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Description:
Project Manager:
Erica Towle
Project Years:
2022
Project Summary:
This project will entail a Pacific basin-wide carbonate chemistry analysis, presenting a synthesis of observed spatial and temporal patterns in the reef carbonate system across the Pacific. A post-doc (Heidi Hirsch) is building a statistical model to describe the environmental and ecological drivers of reef-scale processes by assessing the relative contribution of benthic composition, residence time, and oceanic carbonate system state among other drivers. Her preliminary modeling results for Guam utilized offshore and reef carbonate chemistry data, local hydrodynamic model outputs, and descriptions of nearshore benthic cover. Her correlational model seeks to link offshore and nearshore carbonate chemistry, allowing us to better estimate carbonate system processes in under-sampled environments and contribute to robust forecasts of OA conditions on coral reefs. This work is critical for improving model skill for reef-scale OA impacts (i.e. forecasting future OA conditions).
Expected Outcome:
Scale up analyses to all NCRMP jurisdictions Produce two peer-reviewed products - one on the modeling methodology, and one on the results/outcomes/implications for management of the cross-basin work. Improve outreach and management output for NCRMP Class 0 water samples. For example, the NCRMP status report products only included an OA score for aragonite saturation state scored against pre-industrial records of oceanic aragonite saturation state. This work would expand on CRCP’s ability to provide reef-scale OA impacts for reef managers in all jurisdictions by synthesizing OA data across NCRMP and model interactions between seawater chemistry and benthic metabolism at NCRMP scales.
Project Locations:
Project Category:
National Monitoring
Project Type:
Ongoing
Project Status:
Funding Ended
Associated Products:
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