Joanie Kleypas

Scientist II
TIIMES - ISSE: SERE
BGS

Contact Information:
PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000
Office: FL1 - 2004
Telephone: 303-497-8111
Email: kleypas@ucar.edu
Home Page | SERE Research Report-07

Project Summary:

Click on picture to view the entire figure.

Figure 1. Side-by-side sampling of seawater CO2 measurements by an automated water sampler (left) and a SAMI© CO2 sensor (right), at a NOAA ICON station. Lee Stocking Island, Bahamas.

Joanie Kleypas’ work in TIIMES considers two aspects of increasing atmospheric CO2 on coral reefs: ocean warming and ocean acidification. This work has revealed that the vulnerability of reef ecosystems to coral bleaching events (the loss of symbiotic algae from coral tissues) varies with not only regional differences in the exposure of reefs to increased temperature extremes, but with differences in coral sensitivity to those extremes. For example, while the western Pacific warm pool (WPWP) has experienced relatively minor increases in temperature, WPWP coral bleaching events have been triggered by smaller temperature increases than in other regions. These findings are being used with CCSM temperature projections to predict the frequency of future bleaching events. Kleypas also continues to lead planning efforts to conduct ocean acidification research at both national and international levels, and has just completed a pilot study to test various methods for augmenting NOAA’s Integrated Coral Observing Network (ICON) stations with autonomous seawater carbonate chemistry measurements.

Community Service:

• Editor - Climate Research
• Editor - Coral Reefs and Climate Change: Science and Management. AGU Monograph Series, Coastal and Estuarine Studies
• Member - International Advisory Panel, CARBOOCEAN - EU program on marine carbon sources and sinks
• Member - Scientific Steering Committee, Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry - Inter-agency working group on ocean carbon
• Thesis Committee: Derek Manzello, PhD, Univ. Miami, Miami, FL USA

Presentations:

• Are coral reefs the litmus test for ocean acidification?, Houston USA, April 2007
• Career paths - a personal example, Undergraduate (SOARS program), Boulder, CO, USA, October 07
• Climate change and marine ecosystems, Other, Washington D.C. USA, December 2006
• Coral reefs and climate change – If it ain’t one thing, it’s another. Invited, Other, Boston USA, April 2007
• Coral reefs and the carbon cycle, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria SPA, December 2006
• Coral reef vulnerability to climate change, Kiel DEU, August 2007
• Coral reefs and climate change, Westminster USA, September 2007
• Coral reefs and the carbon cycle, Seattle USA, September 2007
• Ocean acidification - an introduction, Southern California USA, November 2007
• Ocean acidification, Boulder USA, August 2007
• Testimony to the House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Oceans, Washington USA, April 2007
• Ocean acidification: the new ugly kid on the climate change block, Houghton USA, December 2006
• The Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Program, Santa Fe USA, February 2007
• Will ocean acidification affect rhodoliths?, La Paz, Baja MEX, October 2007

TIIMES External Collaborators:

Rich Aronson, Dauphin Island Sea Lab
Robert Buddemeier, University of Kansas & Kansas Geological Survey
Ken Caldeira, Carnegie Institution
Jorge Corredor, University of Puerto Rico
Scott Doney, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)
Mark Eakin, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), CSAR
Vicki Fabry, California State University-San Marcos
Richard Feely, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), PMEL
Jean-Pierre Gattuso, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)
James Hendee, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), AOML
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, University of Queensland
Chris Langdon, University of Miami
Chris Sabine, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (NOAA-PMEL)
Clive Wilkinson, Reef & Rainforest Research Centre

Publications:

Feely, R. A., J. C. Orr, V. J. Fabry, J. A. Kleypas, C. L. Sabine, C. Langdon, 2007: Present and future changes in seawater chemistry due to ocean acidification. J. Geophys. Res.. (In Press)

Kleypas, J. A., 2007: Constraints on predicting coral reef response to climate change. Chapter 12. Geological Approaches to Coral Reef Ecology, R. Aronson, Ed., New York, Springer-Verlag, 386-424.

Kleypas, J. A., 2007: Coral reef bleaching. Heads Up! Early Warning Systems for Climate, Water and Weather, M. H. Glantz, Ed., Tsinghua University Press, 133-136, doi: ISBN 978-7-302-14633-9.

Kleypas, J. A., C. M. Eakin, 2007: Global and regional threats to coral reefs: Results of a survey of coral reef researchers. Bulletin of Marine Science, 80, 419-436.