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Australia to host southern hemisphere's 1st ocean acidification conference 

Xinhua, April 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

Australia will hold the first "Ocean in a High CO2 World" symposium hosted in the southern hemisphere, with world-leading experts assembling to discuss solutions to the ongoing acidification of the seven seas.

The international conference, convened every four years, will be held in the Tasmanian city of Hobart next month and moderated by Australia's respected Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

The forum is expected to attract around 350 Australian and overseas delegates, exploring the issue's "science and likely impacts" for future generations.

Prof. Catriona Hurd, the event's organizer, said acidification of the world's oceans was one of the more tangible impacts of rampant climate change, and the problem would only get worse without reducing our carbon footprint.

"This process ... has been well observed over recent decades and will continue in the future as atmospheric CO2 (carbon dioxide) levels continue to rise," Catriona Hurd, from the CSIRO, said in a statement released by the University of Tasmania on Wednesday.

"Ocean acidification has been identified as a significant risk likely to affect the entire marine ecosystem.

"These will impact on the important ecosystems services that marine environments provide such as fisheries, tourism, coastal protection and food security."

Research has found that between 30 percent to 40 percent of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by human activity dissolves into oceans, rivers and lakes.

An aerial survey of the Queensland's Great Barrier Reef last month, showed that 95 percent of the world heritage-listed site had been irreparably damaged by coral bleaching.

Ocean acidification and rising sea temperatures have been blamed for the Reef's bleaching event, the third to affect the underwater ecosystem since 1998.

Internationally, scientists have also identified changes in the PH balance of the Arctic and Southern Oceans and along the Pacific Oceans' U.S. coastline.

The forum, to kick off on May 4, is co-sponsored by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Australian government. Endit