EUROPEAN Research & Environment COMMISSION Innovation Guide to best practices for ocean acidification research and data reporting projects Studies and reports EUR 24872 EN EUROPEAN COMMISSION Directorate-General for Research and Innovation Directorate I – Environment Unit I.4 – Climate change and natural hazards Contact: Paola Agostini European Commission Office CDMA 03/124 B-1049 Brussels Tel. +32 2 29 78610 Fax +32 2 29 95755 E-mail: [email protected] Contact: Ulf Riebesell Jean-Pierre Gattuso IFM-GEOMAR Laboratoire d’Océanographie Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences CNRS-INSU and Université Pierre et Marie Curie Düsternbrooker Weg 20 B.P. 28 24105 Kiel 06234 Villefranche-sur-mer Cedex Germany France E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] www.epoca-project.eu Cover photo: © David Luquet - http://www.davidluquet.com/ Reprint August 2011 EPOCA In cooperation with: EUROPEAN COMMISSION Guide to best practices for ocean acidification research and data reporting edited by Ulf Riebesell 1, Victoria J. Fabry 2, Lina Hansson 3 and Jean-Pierre Gattuso 4 1 IFM-GEOMAR, Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, Kiel, Germany 2 California State University San Marcos, San Marcos, USA 3 Laboratoire d’Océanographie, CNRS-INSU and Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Villefranche-sur-mer, France 4 Coordinator of EPOCA, Laboratoire d’Océanographie, CNRS-INSU and Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Villefranche-sur-mer, France Directorate-General for Research and Innovation 2011 Environment EUR 24872 EN EUROPE DIRECT is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union Freephone number (*): 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 (*) Certain mobile telephone operators do not allow access to 00 800 numbers or these calls may be billed LEGAL NOTICE Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of the following information. The views expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. More information on the European Union is available on the Internet (http://europa.eu). Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2011 ISBN 978-92-79-20650-4 doi 10.2777/66906 © European Union, 2011 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. Printed in Belgium PRINTED ON ELEMENTAL CHLORINE-FREE BLEACHED PAPER (ECF) Guide to best practices for ocean acidifi cation research and data reporting Preface Ocean acidifi cation is an undisputed fact. The ocean presently takes up one-fourth of the carbon CO2 emitted to the atmosphere from human activities. As this CO2 dissolves in the surface ocean, it reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid, increasing ocean acidity and shifting the partitioning of inorganic carbon species towards increased CO2 and dissolved inorganic carbon, and decreased concentration of carbonate ion. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution in the 18th century, surface-ocean acidity has gone up by 30%. The current increase in ocean acidity is a hundred times faster than any previous natural change that has occurred over the last many millions of years. In the case of unabated CO2 emissions the level of ocean acidity will increase to three times the preindustrial level by the end of this century. Recovery from this large and rapid perturbation will require tens of thousands of years. While our understanding of the possible consequences of ocean acidifi cation is still rudimentary, both the scientifi c community and the society at large are increasingly concerned about the possible risks associated with ocean acidifi cation for marine organisms and ecosystems. Over the past few years, several high profi le reports have highlighted the urgent need to better understand the effects of changes in carbonate chemistry on marine organisms and ecosystems. Research in this fi eld was limited to a few groups around the world until recently but the number of scientists involved in ocean acidifi cation research has been rapidly rising over the past few years. New coordinated national programmes are being initiated and will further augment the research efforts in this area. Students, young researchers, and established scientists inexperienced with the intricacies of the seawater carbonate chemistry will enter the fi eld. At fi rst sight, the experimental and intellectual challenges of conducting CO2/pH perturbation experiments may appear trivial. pH seems easy to measure and CO2 enrichment simple and straightforward. However, the reliable characterisation and manipulation of the carbonate system involves good analytical skills and measuring facilities and continuous monitoring of seawater chemistry in the fi eld and during experimentation. The predictive power of fi eld surveys and the robustness of results from perturbation experiments critically depend on proper sampling and experimental protocols, and sound statistical data analysis. The relevant expertise is available in many laboratories around the world and efforts are being made, both in the framework of national and international programmes and on a scientist by scientist basis, to pass the expertise on to those 3 interested to enter the fi eld. We encourage funding agencies, research coordinators, and experienced scientists to further promote and facilitate the exchange of expertise relevant to ocean acidifi cation research. The initial learning curve in this new and rapidly growing research fi eld is steep. Simple experiments will provide new insights and give straightforward answers. As more results come in, the picture will complicate. Some results may lead to confl icting conclusions. The reasons for this can be manifold. Different strains or species may respond differently. The sensitivity to ocean acidifi cation of recent isolates may differ from that of clones kept in culture over years or decades. The duration of acclimation or the rate at which the carbonate system is manipulated may also lead to different results. Species interactions may alter individual responses. Community and ecosystem changes unrelated to ocean acidifi cation may disguise or amplify the sensitivity to ocean acidifi cation. Environmental variables other than carbonate chemistry may also modify the response to ocean acidifi cation. However, some contradictory responses may also result from inappropriate experimental protocols, experimental artefacts, misinterpretations of the data, and inconsistent model parameterisations. To be able to distinguish these from genuine biological and biogeochemical disparity it will be crucially important for our community to apply rigorous scientifi c standards in our research, have access to full and detailed documentation of the analytical, experimental, statistical, and modeling approaches as well as the original data and model parameterisations. As this new and pressing fi eld of marine research gains momentum, many in our community, including representatives of coordinated research projects, international scientifi c organisations, funding agencies, and scientists in this fi eld felt the need to provide guidelines and standards for ocean acidifi cation research. To initiate this process, the European Project on Ocean Acidifi cation (EPOCA) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) jointly invited over 40 leading scientists active in ocean acidifi cation research to a meeting at the Leibniz Institute of Marine Science (IFM-GEOMAR) in Kiel, Germany on 19-21 November 2008. To keep this initiative focused and effi cient, its scope was limited to research areas dealing with the recent past, present and future of ocean acidifi cation. We hope this initiative will stimulate similar activities in research foci that are not covered in this guide, including palaeoceanography. 4 Guide to best practices for ocean acidifi cation research and data reporting At the Kiel meeting, which was sponsored by EPOCA, IOC, the Scientifi c Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR), the U.S. Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Project (OCB) and the Kiel Excellence Cluster “The Future Ocean”, the basic structure and contents of the guide was agreed upon and an outline was drafted. In the following months, the workshop participants and additional invited experts prepared draft manuscripts for each of the sections, which were subsequently reviewed by independent experts and revised according to their recommendations. Starting 15 May 2009, the guide was made publicly available for an open community review, which resulted in the fi nal document presented here. It is envisioned to revisit and possibly revise the guide to accommodate new developments in the fi eld in a few years time. We are very grateful to all colleagues who have committed their precious time to the preparation of this guide as lead and contributing authors, and reviewers. We thank the editors of the four parts of this guide, Victoria J. Fabry, Richard A. Feely, Marion Gehlen, Debora Iglesias-Rodriguez, Kitack Lee, Jens Nejstgaard, Mike Thorndyke and Bronte Tilbrook for their assistance putting the guide together. We also thank Anastasios Kentarchos from the European Commission for his assistance for the publication of this guide. On behalf of the writing team, Ulf Riebesell, Victoria J. Fabry, Lina Hansson and Jean-Pierre Gattuso (co-editors) 5 6 Guide to best practices for ocean acidifi cation research and data reporting Table of contents List of acronyms and abbreviations