Introduction to Ecological Impacts of Ocean Acidification in coastal area of Korea (EcoAcid) Program

Abstract

Over the last 200 years, continuous increase of dissolved CO2 in seawater with reduced seawater pH as called ‘ocean acidification’ is being occurred as a consequence of rapid increment of atmospheric CO2. Thus, there is an increasing demand on techniques for the effective assessment and prediction on biological responses by ocean acidification (OA). Therefore, our EcoAcid project is not only carried on the field observation of pCO2. and a general ecosystem survey at the selected sites in the coast of Korean waters but also focused on the biological responses of targeted marine fishes and invertebrates to OA. In order to address the biological responses (mortality, growth rate, oxygen consumption rate, etc.) to OA, firstly lab facility, which can accurately and precisely simulate current and future OA conditions, is essential. A lab system for OA experiments (patent application pending) has been built and lab OA experiments have been carried out to understand the biological responses (mortality, growth, oxygen consumption rate, etc) for more vulnerable and easily maintainable marine organisms (benthic harpacticoids, oysters, flatfish, etc). The preliminary results suggest that the high concentration of pCO2 (> 1,000 uatm) at local hot spots of ocean acidification in summer periods increased the mortality of early life stages of benthic invertebrates and decreased the growth rates and oxygen consumption rates of marind on techniques for the effective assessment and prediction on biological responses by ocean acidification (OA). Therefore, our EcoAcid project is not only carried on the field observation of pCO2. and a general ecosystem survey at the selected sites in the coast of Korean waters but also focused on the biological responses of targeted marine fishes and invertebrates to OA. In order to address the biological responses (mortality, growth rate, oxygen consumption rate, etc.) to OA, firstly lab facility, which can accurately and precisely simulate current and future OA conditions, is essential. A lab system for OA experiments (patent application pending) has been built and lab OA experiments have been carried out to understand the biological responses (mortality, growth, oxygen consumption rate, etc) for more vulnerable and easily maintainable marine organisms (benthic harpacticoids, oysters, flatfish, etc). The preliminary results suggest that the high concentration of pCO2 (> 1,000 uatm) at local hot spots of ocean acidification in summer periods increased the mortality of early life stages of benthic invertebrates and decreased the growth rates and oxygen consumption rates of mari