The Brazilian Ocean Acidification Research (BrOA) group was established in December 2012 during the "Studying ocean acidification and its effects on marine ecosystems" workshop organized by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), São Paulo University (USP), the Council for Research and Scientific Development of Brazil (CNPq) and the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). In the short-term, the group aims to integrate Brazilian researchers into a wide interdisciplinary national network on Ocean Acidification (OA) studies and, in time, to contribute to international programs. The group researches distinct environments along the Brazilian coast, from estuaries to open ocean areas.
The group is led by Dr. Rodrigo Kerr of IO/FURG and by Dr. Leticia c. da Cunha of FO/UERJ and is composed of researchers from 7 institutions of higher education (FURG, UERJ, UFRJ, UFF, USP, UESC, UFPe) distributed over 12 associated laboratories.
Figure 1. Location of the current Brazilian Institutions forming the BrOA research group.
Researchers from BrOA study the biogeochemistry of coastal and estuarine ecosystems to monitor the major biogeochemical parameters of coastal and estuarine ecosystems (lagoons, mangroves); changes in environmental characteristics caused by anthropogenic interference and excess release of CO2 into the atmosphere; the effects of ocean acidification and changes in the hydrographic properties of the metabolism of marine organisms to determine the impact and effect of ocean acidification and changes in water properties (temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen) on the metabolism of organisms and marine communities, including phytoplankton, zooplankton, reefs and benthic reefs of consolidated and unconsolidated seafloor; the evaluation and reconstruction of marine carbonate systems through the application of Carleton proxies to reconstitute the marine carbonate system and to understand the effects of changes in atmospheric CO2 in the ocean caused by past events; ocean modeling and biogeochemistry to simulate the biogeochemical parameters of oceanic regional models of ocean acidification and its impact on marine biota and fish populations; the physical and biogeochemical processes controlling the exchange of carbon in the air-sea interface to determine carbon dioxide flux in the air-sea interface of coastal environments, estuarine and oceanic regimes; and the use of remote sensing of ocean color to identify large-scale carbonate systems.