March 19, 2013 by Ocean Ark Alliance
Seaweek saw our alliance with the Marine Education Society of Australasia come to life on St Kilda Beach. Students from Victorian schools produced sand and shell creations of their interpretations of the effect of Ocean Acidification on marine life. To highlight the enormity of the problem, one group even chose to create a giant CO2 molecule.
February 20, 2013 by Ocean Ark Alliance
Categorised in Events, Media, News
National Seaweek 2013 will be launched at 2pm on St Kilda Beach on Monday the 4th of March with an event bringing together the Ocean Ark Alliance, the Marine Education Society of Australasia (MESA), and the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC).
Seaweek is a national MESA initiative conducted annually to focus community awareness, provide information and encourage an appreciation of our marine and coastal environments. Each year a different theme is chosen. Aligning with the 2013 theme of ‘Sustainable Seas’, The Ocean Ark Alliance is launching the $50,000 Ocean Acidification Art Challenge for Victorian school students. [...]
December 5, 2012 by Ocean Ark Alliance
The $50,000 Ocean Acidification Art ChallengeThe $50,000 Ocean Acidification Art Challenge is now open to all Victorian students Years 9-12.
Australia’s largest environmental art show, it has been created to stimulate a deeper understanding of Ocean Acidification and to encourage wider environmental responsibility.
Reflecting the stature of the event, MESA (Marine Education Society of Australasia) has now joined the Ocean Ark Alliance to promote the challenge in the lead up to Seaweek- March 3-10.
August 2, 2012 by Ocean Ark Alliance
Categorised in Art Challenge, Events, News
June 21, 2011 by Ocean Ark Alliance
Categorised in News, Resources, Science
What is ocean acidification?
What causes ocean acidification?
How does ocean acidification impact on coral reefs?
Are today’s conditions very different from the past?
Can we predict how ocean acidification will impact on coral reefs in the future?
World leading Australian marine scientists Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and Professor Peter Harrison answer these and many other questions about corals reefs in two new series of educational video presentations both hosted by Dr ‘Kiki’ Sanford.
Created in collaboration with Education Services Australia, The Learning Federation, Specialty Studios and Plankton Productions, a total of nine insightful video modules with support materials aligned with curriculum standards for education in science are now available.
April 4, 2011 by Ocean Ark Alliance
Marine abalone and sea urchins will not develop skeletons if the ocean continues to warm and acidify as predicted, according to current research lead by the University of Sydney’s Schools of Medical Sciences and Biological Sciences, at environmentally significant Little Bay, near Sydney.
When exposed to the increased acidity and temperature levels projected 100 years from now they produced deformed specimens, without shells or spines. This means key sources of protein will be lost due to future changes in our oceans.
“We wondered about the impact of climate change on shelled marine animals since ocean acidification reduces the amount of carbonate ions, which they need to make their calcium carbonate skeletons,” says Professor Maria Byrne, from University of Sydney’s Schools of Biological Science and Medical Sciences.
Lead author Prof. Byrne and her team investigate how the simultaneous increase in acidity and temperature affect development from fertilised egg to juvenile stages of sea urchins and abalone, a first for any study.
September 6, 2010 by Ocean Ark Alliance
Categorised in Media, News, Science
“The ocean is … a chemical reactor. CO2 goes into the ocean. It is fixed by plants or deposited as calcium carbonate, and through the very large scale circulations of water around the planet it is essentially processing the atmosphere and keeping the planet habitable.” Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Global Change Institute Director, University of Queensland, from the David Attenborough documentary “Death of the Oceans”.
A world-leading experiment on Heron Island, done in collaboration between labs at UQ, Stanford University and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, will chemically alter the carbon dioxide absorbed in the ocean water directly on a living intact coral reef. This experiment aims to simulate insitu reactions to the amounts of CO2 likely to be present over the next few decades. So ground breaking is this current research that it caught the eye of Sir David Attenborough when producing his latest documentary, Death of the Oceans.
