2015 AAAS Annual Meeting (12-16 February 2015)

February 12 - 16, 2015

Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia: Planning for Regional Action

Research efforts into ocean acidification are beginning to draw the attention of resource managers and decision-makers seeking to take action. A few high-profile examples, such as loss of production at oyster aquaculture facilities, have garnered intense media exposure. The resulting global attention to this issue presents an opportunity for the scientific community to link their knowledge with decision-makers. Ocean acidification falls within multiple levels of management and policy jurisdictions -- from federal and regional to state and even more local scales. U.S. states along the Pacific coast and the Province of British Columbia have teamed up to form the West Coast Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Panel, an interdisciplinary team of scientific experts to explore whether connections between oceanographic conditions, local anthropogenic inputs, and biological activity might provide openings for coordinated management actions along the West Coast. Speakers in the session will address the linkages between and potential impacts of acidification and hypoxia as well as the perspective of managers seeking to take action. The west coast of North America provides an ideal example of how oceanographic conditions and human impacts interact to place ecosystems at risk. Faced with these unprecedented changes to coastal resources, decision-makers need a clear understanding of what management levers might prove tractable to immediate action.