Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the ocean has absorbed approximately 48% of the anthropogenic CO2 released to the atmosphere, significantly reducing its impact on climate. At current "emissions-avoidance" costs of $10-35 US dollars per ton of CO2 emissions avoided, this represents an ecosystem service worth trillions of dollars. However, this valuable service comes at a steep ecological cost - the acidification of the ocean. As CO2 dissolves in seawater, the pH of the water decreases, making it more acidic. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, ocean pH has dropped globally by 0.12 pH units. While these pH levels are not alarming in themselves, the rate of change is cause for concern. To the best of our knowledge, the ocean has never experienced such a rapid acidification. By the end of this century, if concentrations of CO2 continue to rise exponentially, we may expect to see changes in pH that are three times greater and 100 times faster than those experienced during the transitions from glacial to interglacial periods. Such large changes in ocean pH have probably not been experienced on the planet for the past 21 million years. How marine ecosystems, coral reefs, and fisheries will respond to this rapid acidification is unknown.

In May 2004, SCOR and UNESCO-IOC co-hosted an international symposium to address these issues and to evaluate what is known about the possible benefits and impacts of CO2 mitigation strategies using the ocean, such as iron fertilization and direct injection of liquid CO2 into the deep ocean. Following this symposium, several international groups requested SCOR and the IOC to keep this issue under review, and the two organizations agreed to make this symposium a regular event to be held every 4 years.

For the 2008 symposium, SCOR and IOC will be joined by two new international organizations: the International Atomic Energy Agency's Marine Environmental Laboratory and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, enhancing links to the UN system and to interdisciplinary Earth science.

This web-site is a follow-up of the first symposium and is meant to provide a central source of information for ocean scientists on research activities in this area.

	Recognition that scientific questions about the ocean often require an interdisciplinary approach led the International Council for Science (ICSU) to form the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) in 1957. SCOR activities focus on promoting international cooperation in planning and conducting oceanographic research, and solving methodological and conceptual problems that hinder research. Approximately 250 scientists participate in SCOR activities on a voluntary basis at any given time.  SCOR has been interested in ocean carbon issues since its beginning and set up SCOR Working Group 2 on Carbon Dioxide in the Ocean in 1960.  Since that time, SCOR has sponsored several different advisory groups (usually with IOC) and research projects with emphases on understanding the ocean’s role in the global carbon cycle.
	The IOC was established under the auspices of UNESCO in 1960 to provide Member States of the United Nations with an essential mechanism for global cooperation in the study of the ocean. The IOC currently has 132 Member States. The programs of the Commission are carried out through four high-level objectives: prevention and reduction of the impacts of natural hazards; mitigation of the impacts and adaptation to climate change and variability; safeguarding the health of ocean ecosystems; and management procedures and policies leading to the sustainability of the coastal and ocean environment and resources. The IOC has had advisory groups and expert panels reviewing ocean carbon since 1984. The IOC serves as the Project Office for the IOC-SCOR International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project. (www.ioccp.org).
	IGBP is an international scientific research programme built on interdisciplinarity, networking and integration. Its vision is to provide scientific knowledge to improve the sustainability of the living Earth. IGBP studies the interactions between biological, chemical and physical processes and human systems, and collaborates with other global environmntal change programmes to develop and impart the understanding necessary to respond to global change. IGBP research is organized around the main components of the Earth System, the interfaces between those components, and integration across the components and through time. Carbon is a key element of interest in research in the ocean, atmosphere and land, as well as in modelling and palaeo-climate studies.Along with SCOR, IGBP co-sponsors several major international research projects concerned with oceanic carbon, namely the completed Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), the Surface Ocean - Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) and the Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) project. IGBP also co-sponsors the Global Carbon Project (GCP).