29/09/2008 -
Ocean acidity has increased by 30% since the beginning of the industrial revolution. What are the long-term implications of this process known as ocean acidification? The 2nd Symposium on the ocean in a high CO2 world, which is being held in the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco from 6th to 9th October, will explore this increasingly urgent question.
A result of the ocean’s uptake of steadily increasing amounts of man-made carbon dioxide (CO2), acidification is a reality. But its effects on the marine ecosystems remain uncertain. The symposium’s purpose is to provide an interdisciplinary forum to assess what is known about the phenomenon and to define future research priorities.
The symposium follows a first conference organised by UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and the Scientific Committee for Oceanic Research (SCOR) in May 2004, which is considered as the turning point in awareness of this phenomenon and which marked the onset of major new research in Europe and the United States. It was at this conference that researchers decided to adopt the term "ocean acidification".
The new symposium will bring together speakers from Australia, Bermuda, Canada, France, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, to discuss the future scenarios of ocean acidification, ocean acidification in the geological past, mechanisms of calcification, impacts of acidification on calcifying organisms, impacts on nutrient cycling, physiological effects, processes of adaptation and microevolution etc.
Under the patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco, the symposium is being convened by UNESCO-IOC, SCOR, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP.
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