Coupling Chemical and Biological Monitoring to Understand the Impact of Ocean Acidification on Coral Reef Ecosystems

Abstract

An emerging theme in ocean acidification (OA) science is the importance of coupling chemical, biological, and ecological research and monitoring to better understand the fate of marine ecosystems. This approach has been applied to several coral reefs to document the impact of intensifying OA on these biologically diverse and economically valuable ecosystems. Coupling sustained observations of both environmental conditions and living marine resources allows establishment of a historical baseline, sets the stage for tracking the long-term impacts of global change amid large natural variability, and provides the observational backbone to support process studies, manipulative experiments, and diagnostic and forecast modeling.

Keywords

• ocean acidification
• marine ecosystems
• OA
• global change
• manipulative experiments