Funded Research
Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia
Over the last two years, Oregon's Ocean Science Trust dispersed $1,000,000 to seven grant recipients prioritizing strategic research, monitoring, and communications to address ocean acidification and hypoxia.
Funding originated when the Oregon Legislature passed funding bill HB 3114 in 2021, to provide $1,000,000 to priority actions from the Oregon Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Action Plan 2019-2025. In consultation with the Oregon Coordinating Council on Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia (OAH Council) the Oregon Ocean Science Trust (OOST) began a competitive grant process to fund strategic research and address the risks and vulnerabilities caused by OAH that threaten Oregon’s economy and ecosystems.
What is ocean acidification and hypoxia?
Oregon’s ocean is changing, and many species have
already shown signs of distress. Just as humans need
calcium to build their bones, sea creatures need calcium
carbonate to build strong skeletons and shells. The
ocean absorbs a lot of carbon dioxide, which is changing
the ocean’s chemistry and prevents the development of
calcium carbonate. This is called ocean acidification.
​
As a result of the changing chemistry, we are seeing
sea creatures’ skeletons and shells becoming thinner or
more brittle. Climate change is also the cause of hypoxia, as warmer waters hold less oxygen. As the Pacific Ocean warms, its ability to hold a lot of oxygen declines. The term “hypoxia” refers to low or depleted oxygen in a body of water. Because most organisms need oxygen to live, few organisms can survive in hypoxic conditions. Local actions will lead to a brighter future, for the oceans, its species, and the communities that depend on them.
HB3114: Intertidal ocean acidification and hypoxia (OAH) monitoring at Oregon marine reserves
Research Team:
Francis Chan (PI), Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystem and Resources Studies, Oregon State University
Samantha Chisholm Hatfield, Research Associate, Tribal Liaison, Oregon State University
​
Project Partners:
Surfrider Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, Friends of Cape Falcon Marine Reserve, Redfish Rocks Community Team, local residents
​
Project Objectives:
Improve our monitoring capabilities with duplicate sensors to build a more robust understanding of the geography of OA risk and their persistence across climate states.
Examine the strength of connection between inner-shelf and intertidal carbonate chemistry dynamics across different coastal regions.
Enable new engagement of Oregonians in understanding ocean change and marine reserves.
Begin to integrate knowledge of ocean change and marine reserves with the understanding of sense of place and perspectives of change by all Oregonians.
Project Timeline: April 2022 to September 2024
​
Project Award: $97,494
HB3114: Subtidal ocean acidification and hypoxia monitoring at Oregon marine reserves
Research Team:
Francis Chan (PI), Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystem and Resources Studies, Oregon State University
Samantha Chisholm Hatfield, Research Associate, Tribal Liaison, Oregon State University
​
Project Objectives:
Sustain the crucial time-series observations at Cape Perpetua. The Cape Perpetua array has served as a backbone of OAH observations in Oregon. This project will capitalize on the decade-plus of operational experience in delivering high-quality research data streams to anchor a state-wide MR OAH observing network.
Increase statewide capacity for OAH monitoring and real-time data access across the marine reserve system as a whole. The project will build from partnerships and new technologies developed through prior NOAA and NSF awards to develop a community-supported OAH monitoring program by engaging fishing industry partners.
​Project Timeline: April 2022 to September 2024
​
Project Award: $287,594
HB3114: Ocean acidification and hypoxia monitoring at Yaquina Bay
Research Team:
Bob Cowen (PI), Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC), Oregon State University
Project Partners:
Dr. Drummond Biles, iLab Manager, HMSC, Oregon State University
Dr. Eric Rehm, Senior Oceanographer, Sea-Bird Scientific
Dr. Andrew Barnard, Chief Technology Officer, Sea-Bird Scientific
Dr. Jan Newton, NANOOS Executive Director, University of Washington
Dr. Shawn Rowe, Associate Professor, Oregon State University
Kristen Peterse, Associate Director, Milne Computer Center, Oregon State University
Cinamon Moffett, Research Program Manger, HMSC, Oregon State University
​
Project Objectives:
OAH instruments in the HMSC Climate Monitoring station will collect climate-grade temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, conductivity, total algae, Nitrate, chlorophyll a, CDOM, pCO2, and TCO2 time-series data from Yaquina Bay, Oregon that will be shared near real-time and via a public exhibit in the Sea Grant Visitor Center at HMSC.
