Building Ocean Acidification Research and Policy Capacity in the Wider Caribbean Region: A Case Study for Advancing Regional Resilience

Kalina C. Grabb^1*Natalie Lord^2*Kerri L Dobson³Debbie-Ann D S Gordon-Smith⁴Elva G. Escobar-Briones⁵Marcia Creary Ford⁴Sylvia Lander⁶Gabriella D Kitch⁷Melissa Meléndez⁸Julio Manuel Morell⁹Alain Muñoz Caravaca¹⁰Jan A Newton¹¹Amber Packard¹²Alexis Valauri-Orton¹³Jair Valladarez¹⁴Clayton Vondriska^15,16Elizabeth Wright-Fairbanks^17,7

• ¹Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, United States
• ²University of New Hampshire, Durham, North Carolina, United States
• ³University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina, United States
• ⁴University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica
• ⁵Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán, Mexico
• ⁶National Center of Testing Excellence, Dominica Bureau Of Standards, Stockfarm, Dominica
• ⁷Ocean Acidification Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Silver Springs, Maryland, United States
• ⁸University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
• ⁹Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System (CARICOOS), Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
• ¹⁰Centro de Estudios Ambientales de Cienfuegos, Cienfuegos, Cuba
• ¹¹University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States
• ¹²University of the Virgin Islands, Charlotte Amalie, US Virgin Islands
• ¹³Ocean Foundation, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
• ¹⁴Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Belize, Belmopan, Cayo District, Belize
• ¹⁵College of Science and Mathematics, University of the Virgin Islands, St Thomas, US Virgin Islands
• ¹⁶Department of Marine Biology and Ecology, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States
• ¹⁷University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), Boulder, Colorado, United States

To meet scientific, policy, and community goals, there is a critical need to strengthen research capacity, increase monitoring, and inform adaptation and mitigation policies to enhance resilience against ocean acidification (OA) and associated multi-stressors in the Caribbean. In 2023, an OA Needs Based Assessment survey of ocean professionals was conducted, engaging 59 participants from across the wider Caribbean to evaluate regional challenges and opportunities in OA research and monitoring. Results indicate regional strengths include awareness of local oceanic conditions, access to nearshore sites, and strong social support networks in ocean research. Regional barriers include limited technical capacity and funding to conduct oceanographic research and monitoring, and in particular, carbonate measurements. To understand differences in OA research capacity related to training and funding, we divide the respondents into four groups: those that have received 1) training and funding, 2) training only, 3) funding only, and 4) neither training nor funding. The four training and funding groups vary significantly, suggesting that access to training and funding are important factors to increasing the amount of access that respondents have to different types of equipment, the number of different types of measurements they conduct, the number of different habitats they research, and the amount of experience they have conducting OA research. This study also demonstrates the community-led efforts to address local OA challenges by presenting a case study on the formation of the Global Ocean Acidification Network (GOA-ON) OA Caribbean Hub that was founded by local leaders (co-authors of this study) who were inspired through the survey process and engagement that was conducted by co-authors. This study provides examples of avenues and challenges to build OA capacity for research and monitoring from the ground up within the wider Caribbean to advance towards global sustainability goals.