Award: OCE-1220372

Ocean acidification has the potential to change the world's ocean and coastal ecosystems. By bringing together researchers with diverse expertise across disciplines and institutions, OMEGAS (Ocean Margin Ecosystem Group for Acidification Studies) sought to meet society's demands for scientific information on ocean acidification across the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME). OMEGAS research included five integrated elements: 1) The development of a local-scale network of physical and chemical sensors in nearshore waters of Oregon and California, 2) Coordinated and integrated studies of adults and larvae of sea urchins and mussels collected from the same nearshore waters, 3) Genetic surveys of urchins and mussels from these nearshore waters to determine evolutionary responses and adaptational potential to OA (Ocean Acidification), 4) Monitoring the growth and shell accretion rates of mussels from these nearshore waters, and finally 5) Outreach to increase the visibility and familiarity of science for policy makers and the general public. Our findings on the seasonal persistence of 'acidified' conditions and their interaction with hypoxia as coupled stressors on the Oregon shelf have highlighted and reaffirmed the importance of upwelling shelves as early impact systems for the study of ocean acidification. OMEGAS has produced a detailed picture of the alongshore OA mosaic, showing periods of variable pH from central Oregon to central California. The lowest values are reached to the north, but variation is discontinuous both temporally and latitudinally. Low pH periods reflect upwelling events, but even though upwelling is more intense southward (on average), the lowest pH events occur off central Oregon. Further, more detailed temporal analyses show a strong intertidal diel signal compared to the moorings just offshore, with consistent patterns across all sites of low pH in the morning and high pH in the afternoon and evening. This variation seems due to diurnal cycles of respiration and productivity by the organisms living on the shore. The use of in-situ pCO2 and pH sensors to monitoring chemical changes in the coastal ocean is in its infancy, and this project was among the first to initiate such sensor arrays. In particular, the deployment of any sensors, but particularly ones as delicate as pH sensors, in high-energy rocky intertidal regions has been groundbreaking. Thus, this project has necessitated the acquisition of new knowledge for the research team in sensor software, hardware, and methods of operational deployment in the inner shelf subtidal and the wave-swept rocky shores adjacent. OMEGAS has shared these operational experiences with the Durafet-based pH and spectrophotometric-based pCO2 and pH sensors with the manufacturer to enhance sensor reliability for coastal deployments, and with individuals from academia, shellfish growers, agency scientists who are planning to establish OA observing programs. OMEGAS has partnered with many other organizations and individuals through this NSF-funded work: Bureau of Ocean Management (BOEM) CA, COMPASS US, California Current Acidification Network (C-CAN). CA, Channel Islands National Park: CA, Dr. Brian Helmuth University of South Carolina, NOAA Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS CA), NOAA Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Banks National Marin CA, National Geographic Channel (X-Ray Earth) US, Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans www.piscoweb.org, and the Santa Barbara Coastal LTER CA. Our findings have stimulated discussions with microbiologists and physiologists on the importance of developing research collaborations for the purposes of scaling-up and scaling-down ocean acidification impacts across scales of biological and ecological organization. This project has facilitated our collaborative research across physical and biological disciplines with partners in physical oceanography, chemical oceanography, ...