About the Class
| Taught by Dr. Brooke Love |
Ocean acidification is sometimes called the evil twin of climate change. It’s driven by the carbon dioxide being added to the atmosphere, which is changing the chemistry of the oceans. These changes can influence how hard it is to make a shell or how easy it is for plants and algae to grow. Ocean acidification can affect anything from the survival of tiny oysters to the sense of smell in fish.
In this class, we start with some basics about how the ocean waters are changing, then look at some of the more common responses among different kinds of organisms, including some that are common in the Salish Sea. We explore what we do and don’t know about what happens when things get complicated. Finally, we look at what we know about what the future holds and how people and policymakers are addressing the coming changes.
| About Dr. Brooke Love |
Dr. Brooke Love is an oceanographer interested in how ocean acidification is unfolding in our local Washington waters. A chemical oceanographer by training, she started at the University of Washington by building instruments to measure carbon dioxide in high-temperature black smokers on the sea floor.
Now a Professor at Western Washington University, she studies how ocean acidification affects organisms ranging from plankton to eelgrass to herring. This involves a lot of plumbing, and she is always happy with a box of fittings and some tubing but has also added mass spectrometry lately.
Brooke is dedicated to ocean education inside and outside the classroom. In addition to her teaching and research, she helped built the academic program in Marine and Coastal Science, and works with numerous community group and arts organizations to increase knowledge of marine science and appreciation of the oceans.
