from MEOPAR. So they brought me into their team that way. And I would say at that time, I was still really focused on the CO2 side of things, but you know the whole point of MEOPAR is to be a network, and so I met many other researchers, many other Canadian researchers, working on these topics and through that got to know one of the scientific leads of MEOPAR, Doug Wallace. And when the MEOPAR leadership was trying to figure out what they were going to do next with respect to ocean acidification within the network, he approached me to to co-lead the CoP and I thought that it was just a great opportunity to broaden my research in different directions. And you know really what we're trying to do in the Community of Practice is to try to bring in many different researchers and stakeholders who have an interest in ocean acidification so I really thought, you know, this is the way for me to get much more involved. And if you think about what I said when I was a master student, just really focused on CO2 flux, knew nothing about ocean acidification, to me this was just the next step in that in that journey to learn more and to align my research more with a topic that I think could be pretty important for Canada and for the world, really. Kristina: All right, next question is: what is one take-home about ocean acidification that you wish all Canadians knew? Brent: Yeah, what I think what I would say to that is that the problem of ocean acidification is strongly linked to CO2 emissions to fossil fuel burning. So you can think of it as kind of like an added motivation to reduce CO2 emissions. You know, I think for the average person, you've got lots of stuff to worry about, maybe don't let ocean acidification keep you up at night. But if we're actively working to reduce our CO2 emissions, we'll be actively addressing this problem too. So I think that that's the thing that I would like all Canadians to know is that if we can make progress on reducing CO2 emissions, we'll be helping out the climate change problem, but we'll also be helping out this problem too. Kristina: All right, next question. My last question for you is: what excites you most about the future of ocean acidification research? Brent: Yeah, I think I'll answer this question kind of personally because I'm excited about certain things that our lab group is working on. I'm excited about the potential to make more measurements using inexpensive sensors. One of the biggest barriers to collecting good, well to collecting large amounts of ocean acidification data has been that it's difficult to measure this with using sensors. To measure ocean acidification properly, it's typically required collecting samples, shipping them back to a lab, and then analyzing them on really specialized instruments. There are some new sensors that are out there now that can probably fill that gap, but they're expensive and they haven't really been deployed at a wide scale yet. And I think what I'd like to see happen over the next five or ten years is the adoption of either those expensive sensors, or maybe the development of less expensive sensors, and getting those sensors out to lots of different locations and then hopefully being able to use that to provide information that might actually be useful, again, to those operators who are worried about the health of the organism that they're working with, either in the short term or in the long term as well. So I'm really excited that we can start to use those new technologies and if we can start to deploy them and use them hand-in-hand with stakeholders, then I think we could really have a big increase in ocean acidification knowledge in this country. Kristina: Awesome, that's really exciting. Yeah, that's everything for me, so thank you very much for your time! Brent: No problem, that was great. To learn more about Brent and his research, please visit his lab website and Google Scholar profiles.