The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, through its OACIS initiative, has partnered with Carbon to Sea to announce the recipients of a request for proposals aimed at investigating the impact of ocean alkalinity enhancement on commercially and culturally important marine species. The two selected projects will receive funding for research evaluating the potential effects of ocean alkalinity enhancement on species integral to local food systems, economies, and cultural practices.
Over a period of 24 months, the supported projects will help fill research gaps regarding the impacts of ocean alkalinity enhancement on higher trophic level species, including invertebrates and fish. Through rigorous research, these projects will work to determine potential ecological effects of ocean alkalinity enhancement. Insights from this research will help ensure informed decision-making and responsible assessment of marine carbon dioxide removal as the field continues to progress.
One of the funded projects, titled Response of Key Ecosystem Species to Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement in the Pacific Region, is led by Dr Sebastiaan Van de Velde and Dr Gaya Gnanalingam of the University of Otago in New Zealand. This project aims to study culturally valuable species in different functional roles, including mussels, cockles, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, abalone, and kelp, through a series of short-term experiments designed to mimic ocean alkalinity enhancement field research. The researchers hypothesise that under realistic conditions, ocean alkalinity enhancement will have limited effects on early life stages of the selected marine species. Notably, the project will provide new data on the impact of ocean alkalinity enhancement on marine species from the Southern Hemisphere, a comparatively understudied region.
The second funded project, Physiological Impacts of Realistic OAE Exposures on Early Life Stages of a Commercially Important Crustacean and Recreationally Significant Fish, is led by Dr Adam Subhas of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the United States. This project will use experimental approaches to quantify impacts and identify sensitive thresholds for two species: the commercially valuable crustacean American Lobster and the recreationally important fish Tautog. Using sodium hydroxide as the alkalinity source, the project aims to assess key physiological traits in these species during their early development stages, which have the highest potential sensitivity to changes in pH.
The Foundation and Carbon to Sea have made the application guidelines for the request for proposals available to interested researchers and institutions.
