International CO2 Natural Analogues Network (ICONA)

Marine Conservation Research Group
Ocean acidification
Title: International CO2 Natural Analogues Network (ICONA)
Funder and duration: Core-to-core funding by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, duration 2021-2026.
Lead partner: University of Tsukuba, Japan
The University of Plymouth Marine Conservation Research Unit is working alongside the University of Tsukuba, the University of Ryukyus, and Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Japan and the University of Palermo in Italy, and the French Institute for Research and Development (IRD) in New Caledonia.
University of Plymouth staff: Professor Jason Hall-Spencer
The ICONA network aims to create resources for using natural analogues to understand how ocean acidification will impact marine ecosystems. Professor Jason Hall-Spencer , Principle Investigator in the Marine Conservation Unit, explains how natural analogues mimic future environment. “These include volcanic gas seeps, tidal lagoons, or upwelling areas that result in higher than average CO2 levels being present in the surrounding ocean. We can use these environments to investigate what the marine ecosystems might look like in the future given the projections for ocean acidification.”
The sites that the Marine Research Unit will focus on are in Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Italy, and New Zealand.
One of the main goals of this international collaboration is to standardize the research. This will involve creating a minimum set of requirements that every researcher who uses natural analogues would need to adopt. It would ensure consistency with measuring the acidification and monitoring the surrounding ecosystem and thus allow research from across the world to be compared.
Professor Ravasi from Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) emphasized that this form of standardization was not new. “Twenty years ago, when the human genome project started, everyone just jumped in. Scientists used a whole range of different tools and resources. In the end, it was very difficult to compare between data sets, which meant that time and funding was wasted. In the end, the researchers adopted a set of minimum requirements. Now we know that it’s better to standardize immediately so that research can be compared.”
Professor Jason Hall-Spencer intends on using the funding for international travel to the sites and to generate workshops aimed at researchers at other universities in Japan on how natural analogues can be used for a wide range of global change science.
The Global Ocean Acidification Network and the government of Japan have realised the value of using natural analogues as a research tool. We hope that we can inspire researchers worldwide to also realize how useful these sites can be.
A volcanic CO2 seep at Upa-Upasina Reef in Milne Bay Province (Normanby Island, Papua New Guinea). Pure CO2 bubbles out of the underneath volcano, dissolving in the surrounding seawater and creating an acidified environment like what is predicted to occur by the end of this century.Credit: Dr Riccardo Rodolfo-Metalpa (IRD, New Caledonia)

A volcanic CO2 seep at Upa-Upasina Reef in Milne Bay Province (Normanby Island, Papua New Guinea). Pure CO2 bubbles out of the underneath volcano, dissolving in the surrounding seawater and creating an acidified environment like what is predicted to occur by the end of this century.

Credit: Dr Riccardo Rodolfo-Metalpa (IRD, New Caledonia)

Research track record

Agostini S, Harvey BP, Milazzo M, Wada S, Kon K, Floc’h N, Komatsu K, Kuroyama M & Hall-Spencer JM (2021) 'Simplification, not “tropicalization”, of temperate marine ecosystems under ocean warming and acidification' Global Change Biology , DOI Open access
Allen RJ, Summerfield TC, Harvey BP, Agostini S, Rastrick SPS, Hall-Spencer JM & Hoffmann LJ (2021) 'Species turnover underpins the effect of elevated CO2 on biofilm communities through early succession' Climate Change Ecology 2, , DOI Open access
Cornwall CE, Harvey BP, Comeau S, Cornwall DL, Hall-Spencer JM, Peña V, Wada S & Porzio L (2021) 'Understanding coralline algal responses to ocean acidification: Meta‐analysis and synthesis' Global Change Biology , DOI Open access
Hall-Spencer JM, Belfiore G, Tomatsuri M, Porzio L, Harvey BP, Agostini S & Kon K (2022) 'Decreased Diversity and Abundance of Marine Invertebrates at CO2 Seeps in Warm-Temperate Japan' Zoological Science: an international journal 39, (1) , DOI Open access
Harvey BP, Allen R, Agostini S, Hoffmann LJ, Kon K, Summerfield TC, Wada S & Hall-Spencer JM (2021) 'Feedback mechanisms stabilise degraded turf algal systems at a CO2 seep site' Communications Biology 4, (1) , DOI Open access
Harvey BP, Kon K, Agostini S, Wada S & Hall-Spencer JM (2021) 'Ocean acidification locks algal communities in a species‐poor early successional stage' Global Change Biology , DOI Open access
Hilmi N, Chami R, Sutherland MD, Hall-Spencer JM, Lebleu L, Benitez MB & Levin LA (2021) 'The role of Blue Carbon in climate change mitigation and carbon stock conservation' Frontiers in Climate 3, , DOI Open access
Kato A, Basso D, Caragnano A, Rodondi G, Le Gall L, Peña V, Hall-Spencer JM & Baba M (2022) 'Morphological and molecular assessment of Lithophyllum okamurae with the description of L. neo-okamurae sp. nov. (Corallinales, Rhodophyta)' Phycologia , DOI Open access
Kerfahi D, Harvey BP, Kim H, Yang Y, Adams JM & Hall-Spencer JM (2022) 'Whole community and functional gene changes of biofilms on marine plastic debris in response to ocean acidification' Microbial Ecology , DOI Open access
Laffoley D, Baxter JM, Amon DJ, Claudet J, Downs CA, Earle SA, Gjerde KM, Hall-Spencer JM, Koldewey HJ & Levin LA (2021) 'The forgotten ocean: Why COP26 must call for vastly greater ambition and urgency to address ocean change' Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems , DOI Open access
Peña V, Harvey BP, Agostini S, Porzio L, Milazzo M, Horta P, Le Gall L & Hall-Spencer JM (2021) 'Major loss of coralline algal diversity in response to ocean acidification' Global Change Biology , DOI Open access

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