SCOR Working Group 145 (SCOR WG 145): "Modelling Chemical Speciation in Seawater to Meet 21st Century Needs" kindly asks the marine and freshwater chemistry community to fill out a web-based questionnaire to help generate a set of requirements for chemical speciation modelling tools (encompassing pH, the carbonate system, and nutrient availability and toxicity) which are being developed for marine scientists and businesses by the SCOR WG145. This survey is primarily targeted at non-academic scientists and other users. 

The efforts of SCOR WG 145 are supported by 3 years of funding, initially, and involve an informal consortium of groups in several countries. The goal is to understand the speciation modelling needs of industry, and public sector and non-governmental organisations involved in marine science, as well as academia. This understanding will help shape the development of the speciation model and modelling tools (computer programs). Therefore, your participation in the Web-based questionnaire at the address below would be highly appreciated.

The results of this survey will be combined with those of a similar one for mainly academic marine scientists, and what was learned at a "Town Hall" at the AGU/ASLO Ocean Sciences 2016 meeting. These results will be made public, and will directly inform the work of SCOR WG 145, and the speciation model that we produce. (By the way, if you completed the first survey there is no need to complete this one.)

SURVEY ADDRESS:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Z5R7TWK

MORE INFORMATION:

It you would like more information about the activities of WG 145, and/or the research being done in our project, please contact either David Turner (Chair of WG 145, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), or Simon Clegg (Technical Vice-Chair of WG 145, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

The focus of the work is the calculation and measurement of pH (including the buffers used for instrument calibration), the marine carbonate system, low-salinity waters, and environments in which composition differs from normal seawater stoichiometry. The challenge is that chemical speciation varies in a complex way with temperature, salinity, the amounts of reacting species present, and often pH.

The applications are many, for example: water quality, marine environmental health, nutrient availability and toxicity, and problems related to ocean acidification. These are outlined in a recent publication by Turner et al.: "Toward a Quality-Controlled and Accessible Pitzer Model for Seawater and Related Systems", Frontiers in Marine Science 3, art. 139, 2016 (journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2016.00139/pdf)