Ocean Acidification Capacity Is Needed at All Levels to Develop a Multistakeholder Ocean Acidification Action Platform

Ocean acidification (OA), an alteration of seawater chemistry caused primarily by anthropogenic carbon emissions, is a global issue. However, the local expression of OA can vary widely in nearshore waters around the world. This is due to localized factors such as river input, eutrophication, topography, location (e.g., temperature), and sensitivity of local species. Human impacts from OA also vary depending on societal uses of the ocean and its resources. Managers, policy­makers, and governments need to understand the status and susceptibility of their regions in order to make effective decisions and drive policy. In the early 2000s, scientists recognized the need for a global ocean acidification observing system and called for a coordinated approach to effectively assess global as well as local status with consistent methods. As a result, the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON) was formed in 2012 with three goals: (1) to improve understanding of global OA conditions, (2) to improve understanding of ecosystem responses to OA, and (3) to acquire and exchange data and knowledge necessary to optimize modeling of OA and its impacts (Newton et al., 2015; Tilbrook et al., 2019).