Community outreach and public engagement on ocean acidification

As carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continue to rise, the chemistry of the ocean is becoming fundamentally altered. This ocean acidification poses a huge risk to marine life as it changes the physiology and behaviour of animals and transforms the habitats they live in. Members of our lab are working on this problem from a research perspective – and now we are working to reach out to the public to spread awareness too.

Recently, PhD student Sarah Griffiths was awarded an Outreach Grant from the British Ecological Society to further develop our ocean acidification educational activity stand, which we have previously exhibited at the SeaLife Centre, the University of Manchester and the Manchester Museum. Rebranded ‘Acid Oceans’, we have worked hard to enhance our activities and demonstrations so we can spread further awareness about this little-known effect of climate change and to inspire the next generation of young scientists.

The new and improved stand was launched as part of the Manchester Museum and European City of Science ‘Climate Control’ exhibition. Led by Xaali O’Reilly Berkeley and Vanessa Yepes-Narvaez, we took part in an ‘After Hours’ event on the 27th July and a family ‘Big Saturday’ event on the 30th July. Both were a huge success, with positive feedback from adults and children

"An insightful experiment, definitely shows the damage being done. Kids enjoyed the colour changes of the cabbage water when acidic liquids added."

"Our 4, 5 and 8 year olds loved the experiments. The 4 year old loved using a pippette and the 5 and 8 year olds were fascinated by the colour changes"

"Es war lustig und hat Spass gemacht!"

"I liked when we put dry ice and was so cool"

"Beautiful display, excellent demo. Super informative! :)"

"Wonderful demonstrations!"

Please see our new webpage for Acid Oceans for links to resources, activities to do at home or at school, and to keep an eye on when our next events are.

Thanks to all of the volunteers who helped to man the stand and to the Manchester Museum and the British Ecological Society for their support!