The EU FP7 Integrating Project EPOCA (European Project on OCean Acidification) was launched in May 2008 with the overall goal to advance our understanding of the biological, ecological, biogeochemical, and societal implications of ocean acidification.

The EPOCA consortium brings together more than 100 researchers from 27 institutes and 9 European countries. The budget of this four year long project is 15.9 M ¬, including 6.5 M ¬ from the European Commission. The research efforts of EPOCA are divided into four themes. Theme 1 will focus on past and present spatiotemporal changes in ocean chemistry and biogeography of key marine organisms.

Paleo-reconstruction methods will be used on several archives, including foraminifera and deep-sea corals, to determine past variability in ocean chemistry (carbonate, nutrients, and trace metals) and to tie this variability to present-day chemical and biological observations. Theme 2 will quantify impacts of ocean acidification on marine organisms and ecosystems. Molecular, physiological and ecological approaches will be used to study climate-relevant biogeochemical processes, including calcification, primary production and nitrogen fixation. Laboratory and field perturbation experiments will focus on key organisms in terms of their ecological, biogeochemical, or socioeconomic importance.

The potential for adaptation and acclimation will be assessed. Theme 3 will improve biogeochemical, sediment, and coupled ocean-climate models to better account for how ocean acidification will affect ocean biogeochemistry and ecosystems. Special attention will be paid to feedbacks of physiological changes on the carbon, nitrogen, iron, and sulfur cycles and how these changes will affect and be affected by future climate change.

Finally, theme 4 will synthesize results obtained in Themes 1, 2 and 3 for business leaders, policy-makers and the general public. It will evaluate uncertainties, risks and thresholds (tipping points) related to ocean acidification at molecular, cellular and organismal levels and from local to global scales. It will also assess the decrease in CO2 emissions required to avoid these thresholds and describe the change to the marine environment and Earth system, should these emissions be exceeded. Coastal ecosystems and species (in particular echinoderms, calcareous algae, and sea grasses) will be studied in the Mediterranean Sea, the Arctic Ocean, the North Sea, and the English Channel. EPOCA research is tightly connected to the theme 2 of LOICZ: Implications of global change for coastal ecosystems and sustainable development. EPOCA aims to reveal critical biogeochemical thresholds or tipping points related to ocean acidification, including in the coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea, the Arctic Ocean, the North Sea, and the English Channel.

The modelling component of EPOCA will project future scenarios and evaluate the robustness of the marine coastal ecosystem to ocean acidification. EPOCA brings together the expertise of over a hundred scientists from different fields of marine research. The results of this multi-disciplinary collaboration will be presented to the non-scientific community (industries, organisations and the general public) to inform about the risks and what we can do to avoid the tipping points related to ocean acidification.

EPOCA will also contribute with research related to the theme 4 of LOICZ: Biogeochemical Cycles in Coastal and Shelf Waters. The project will investigate the impact of ocean acidification on biogeochemical processes such as primary production, respiration, calcification and prokaryotic nitrogen cycling both off-shore and in coastal waters.