Skip to main content Skip to footer unit links
← Back to all capstone projects
2013 Autumn | Natural Science & Restoration

The Hidden Costs of Ocean Acidification

Student(s):

Bryanda Wippel

Program or Department(s):

  • Program on the Environment
  • University of Washington

Site supervisor(s):

Kristin Marshalls

Partner(s):

  • NOAA

  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Faculty advisor(s):

Kristi Straus, Program on the Environment, University of Washington

My project was to analyze diet data of species in the California current (off the west coast of the United States) to see which species were most susceptible to diet loss per ocean acidification (OA), a phenomenon negatively affect- ing calcareous organisms. Using an updated diet database, I found that Dover sole and Dungeness crabs were the most susceptible to loss of diet. I then used a financial analysis equation to estimate potential monetary loss, which totaled to be a $34,721,043 annual loss between the two species. Analyses such as this have the potential to create political motivation to solve OA.