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Meet the Oceanographers

It’s not just hot water we’re in:
Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Ocean Acidification

 

Ocean acidification is the phenomenon by which increased CO2 absorption in oceans results in decreased pH levels, which has the potential to cause catastrophic change to biodiversity and foodwebs, especially through its impacts on organisms with calcareous shells or exoskeletons, including corals, sea urchins, and oysters.

Hosted by
The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk
10 North Water Street
Norwalk, CT 06854
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
6:00 pm -8:30pm

The Presenters

• Dr. Penny Vlahos, Assistant Professor of Marine Sciences and Chemistry at UConn-Avery Point, Ocean Chemistry and the Carbon Cycle
  
  
• Penny Vlahos, Ph.D.

Dr. Vlahos is an assistant professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Connecticut. Her research focus is the cycling of carbon in the coastal and open oceans. This includes the transfer of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and ocean and the movement of carbon from dissolved inorganic pools to reduced organic carbon pools. Understanding these processes is critical to predicting the future state of our oceans and successful management strategies. She is a participant in the Ocean Carbon Biogeochemistry (OCB) program and the North American Carbon Program (NACP). Vlahos also works on the global transport of persistant organic pollutants and is a member of the International Panel on Chemical Pollutants (IPCP).

Dr. Vlahos trained as a chemical engineer at the University of Toronto, Canada where she recieved her Bachelors and Masters degrees and at the University of Massachussetts where she recieved her doctorate.

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  Dr. Scott Doney, Senior Scientist in the Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution )
  The Biological Ramifications of an Acidic Ocean
• Scott Doney, Ph.D.

• Download Dr. Scott Doney's presentation here. (pdf file, 4 MB)

  Scott Doney is a Senior Scientist in the Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). He graduated with a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Oceanography in 1991 and was a postdoctoral fellow and later a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, before returning to Woods Hole in 2002. He was awarded the James B. Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union in 2000, a Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow in 2004, and the WHOI W. Van Alan Clark Sr. Chair in 2007. His science interests span oceanography, climate and biogeochemistry. Much of his research focuses on how the global carbon cycle and ocean ecology respond to natural and human-driven climate change, which may act to either damp or accelerate climate trends. A current focus is on ocean acidification due to the invasion into the ocean of carbon dioxide and other chemicals from fossil fuel burning. He is currently the chair of the U.S. Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Program and the U.S. Ocean Carbon and Climate Change Program.
  

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