Strategic Plan for Federal Research and Monitoring of Ocean Acidification

The Strategic Plan for Federal Research and Monitoring of Ocean Acidification is a national sectoral strategy of the United States of America. Its vision is a nation, globally engaged and guided by science, sustaining healthy marine and coastal ecosystems, communities, and economies through informed responses to ocean acidification.
More specific themes underpinning the Plan are as follows: Theme 1: “Research to Understand Responses to Ocean Acidification” describes the goals and priorities to understand the physiological responses of marine organisms to ocean acidification and its interactions with other stressors, the impacts to marine food webs, and possible approaches to track ecosystem responses; Theme 2: “Monitoring of Ocean Chemistry and Biological Impacts” identifies sampling programs that collect ocean acidification relevant data and prioritizes additional monitoring systems necessary for adequate data collection and monitoring; Theme 3: “Modeling to Predict Changes in the Ocean Carbon Cycle and Impacts on Marine Ecosystems and Organisms” summarizes requirements and recommendations for modeling ocean acidification, and its impacts on marine organisms and ecosystems, including codifying our research understanding and studying the interplay of factors affecting marine ecosystems, thus permitting analysis of the efficacy of adaptation and mitigation strategies; Theme 4: “Technology Development and Standardization of Measurements” describes goals that improve the ability to measure all required parameters through technology development and adequate data quality via measurement standardization; Theme 5: “Assessment of Socioeconomic Impacts and Development of Strategies to Conserve Marine Organisms and Ecosystems” focuses on assessing the economic and cultural impacts of ocean acidification and developing adaptation and mitigation strategies; Theme 6: “Education, Outreach, and Engagement Strategy on Ocean Acidification” describes goals for designing and coordinating educational, public outreach, and domestic and international engagement activities, as well as ensuring results and assessments of monitoring and research efforts are accessible to and understandable by all stakeholders; and Theme 7: “Data Management and Integration” discusses the need for effective data management and integration within the context of other international, Federal, State, local, and private activities.
Integration of these themes is essential to the success of the Strategic Plan and for timely responses to real-world issues. For example, there needs to be dynamic and iterative linkage between model-ing, research, and observation. Also, socioeconomic research and the ability of that work to inform adaptive policy responses depends upon both predictive ecosystem modeling and, in the long term, monitoring of system responses to those adaptive policy changes. All themes need to be underpinned by data management and education. It is intended for the Strategic Plan to be implemented in a coordinated and integrated manner that provides for the flow of new information and developments between the various science communities and other stakeholders. This integration will be further detailed in the Implementation Plan.