Bight ’23 study assessing effects of ocean acidification on shell-forming organisms

The Ocean Acidification study element of the Southern California Bight 2023 Regional Monitoring Program has launched a two-year effort to track how ocean acidification is adversely affecting shell-forming organisms in Southern California’s coastal ocean – building off the work of a Bight ’18 pilot study.

The Bight ’23 monitoring effort, which kicked off in August following approval of a study workplan, will measure pH and oxygen levels in surface waters, plus examine shell dissolution in pteropods and larval crabs. The Bight ’18 pilot study identified early evidence of shell dissolution in these organisms, although the effects were not uniformly observed and the dissolution was generally mild and linked to the presence of low-pH conditions in colder, deeper waters.

Sampling will begin this fall in coordination with other West Coast OA monitoring programs, including the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) and NOAA West Coast Ocean Alliance (WCOA) programs. The coordination will enable researchers to put the Bight program’s findings into a West Coast-wide context.