MIT Sea Grant announces three newly funded projects studying the impacts of ocean acidification

MIT Sea Grant has selected three research projects for funding from our annual request for proposals. The projects focus on understanding the impacts of ocean acidification and will collectively receive approximately $600 thousand in federal funding, with just over $300,000 in matching state, local, and private funding over a two year period.Successful projects must align with MIT Sea Grant¡s strategic focus areas and rank highly in a two-step review process. An external review panel evaluates scientific merit of the projects, and MIT Sea Grant Advisory Panel ranks projects relevance to current state management issues.This year¡s award winners include Scott Doney of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, who seeks to understand the effect of effluent from wastewater treatment plants, specifically those in Fairhaven, New Bedford, and Wareham, on the acidification of coastal waters in Buzzards Bay; Justin Ries of Northeastern University who will investigate the combined impacts of ocean acidification and warming on shell formation during the early life stages of commercially and ecologically important species of New England mollusks; and Robyn Hannigan of UMASS Boston who will investigate the effects of OA on larval and early benthic juvenile lobsters. The projects are expected to run between spring 2016 and Jan. 31, 2018.See a full list of MIT Sea Grant’s active projects.