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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://www.cbbulletin.com/439009.aspx#">http://www.cbbulletin.com/439009.aspx#</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:7.5pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:7.5pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><img border=0 width=224 height=88 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.gif@01D2DEB5.93405780" alt="Columbia Basin Bulletin"></span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=right style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:7.5pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:7.5pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:right;line-height:9.0pt'><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><a href="http://www.cbbulletin.com/439000.aspp"><span style='color:#663366;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=12 height=9 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.gif@01D2DEB5.93405780" alt="Print this Story"></span><span style='color:#663366;text-decoration:none'> Print this Story</span></a> <a href="http://www.cbbulletin.com/Email_EmailContent.aspx?id=439000"><span style='color:#663366;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=12 height=9 id="_ctl0__ctl0__ctl0_imgEmailImage" src="cid:image003.gif@01D2DEB5.93405780" alt="Email this Story"></span><span style='color:#663366;text-decoration:none'> Email this Story </span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width="100%" style='width:100.0%'><tr><td style='background:white;padding:8.25pt 8.25pt 8.25pt 8.25pt'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";font-variant:small-caps;color:black'>Three-Year Survey Shows Acidified Ocean Water Widespread Along North America West Coast </span></b><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><br>Posted on Friday, June 02, 2017 (PST) <o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style='background:white;padding:8.25pt 8.25pt 8.25pt 8.25pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>A three-year survey of the California Current System along the West Coast of the United States found persistent, highly acidified water throughout this ecologically critical nearshore habitat, with "hotspots" of pH measurements as low as any oceanic surface waters in the world.</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>The researchers say that conditions will continue to worsen because the atmospheric carbon dioxide primarily to blame for this increase in acidification has been rising substantially in recent years.</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>One piece of good news came out of the study </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-02777-y"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:blue'>http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-02777-y</span></a></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>, which was published this week in Scientific Reports. There are "refuges" of more moderate pH environments that could become havens for some marine organisms to escape more highly acidified waters, and which could be used as a resource for ecosystem management.</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>"The threat of ocean acidification is global and though it sometimes seems far away, it is happening here right now on the West Coast of the United States and those waters are already hitting our beaches," said Francis Chan, a marine ecologist at Oregon State University and lead author on the study.</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>"The West Coast is very vulnerable. Ten years ago, we were focusing on the tropics with their coral reefs as the place most likely affected by ocean acidification. But the California Current System is getting hit with acidification earlier and more drastically than other locations around the world."</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>A team of researchers developed a network of sensors to measure ocean acidification over a three-year period along more than 600 miles of the West Coast. The team observed near-shore pH levels that fell well below the global mean pH of 8.1 for the surface ocean, and reached as low as 7.4 at the most acidified sites, which is among the lowest recorded values ever observed in surface waters.</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>The lower the pH level, the higher the acidity. Previous studies have documented a global decrease of 0.11 pH units in surface ocean waters since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Like the Richter scale, the pH scale in logarithmic, so that a 0.11 pH unit decrease represents an increase in acidity of approximately 30 percent.</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Highly acidified ocean water is potentially dangerous because many organisms are very sensitive to changes in pH. Chan said negative impacts already are occurring in the California Current System, where planktonic pteropods - or small swimming snails - were documented with severe shell dissolution.</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>"This is about more than the loss of small snails," said Richard Feely, senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. "These pteropods are an important food source for herring, salmon and black cod, among other fish. They also may be the proverbial 'canary in the coal mine' signifying potential risk for other species, including Dungeness crabs, oysters, mussels, and many organisms that live in tidepools or other near-shore habitats."</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Previous studies at OSU have chronicled the impact of acidified water on the Northwest oyster industry.</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Chan said the team's observations, which included a broad-scale ocean acidification survey via ship by NOAA, did not vary significantly over the three years - even with different conditions, including a moderate El Niņo event.</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>"The highly acidified water was remarkably persistent over the three years," Chan said. "Hotspots stayed as hotspots, and refuges stayed as refuges. This highly acidified water is not in the middle of the Pacific Ocean; it is right off our shore. Fortunately, there are swaths of water that are more moderate in acidity and those should be our focus for developing adaptation strategies."</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>The researchers say there needs to be a focus on lowering stressors to the environment, such as maintaining healthy kelp beds and sea grasses, which many believe can partially mitigate the effects of increasing acidity.</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Further, the moderately acidified refuge areas can be strategically used and managed, Chan pointed out.</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>"We probably have a hundred or more areas along the West Coast that are protected in one way or another, and we need to examine them more closely," he said. "If we know how many of them are in highly acidified areas and how many are in refuge sites, we can use that information to better manage the risks that ocean acidification poses."</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Managing for resilience is a key, the researchers conclude.</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>"Even though we are seeing compromised chemistry in our ocean waters, we still have a comparably vibrant ecosystem," Chan said. "Our first goal should be to not make things worse. No new stresses. Then we need to safeguard and promote resilience. How do we do that? One way is to manage for diversity, from ensuring multiple-age populations to maintaining deep gene pools.</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>"The greater the diversity, the better chance of improving the adaptability of our marine species."</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Chan, a faculty member in the College of Science at Oregon State University, was a member of the West Coast Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Panel appointed by the governments of California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.</span></i><i><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=right style='text-align:right'><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=xa-4a73074e66d2b0b0"><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#663366;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=125 height=16 id="Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:image004.gif@01D2DEB5.93405780" alt="Bookmark and Share"></span></a><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr></table><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>