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Recent research and global biogeochemical climate models suggest that certain shelf ecosystems of South Africa will be threatened by ocean acidification within this century.
As more and more carbon dissolves into the ocean, the resultant acidification reduces calcium carbonate, the main building blocks for those organisms that form shells and coral reefs. This can cause long-term changes to ecosystem structure and function, eventually impacting on ocean food webs.
The CSIR’s coastal systems research group, in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), as well as Environmental Affairs (DEA), will host an ocean acidification and continental shelf ecosystems workshop on 13 and 14 March 2012 at DAFF’s Sea Point Research Aquarium in Cape Town.
The aim of the workshop is to capture current knowledge about ocean acidification in South Africa and the future of science and management of this issue.
An international expert on marine resources, Prof Paulinus Chigbu, will be a guest participant. Prof Chigbu is Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center (LMRCSC); as well as Director of the Center for the Study of Coastal Ecosystem Processes and Dynamics in the Mid-Atlantic Region, a National Science Foundation Center for Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) in the United States.
For more information or if you would like to participate, contact Dr Louis Celliers at lcelliers@csir.co.za
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