ALASKA: Alaska Native News highlights EPSCoR researchers
Recently, Alaska Native News highlighted Alaska EPSCoR Fire & Ice researchers Amanda Kelley and Jamie Currie and their efforts to monitor ocean acidification in Kachemak Bay. University of Alaska-Fairbanks College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences professor Kelley and graduate student Currie are collecting data from Kachemak Bay to gain more insight into how pH conditions are changing in Alaska’s nearshore waters.
Kelley and Currie’s research is characterizing variability in pH that occurs naturally from year to year in nearshore ecosystems. This information provides a baseline for future pH changes to understand how ocean acidification may be affecting the physiology of animals that live in these habitats. “The key to determining the role that ocean acidification might play in nearshore biological communities in the future lies in increased understanding of present-day carbonate system dynamics” said Kelley. “Increasing our knowledge of nearshore pH dynamics will help detangle natural versus human-caused pH variability.” This work may also be useful in determining areas for future shellfish and seaweed farming.