Workshop teaching stakeholders how to evaluate uncertainty in acidification modeling

SCCWRP and two of its member agencies have helped launch a multi-part workshop to teach coastal water-quality managers how to evaluate uncertainty in a set of West Coast models that predicts how marine life could be adversely affected by ocean acidification and hypoxia (OAH).

The workshop, which began in mid-April and concludes May 28, is educating Southern California and San Francisco Bay Area stakeholders about the uncertainty associated with the West Coast physical-biogeochemical ocean models that were developed to estimate how OAH will intensify in the coming years. The workshop also is examining the uncertainty associated with predicting how marine life will respond to changing OAH conditions.

The modeling uncertainty workshop is taking place as a team of researchers begins using the West Coast models to estimate OAH’s intensifying effects on marine life, including what role, if any, land-based nutrient discharges play in exacerbating biological impacts.

The workshop was co-organized by the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, City of San Diego, San Francisco Estuary Institute and the Bay Area Clean Water Agencies. The workshop will culminate with a May 28 panel discussion among researchers and stakeholders about how to provide input and perspectives on uncertainty in the ongoing modeling work.