​Project Timeline: March 2022 to December 2025
​
Project Award: $97,497
Final Report: Hatfield Marine Science Center Coastal Monitoring Station
Executive Summary: The Coastal Monitoring Station (CMS) at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) began collecting and transmitting real-time, climate-grade water quality data to a public website in April 2025. Measurements at the estuary dock site have been ongoing since 1988, but funding for support has been sporadic. In 2021, the Oregon legislature allocated funds to enhance ocean acidification and hypoxia (OAH) monitoring. The CMS is a direct result of that funding, administered by the Oregon Ocean Science Trust.
The CMS located in Yaquina Bay, Oregon, includes core in situ and benchtop sampling instruments, as well as an innovation test berth. The station is designed to be modular; it began with physical, chemical, and biological water sampling instruments, and a weather package is being installed in winter 2025-26. The system's data logging and visualization infrastructure is based on a system used by the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS). framework. The CMS is part of HMSC’s broader effort to increase public engagement with water quality issues through the real-time data website, a time series database, and a new public exhibit at the Hatfield Sea Grant Visitor Center. Researchers, resource managers, and the general public benefit from access to the data, which are also published to public repositories like ERDDAP. The CMS addresses critical OAH data gaps in the Yaquina estuary by providing a highly accurate and stable long-term data collection system. HMSC is committed to supporting this cost-effective and sustainable monitoring system for Yaquina Bay.
Figure 1.
The instrument frame is deployed about 1m above the estuary floor.
The Burke-o-later (BOL) installed in the CMS. This instrument makes high resolution measurements of the carbonate system, incorporating temperature and salinity measurements.
A screenshot of the CMS real-time data. The publicly accessible real-time CMS data website (https://hmsc-cms.dri.oregonstate.edu/plots/flowthrough/) went live in April 2025.
On 29 July 2025, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake occurred offshore of the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia, the largest on earth since the 2011 Mw 9.1 earthquake in Tohoku, Japan (USGS, 2025). The Newport, OR area went under a distant tsunami advisory, and the resulting water level fluctuation inside the Yaquina estuary was 6 inches. The CMS live data feed displayed the first wave to reach the HMSC dock at about 07:30 UTC (00:30 PST), as well as the resulting increases in turbidity, scattering and fluorescent dissolved organic matter (FDOM)CMS depth (tide), scattering, turbidity and FDOM, 29-30 July 2025.
In early December 2025, a series of at least 3 atmospheric rivers began impacting Western Washington and Oregon, leading to historic flooding, landslides and record river levels. For several days, the HMSC facilities team wasn’t able to pump water to the seawater system as its salinity wasn’t high enough even during high tide. An initial analysis revealed that turbidity levels were twice baseline levels, even during high tide when the sediment-rich riverine signal is usually much weaker. This graphic illustrates an initial analysis of CMS turbidity and tide data, November-December 2025.
The Hatfield CMS website (https://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/research-support/coastal-monitoring-station) went live in May 2025 with links to the real-time data, descriptions of the instruments, and a narrative of the project. Hatfield staff continue work with Sea Grant K-12 educators to create short videos and other content to engage website users and increase data literacy. The website will feature a web-based version of the exhibit video game and a link to the estuary floor webcam.
The CMS exhibit with live data streaming and instrument frame replica.
HB3114: Ecosystem modeling of submerged aquatic vegetation
Research Team:
Tarang Khangaonkar (PI), University of Washington, Salish Sea Modeling Center
Caitlin Magel (Co-PI), University of Washington, Puget Sound Institute Adi Nugraha (Co-PI), University of Washington, Salish Sea Modeling Center
Project Partners:
Su Kyong Yun, University of Washington, Salish Sea Modeling Center
Alicia Helms, South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve
Jaime Belanger, South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve
Dave Sutherland, University of Oregon, Department of Earth Sciences
Janet Niessner, Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians
​
Project Objectives:
Understand the dynamics of pH, dissolved oxygen, and eelgrass in Coos Bay using a biogeochemical ecosystem model. Two questions will be asked:
What ecohydrological dynamics confer vulnerability to OAH?
