Expert panel convened to develop acidification thresholds for echinoderms

SCCWRP has convened a nine-member panel of leading experts on sea stars, urchins and other echinoderms to reach agreement on how to use these organisms to track ocean acidification’s biological impacts on West Coast marine communities.

During a three-day workshop at SCCWRP that ran October 30-November 1, the international echinoderm science panel deliberated on the thresholds at which specific environmental conditions linked to increasing acidification are expected to trigger specific adverse biological effects in echinoderms.

The goal is to determine how to use organisms that are sensitive to small-scale changes in seawater conditions as an early-warning indicator of the intensity and pace with which acidification is impacting coastal marine ecosystems, both in the California Current Ecosystem and globally.

The international echinoderm panel is the second of three expert panels being convened by SCCWRP. The first panel, which focused on sea snails known as pteropods, was convened in fall 2017.