Alaska Glacial Retreat And Acidification Impacts On...

AGLACIER: Alaska GLacial retreat ACidification Impacts on Ecosystem Resilience The EPSCoR Overarching Question is: How can we understand regime shifts and tipping points in large-scale ecosystems in Alaska. The theme we will address is: Coastal margins and marine living resources. Overarching Goal: This proposed EPSCoR will focus on the impact of glacial melt on the physics and chemistry of the marine environment, and their consequences for the intertidal and coastal biological communities. Objectives: 1) Build on historical ecological data that describes the physical, biological, and chemical variability of Kachemak Bay, a subarctic biodiversity hot spot. 2) Determine the mechanisms that relate the present and anticipated future variability in glacial dynamics to shifts in coastal ecosystem structure and function using laboratory and field experimentation, observations, and modeling. Question: How is variability in current and future glacial input to the marine environment influencing the structure and function of coastal marine ecosystems via changes to the physical and chemical environment (i.e., temperature, salinity, stratification, turbidity, pH and the carbonate saturation state)? Intellectual merit: Healthy coastal marine ecosystems are critically important to America’s ecology, economy, and standard of living. While Alaska contains nearly half of the nation’s coastline, we have little understanding of how future climate variability will impact ecologicalShow MoreRelatedPreliminary Proposal : Coastal Alaska- Coa Lter5371 Words   |  22 PagesPreliminary Proposal: LTER: Coastal Alaska- CoA LTER Overview The CoA LTER aims to better understand how high-latitude marine ecosystems will be affected by future ocean change, particularly changes associated with glacial discharge and ocean acidification. Kachemak Bay, Alaska, is the ideal high-latitude model system to conduct this research because of its 1) wealth of existing data, 2) existing infrastructure (the Kasitsna Bay Laboratory), 3) high productivity and biological diversity, 4) susceptibility