Ocean acidification (OA) is a global problem. While CO₂ mitigation must be addressed at the global scale, the impacts of OA vary regionally.  Thus, it is crucial to monitor local carbonate chemistry and effects of OA on locally adapted organisms to fully understand the impacts of OA and develop adaptation strategies. However, capacity to measure carbonate chemistry and OA effects on key species varies globally. The OA International Coordination Centre (OA-ICC), hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency, was founded in 2012 to promote international coordination on OA through capacity building, communication, and science. The OA-ICC has hosted 33 OA training activities for over 600 participants from 98 countries. This multi-level capacity building program aims to increase OA research capacity through outcome-based courses and collaboration with several international partners. The program increases its impact by performing OA capacity evaluations to target training courses in low-capacity regions and through the identification of participants most likely to contribute to OA science based on prior course outcomes. By testing students’ general knowledge and determining contributions to the scientific literature pre- and post- course completion, the OA-ICC has built a dataset which enables improved selection of future course participants and teaching strategies. This model for evidence-based improvement of OA capacity building programs can be used by IGOs, NGOs, and others engaged in capacity development.

Primary Presenter: Sarah Flickinger, IAEA Marine Environment Laboratories (sflickinger89@gmail.com)

Authors:

Sarah Flickinger, IAEA Marine Environment Laboratories  (sflickinger89@gmail.com)

Ashley Bantelman, IAEA Marine Environment Laboratories  ()

Sam Dupont, University of Gothenburg   (sam.dupont@bioenv.gu.se)

Carla Edworthy, The South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity  ()

Jana Friedrich, IAEA Marine Environment Laboratories  (jana.Friedrich@iaea.org)

Carolina Galdino, IAEA Marine Environment Laboratories  (c.galdino@iaea.org)

Celeste Sanchez Noguera, University of Costa Rica  ()