The State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science will host a training course on ocean acidification organized by the Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre (OA-ICC) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The purpose of the course is to train early-career scientists and researchers from IAEA Asian Member States entering the ocean acidification field, with the goal to assist them in becoming able to measure ocean acidification and to set up pertinent experiments, avoiding typical pitfalls and ensuring comparability with other studies. Expected outputs also include increased networking among scientists working on ocean acidification in Asia.

The training will include lectures in plenary sessions and hands-on experiments in smaller groups (the level will depend on the basic knowledge of the selected participants). Subjects to be covered include: the carbon dioxide (CO₂) system and its measurement; instrumentation available for measuring seawater chemistry parameters; software packages used to calculate CO₂ system parameters; key aspects of ocean acidification experimental design, such as manipulation of seawater chemistry, biological perturbation approaches, and laboratory and field-based methods for measuring organism calcification and other physiological responses to seawater chemistry changes, including nuclear and isotopic techniques.

The course is open to 25 trainees from IAEA Member States in Asia. Priority will be given to early-career scientists who are beginning to work in the field of ocean acidification. Experts interested in starting ocean acidification studies would be welcome, space permitting. The participants should have a university degree in marine biology, oceanography or a related scientific field, and should be currently involved in or planning to set up ocean acidification studies.