EPOCA’s first large-scale perturbation experiment will start on 28 April 2009 in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard. It is aimed at understanding the impact of ocean acidification on benthic Arctic organisms and communities. The experiment is led by Steve Widdicombe (Plymouth Marine Laboratory; PML) and involves scientists from the Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche (LOV-CNRS), the Alfred Wegener Institute for Marine and Polar Research (AWI), the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The participating scientists, on the initiative of Helen Findlay (PML), Hannah Wood (PML) and Steeve Comeau (LOV), will run a blog directly from Ny-Alesund: http://epocaarctic2009.wordpress.com/. The blog will provide information on the experiments in English and French.