SCCWRP, partners launching outreach campaign for OAH modeling

A team of scientists that is developing a predictive model examining how the West Coast is impacted by ocean acidification and hypoxia (OAH) will launch a public outreach campaign in March to solicit input from Southern California scientists, coastal managers and other stakeholders.

Project scientists want to share with the broader scientific and management community the approach being used to develop the model and get suggestions for how to maximize its utility while the project is still in its formative stages. The stakeholders will be asked for suggestions about data that can be used to both calibrate and validate the model.

Later, as the model is validated and uncertainty is quantified, project scientists will continue to work with this outreach group to help define the nutrient management scenario analyses that will be run in the model.

SCCWRP will host the first outreach meeting in March; the meeting date will be announced in early February.

The West Coast OAH modeling project is a sweeping initiative to help West Coast managers understand which marine habitats are most vulnerable to OAH and to what extent local, land-based sources of pollution are exacerbating coastal OAH conditions.

SCCWRP is working on the project with the University of California, Los Angeles, University of Washington, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.

The modeling work involves coupling West Coast physical and biogeochemical ocean models together to predict the relative contributions of global carbon dioxide emissions, natural upwelling processes, and nutrients introduced via local discharges.