Poster's note : mitigation, adaptation, or geoengineering? http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/07/06/3795470/kelp-ocean-acidification/?utm_content=bufferb8bb4&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Can Kelp Save The Pacific Ocean? BY NATASHA GEILING JUL 6, 2016 9:03 AM When it comes to ocean acidification, the Pacific Northwest is set to be ground zero for some of the most dire impacts — so it makes sense that scientists in Washington state would be on the forefront of research aimed at finding solutions. One particularly interesting solution for combating ocean acidification is to use naturally-occurring organisms as stores for excess ocean carbon, the same way that trees suck up carbon dioxide on land. To that end, researchers in Washington have their sights set on a particular aquatic organism — kelp, which conveniently happens to be one of the fastest growing plants in the world. “It’s a really good adaptation experiment,” Dick Feely, a senior scientist with NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, told ThinkProgress. “There are very few of these that have been done in the past, and they have shown uptake of carbon. It all depends, really, on how successful [the projects] are at growing the kelp.” Ocean acidification, like global climate change, is driven by an overabundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Historically, the ocean has always acted as a carbon sink, absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere that was then taken up by sea vegetation and phytoplankton in balanced annual cycles. But as humans have added more and more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels, the ocean has been forced to absorb larger quantities of carbon dioxide. When that happens, it triggers a chemical reaction that actually slightly lowers the pH of ocean water, making it more acidified. That’s aproblem for marine animals like shellfish, which rely on the delicate chemical balance of ocean water to make shells. That’s also a problem for fish like salmon, which depend on pteropods — tiny marine butterflies that have shown sensitivity to more acidified waters — for food. Scientists with the Puget Sound Restoration Fund, inspect a spool holding twine full of young kelp in a boat on Washington state’s Hood Canal. The Pacific Northwest is especially vulnerable to the impacts of ocean acidification because of something known as coastal upwelling, a seasonal event that pulls cold, nutrient-rich, high-salinity water from deep in the ocean up to surface waters near the shore. Because that water is old, it is especially carbon-rich, having absorbed carbon from all the decaying organisms — the plants and the fish and the plankton — that have died and sank to the bottom. When that carbon-rich old water mixes with surface waters that have absorbed atmospheric carbon dioxide, the consequences of ocean acidification are compounded. Like climate change, ocean acidification can really only be solved by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere. But in places like Washington, which has already seen its $184 million shellfish industry threatened by ocean acidification, finding local solutions is also critical to combating the problem. The idea behind the kelp project is simple — if researchers can prove that growing kelp in Pacific Northwest waters can lower the carbon dioxide concentration of the water, then planting kelp could help slow ocean acidification and help marine animals survive in slightly more acidic waters. "Kelp was chosen for this study because it grows very quickly in the spring and persists through the summer, and while doing so, it takes up carbon from seawater to fuel photosynthesis and growth," Terrie Klinger, co-director of the Washington Center for Ocean Acidification at the University of Washington and an adivsor to the project, told ThinkProgress. "Moreover, kelp is naturally abundant in Puget Sound, where it provides habitat for many other organisms." Smaller studies have shown that plants like kelp and seagrass are able to take up carbon dioxide from ocean water, creating a slightly less acidified environment. But few projects have sought to prove the reactions occur at a scale that could really have an impact on large swaths of ocean. Preliminary studies conducted at a commercial-scale seaweed farm in Maine have shown promising results. But the Washington project is the first of its kind on the West Coast, which has been battling issues associated with ocean acidification for more than a decade. "We felt that it was very important to figure out what we could do, locally, to improve conditions locally within a marine setting, understanding that tackling the big carbon emissions problem also needed to happen in parallel and at a larger scale," Betsy Peabody, founder and executive director of Puget Sound Restoration Fund, told ThinkProgress. "But while that was being pursued, we really needed to understand what we could do within the bays and inlets where we gather food. We wanted to begin to understand what we could do, and I think harnessing the natural power of seaweeds and kelps seemed like a good first step." We need to investigate whether or not this is a tool in our tool chest And, as an added benefit, the carbon-rich kelp — once removed from the water — could be used in applications like food, fertilizer, or fuel. Currently, there isn't a huge market for harvested kelp in the United States, but some companies are trying to change that, touting the benefits of kelp in everything from food to biofuels. "If we choose to remove the kelp, that represents a carbon loss," Feely said. "Therefore, if you can provide a usefulness for that kelp, then it is a win-win for everyone." The project, which will be fully operation sometime between late fall and early winter, is a collaborative effort between groups like the Puget Sound Restoration Fund, NOAA, and the Washington Center for Ocean Acidification, and is largely born out of a 2012 Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification that has become a model for coastal communities around the country and world. Scientists from the Puget Sound Restoration Fund will lead the kelp cultivation, stringing lines of kelp seedlings from buoyed rafts floating in waters along the northern tip of Washington's Hood Canal to form kelp patches. Scientists from NOAA and the Center for Ocean Acidification will oversee measurements, keeping track of everything from how the kelp impacts the carbonate chemistry of the water to how that chemistry impacts marine life around it. The study is funded by the Paul G. Allen Foundation, which awarded the Puget Sound Restoration Fund $1.5 million to investigate the potential of kelp to help mitigate ocean acidification. "It takes a lot of us working together, because we are going to be monitoring the chemistry, physics, and biological indicators from the [kelp] raft," Jan Newton, co-director of the Washington Center for Ocean Acidification at the University of Washington, told ThinkProgress. All told, the project will take some five years and 25 team members to be carried to completion. Project leaders hope to have a full crop of kelp deployed by 2017, and will continue growing kelp at the site through 2018. Beginning in 2019, scientists will begin sifting through measurements, hoping to piece together a picture of how the kelp beds impacted the chemistry and biology of the site. Ultimately, whether or not the project extends beyond the 3-acre plot in Hood Canal depends on just how big of an impact a patch of kelp can have on ocean chemistry. Beyond measuring chemistry and biology, however, scientists also hope to test how the kelp impacts the surrounding ecosystems. A NOAA researcher will be looking at how the kelp impacts pteropods; another will look at whether or not the kelp beds double as habitat for fish. In the ocean, kelp's uptake of carbon is inherently tied to the ecosystems that surround it -- otters, for instance, are crucial to helping kelp beds absorb carbon, because otters eat sea urchins that prey on kelp. "We need to investigate whether or not this is a tool in our tool chest. It’s not just chemistry and biology, but is it creating habitat?" Peabody said. "Is it creating a potential sanctuary of sweetened waters?" TAGS Ocean AcidificationWashington -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to geoengineering+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. 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