The UKOA programme was active between 2010-2016, with supported research completed in mid-2015 and knowledge exchange work in early 2016.
This website now has archive status.

UKOA finale meeting a great success

07 July 2015


UKOA recently held its finale meeting at the Royal Society (London), entitled “Ocean acidification; what’s it all about?”.

Prof. Duncan Wingham (Chief Executive of the Natural Environment Research Council) welcomes participantsThe 2-day public meeting was attended by nearly 200 people and was a full programme of presentations from world-leading experts and well as discussions and networking sessions, all themed around the progress of OA research over the last 6 years, the impact OA is likely to have on the environment and society and future plans for further OA studies.

The UKOA programme synopses that accompanied the meeting can be downloaded from the right-hand column.

“In every talk there has been a nugget of information highly relevant to the shellfish industry”, stated Dr Nick Lake (Chief Executive of the Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers).

“We need to act now to reduce pressure on the ocean system”, concluded Prof. Murray Roberts (UKOA participant and Marine Biologist at Heriot-Watt University) in the Panel Session “What have we learnt & what are the future challenges?”

Professor Ian Boyd (Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) opens the meeting“Only through the funding from large scale research programmes, such as UKOA, can scientists really investigate large environmental issues in an interdisciplinary way”, commented Dr Ana Queiros (UKOA participant and Benthic Ecologist at Plymouth Marine Laboratory) during her presentation “Scaling up impacts from physiology to ecosystems”.

“We don't know how rivers will change in the future and, therefore, we can't forecast how they may impact the ocean in years to come”, remarked Dr Jerry Blackford (UKOA participant and Ecosystem Modeller at Plymouth Marine Laboratory) during his presentation “Forecasting future OA at global and regional scales”.

“Are they [marine creatures] spending their offspring’s “college fund” to cope with OA now?”, questioned Dr Sebastian Hennige (UKOA participant and Marine Biologist at Heriot-Watt University) during his presentation on biological energy budgets.

Roger Harrabin (BBC Environment Correspondent) chairs the panel session "The environmental and societal risks"“Love your sea... but don't drive to it!”, was the closing statement by Roger Harrabin (BBC Environment Correspondent) while chairing the Panel Session “Environmental and societal risks of OA”.

The UKOA research programme would like to thank all the speakers and attendees for making this such an informative and successful meeting.