Register now for Heceta Head Coastal Conference

Registrations are being accepted now for the Heceta Head Coastal Conference, October 28 & 29 at the Florence Events Center.

The theme of this year’s conference  is “Oregon’s Ocean: Catching the Next Wave of Discoveries.”

Angela Haseltine Pozzi of the Washed Ashore Project will talk at Friday’s dinner about her work of turning marine debris into art.  Saturday’s program features opening remarks by Representative Jean Cowan (Chair of the Coastal Caucus), current research in Oregon’s ocean, a panel on the Role of Research, Student Posters and the keynote speaker, Dr. Robert Costanza, the new Director of PSU’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions and a leader in the field of environmental economics, will share his vision for Oregon’s ocean.

The conference is co-sponsored by Oregon Sea Grant. Full program and registration information is available from http://www.hecetaheadconference.org/index.php

Volcanic vents offer peek at acidic future

The underwater volcanoes off a tiny Italian island are helping scientists peer into the future of a world altered by increasing amounts of carbon dioxide emitted into the air and absorbed into the oceans.

The waters just off the island of Ischia mirror the projected conditions of the Earth’s oceans at the beginning of the next century because the volcanic vents found there infuse the water with large helpings of carbon dioxide, or CO2, which turns seawater acidic.

Research has shown that the growing acidic conditions are harmful to some sea creatures — those that build their protective shells with calcium are increasingly prevented from doing so the more acidic waters become.

The fates of these creatures and the stability of the ocean food chain are a major concern over the next century and beyond because of the carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere by humans, as the oceans absorb about 30 percent of this carbon dioxide.

“One part of climate change that is indisputable is that CO2 is rising in the atmosphere — it’s easy to measure,” said Bill Chadwick, an Oregon State University geologist. “And it’s indisputable that it is making the oceans more acidic — we can measure it.”

(Oregon Sea Grant has supported previous deep-sea research projects by Dr. Chadwick).