Ocean Alk-Align

The latest Quirks and Quarks episode features some voices you might recognize! Katja Fennel, Kai Schulz, and Ruth Musgrave from the Ocean Alk-Align team and William Burt from Planetary Technologies were interviewed to talk about the potential of OAE, the ongoing field trials in Halifax Harbour, and the mesocosm campaigns in Kiel Fjord. Take a listen at the link below to learn more! https://lnkd.in/e6ihbC6N

Our CERC.Ocean team at Dalhousie University believes in harnessing #oceantech to support advances in #oceanscience. We especially enjoy working with forward-looking #oceantech companies that are committed to R&D and understand how to work effectively with students and postdocs, who have their own ideas, limited budgets and even more limited time. In the second of a series of videos we made for the OCEANS Conference #oceans2024, Postdoctoral researcher Sean Morgan talks about his work with Dariia Atamanchuk which is expanding the capabilities of Blue Robotics #BlueBoat to make it capable of making carbon system measurements useful for Monitoring Reporting and Verification (#MRV) of marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (#mCDR). Sean is supported by Mitacs and Pro-Oceanus Systems and the work is in the context of the Ocean Alk-Align project and the #OAE trials of Planetary.

The last of the 2024 mesocosms began yesterday in Kiel Fjord! The project is led by co-PI Ulf Riebesell, and the mesocosms will be monitored for the next four weeks to determine the reaction of the ecosystem to the increase in alkalinity. To learn more, check out this press release from GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel: https://lnkd.in/ei-_VWZt

Guiding the push to fight our warming planet by leveraging the power of the ocean is an amazing group of Dalhousie University researchers driving innovation, verifying the science, and studying its safety. At the leading edge, where the climate and the ocean meet you’ll find Dalhousie!  Read about them courtesy of the New York Times! Katja Fennel Shannon Sterling Douglas Wallace Miriam Zitner Anya Waite Eric Siegel Ocean Frontier Institute Matt Hebb Laura Hynes Jenkins

Co-PI Lennart Bach and his team from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania have just begun a small-scale field study in Southern Tasmania. Their goal is to see if OAE could remove atmospheric CO2 in real-world conditions, and what effects it might have on marine life in seafloor sediments.  To stay up-to-date on their study and results check out their blog which will be updated regularly: https://lnkd.in/eBgBVj6e

Carbon to Sea Initiative and COVE are excited to announce the selection of four research projects that will collaborate with ongoing research conducted by Planetary Technologies and the Dalhousie University contingent of the Ocean Alk-Align consortium in the Bedford Basin of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Each of these projects will support research & development, measurement, reporting, and verification and/or community engagement to advance our collective knowledge of the efficacy of OAE. Funded projects for the Joint Learning Opportunity are: Dr. Chris Algar, Dalhousie University Department of Oceanography: Assessing the impact of OAE on benthic processes. Dr. Julie LaRoche, Dalhousie University Department of Biology:  Evaluating eDNA as a tool for environmental monitoring during OAE trials.  Ulnooweg Development Group: Collaborating with Lennox Island Mi’Kmaq First Nation and Bideford Shellfish Hatchery to explore if OAE can help improve shellfish health and productivity. Sequoia Scientific, Inc.: Using in-situ optical sensors to measure particles throughout the OAE trial to support the study of particle dissolution rates and accumulation. Laura Stieghorst, a 2021 XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition winner, will assist in the successful implementation of these projects as a Field Research Associate. Follow along here and on our website for updates as each of these projects get underway.

Curious about the model results from the 2023 Halifax Harbour alkalinity experiment conducted by Planetary Technologies? Wondering how the results might change if the addition was done at a different time of year, or if the feedstock had a different dissolution rate? Then take a look at the hindcast and sensitivity simulations conducted by Dalhousie researchers Arnaud Laurent, Bin Wang, and Katja Fennel. Hindcast of the alkalinity addition field trial in Halifax Harbour, Canada (Fall 2023) https://lnkd.in/eirEdhDH Hindcast of the alkalinity addition field trial in Halifax Harbour, Canada (Fall 2023) – Sensitivity tests: Addition timing https://lnkd.in/e2EBFYFa Hindcast of the alkalinity addition field trial in Halifax Harbour, Canada (Fall 2023) – Sensitivity tests: Dissolution rate https://lnkd.in/eUTqHk6J Hindcast of the alkalinity addition field trial in Halifax Harbour, Canada (Fall 2023) – Sensitivity tests: Feedstock https://lnkd.in/e2yUguCc Hindcast of the alkalinity addition field trial in Halifax Harbour, Canada (Fall 2023) – Sensitivity tests: Seabed loss https://lnkd.in/eMFx4VDE Hindcast of the alkalinity addition field trial in Halifax Harbour, Canada (Fall 2023) – Sensitivity tests: Air-sea flux https://lnkd.in/eh9axRkq

Interested in learning more about Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement and the 2023 Halifax field trials? Maybe you're curious about what the researchers (Katja Fennel, Dariia Atamanchuk and Ruth Musgrave) at Dalhousie University are up to? Or perhaps you just want to know what it's like to be an oceanographer in Canada? To answer some of your questions, check out the Futurum Careers article below: https://lnkd.in/eUXFqgrE This article was produced by Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEM), and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE): www.futurumcareers.com

Today Carbon to Sea Initiative is launching a new partnership with COVE to extend the impact and potential for ocean-climate research in Halifax. Together we will provide the funding, data and logistics to maximize the opportunity to learn alongside an alkalinity addition that is already planned between Planetary and the Dalhousie-led contingent of Ocean Alk-Align. We hope this will provide useful additional datasets to deepen our understanding of OAE, but also help us build the institutional muscle to fund research in new ways. If this sounds interesting to you - please pass along! Proposals are due July 13th. https://lnkd.in/evayPcye

A huge thank you to the Carbon to Sea Initiative for an engaging and productive annual convening this past week. The Ocean Alk-Align team was able to come together to present the hard work we've been doing this past year to the #mCDR community and to discuss the future of OAE.