Ocean Acidification Expert Group Meeting

12 September 2019

OSPAR’s new expert group on ocean acidification (OA) had its second meeting at SWAM in Gothenburg, which coincided with the ICES Annual Science Conference. ICG-OA was held back-to-back with the meeting of the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON) North-East Atlantic Hub, to enable good collaboration

The new Co-Convenor Jos Schilder from the Netherlands is warmly welcomed. His expertise in carbon cycling in freshwater food webs greenhouse gas dynamics will be of great benefit to OSPAR’s work. Jos will also help strengthen the links between the expert groups on OA and Coordination of biodiversity assessment and monitoring (COBAM).

The main work of the expert group is developing OA indicator assessments for the QSR 2023 and developing a monitoring programme for the longer term. The QSR assessments are likely to be an OA physico-chemical indicator, a more general OA assessment and case studies. The OA experts are also exploring ways of presenting the significance of OA change on biodiversity and ecosystem services. GOA-ON will be making valuable contributions to the assessments.

We also worked on the text of a draft OSPAR Voluntary Commitment on UN Sustainable Development Goal 14.3 “to minimise and address the impacts of ocean acidification, including through enhanced scientific cooperation at all levels”. OSPAR’s Coordination Group will decide whether the Voluntary Commitment could be made during OSPAR’s Ministerial Meeting 2020.