How would the absence of eelgrass alter pH and dissolved oxygen conditions and variability?
Project Timeline: September 2022 through September 2024
​
Project Award: $131,126
Project Final Report:
Peer-reviewed Publication:
Frontiers in Marine Science article: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2025.1585621/full
HB3114: Develop recommendations, through workshops or seminars, for maximizing the abundance of wild shellfish, cultured shellfish, and submerged aquatic vegetation in estuaries in Oregon; develop best management practices for conducting shellfish cultivation in a manner that protects or promotes estuarine health
Research Team:
Melissa Ward (PI), San Diego State University
Brian Katz (Co-PI), Cascadia Visualizations, LLC and Oregon State University
Dr. Kristen Green (Co-PI), Oregon State University
Dr. Arielle Levine (Co-PI), San Diego State University
​
Project Objectives:
What are the environmental interactions between shellfish and SAV (with a focus on the Pacific Northwest), and what scientific gaps exist?
How do shellfish and SAV interact within Oregon’s regulatory and management landscape, and how does this inform or impact their co-management?
How does each stakeholder group perceive and envision co-management of shellfish and SAV, and how do these visions differ between groups?
​
Findings from these questions will be integrated into BMPs that aim to 1) maximize positive environmental interactions between shellfish and SAV, 2) work within the existing regulatory landscape, and 3) incorporate the diversity of stakeholder interests
​Project Timeline: June 2022 to August 2024
​
Project Award: $170,521
Deliverables:
Visualization: https://cascadiavisualizations.github.io/shellfish-sav/mapping-activity/results/
HB3114: Life cycle impacts of ocean acidification and hypoxia on shellfish species that are of importance to Oregon
Research Team:
George Waldbusser (PI), Oregon State University
Marnie Jo Zirbel, Oregon State University
​
Project Objectives:
Employ a space for time study design to examine shell and tissue growth and composition at various locations throughout Yaquina Bay, using existing infrastructure.
Continue to measure carbonate chemistry, salinity, temperature, and food quantity/quality at deployment locations throughout the bay.
Synthesize environmental data to identify the timescales and processes altering localized conditions throughout Yaquina Bay to understand underlying causes and effects on Olympia oyster fitness, growth, and survival.
Build a statistical growth model for Olympia oysters based on the environmental variables to relate growth and survival to environmental variables in Yaquina.
​Project Timeline: May 2022 to March 2025
​
Project Award: $174,989
HB3114: Develop a communications plan and strategy for outreach and education on ocean acidification and hypoxia impacts, science, and solutions
Research Team:
Nancy Hotchkiss (Co-PI), Pathways Collaborative
Nette Pletcher (Co-PI), Pathways Collaborative
Terry O'Connor, Pathways Collaborative
Project Objectives:
Clearly defined actions that address the human causes of ocean acidification and hypoxia events.
Defined audiences that respond to specific values, sense of community, and emotional investment in their location within the State of Oregon.
Three to five pilot-tested messages that resonate with the target audiences and have measurable success metrics.
A Communications Toolkit that provides background materials, training outlines and resources, and evaluation tools for measuring successes.
An implementation plan that outlines how to roll these messages out locally, regionally, and statewide, including defining the roles of content experts, messengers, and influencers that will play a role in successful implementation.
​Project Timeline: May 2022 to May 2024
​
Project Award: $63,376​
Deliverables:
Ocean Acidification & Hypoxia (OAH) Communication Plan
Recording: Communication Toolkit - passcode: #k^iq+61
Recording: Implementation Plan - passcode: #zc6Tka*
OAH Sample Presentation (with speaker notes)
This core message was developed through an OOST grant in partnership with the OAH Council. Learn
more about the process of writing this message for the public in project 7, as well as the six other ocean acidification and hypoxia funded research grants supported by the OOST:
​
Grant Progress Reports
