Research project: Impacts of ocean acidification on key benthic ecosystems, communities, habitats, species and life cycles

This consortium brings together 25 key researchers from 12 UK organisations and will use laboratory experiments to determine the ways in which ocean acidification will change key physiological processes, organism behaviour, animal interactions, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. The understanding gained will be used to build and run conceptual, statistical and numerical models, which will forecast the impact of future ocean pH scenarios on the biodiversity and function of coastal ecosystems.

Aims

1. Quantify the impact of ocean acidification and warming on the health and activity of key benthic organisms
2. Assess the potential for organism adaptation to ocean acidification and warming
3. Quantify the impact of ocean acidification and warming on the biogeochemistry of marine benthic habitats
4. Quantify the impact of ocean acidification and warming on benthic microbial communities
5. Predict the impact of future CO₂ scenarios on the population dynamics of benthic marine organisms
6. Predict the impact of future CO₂ scenarios on the biodiversity and functioning of coastal habitats

Main website:
http://www.benthic-acidification.org/default.aspx

Key Contacts

Dr Chris Hauton