Ocean change

The Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR) in Kiel, Germany, has for the first time used its offshore observation system to study environmental changes in the oceans.

During the study, scientists at IFM-GEOMAR used six 20m-long mesocosms, which are receptacles that hold 60,000 litres of sea water, to study ocean acidification at the Booknis Eck observation station in the Baltic Sea.

The experiment was a test for a large-scale project that will take place off the coast of Svalbard in 2010 as part of the European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA).

Project leader, Prof Ulf Riebesell from IFM-GEOMAR, said: ‘So far we have studied the impact of changes such as the increase of fertilisers or of the carbon-dioxide concentrations in small tanks in the laboratory.