From the ocean with ESTOC towards the coast with CanOA, expanding our knowledge on ocean acidification in the North-East Atlantic

The Canary Islands, with more than 90% of their economical activity related with their surrounding waters, must know what are their ocean acidification specific trends to be able to take actions and adapt to future changes that the increase in human activity will produce in this region. Since 1995, the trends of the different CO₂ parameters have been measured in the oceanic ESTOC station, located 60 miles north of the Canary Islands, but there is no data on the evolution of these in coastal areas. In comparison with the open ocean, the coastal systems are affected with greater intensity by the hydrodynamics of the area (tides, upwelling) and the contributions of natural and anthropogenic land origin processes which would show a higher variability in the carbonate chemistry at an annual level complicating the detection of acidification, hence the need to conduct studies covering a broader area that could be representative.

A new ocean acidification observation network is presented, CanOA, establish in the Canary Islands, and as a result of public-private financing by the Canary Islands Government and the Loro Parque Foundation, with the collaboration of the FRED Olsen shipping company.

The main objective of the CanOA project is to study the process of ocean acidification in the waters of the Canary archipelago by creating a regional network of combined observation that covers the Canary region. To get this, two coastal time series stations will be established in two buoys together with oceanic measurements along the archipelago with a high frequency of analysis using VOS lines. The coastal environment is highly fragile and requires a high frequency of sampling and research that allows, with this database, to understand the response of the Canary region to anthropogenic carbon accumulation and its consequences due to acidification.