I made this map a year ago, for another COSEE-OS workshop, and looking at it again, I would change some things. The map is really addressing "What's important to know about ocean acidification?" It is important to know is that ocean acidification is primarily occurring about because of increasing carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. And while there is some debate on what's causing global warming, 99.9% of scientists agree that human activity the cause for increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. So the "take home message" is that ocean acidification is primarily tied to increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide and that's being caused by human activity.

It's also important to realize that every concept on this map can be connected in some way; however, I feel that decreasing the numbers of connections on this type of map can help to improve its clarity. Global change is affecting levels of carbon dioxide. It's also probably increasing sea temperature and the gas exchange of carbon dioxide into ocean water as a function of increased storminess and winds. When carbon dioxide gas gets into the ocean -- e.g., by winds -- it dissociates or creates an acid: the more carbon dioxide, the more acid. The "Carbon Cycle" is also an important concept because it modulates carbon dioxide, both biologically and physically. So anything that changes productivity in the ocean also affects the concentration of acid in the ocean. Ocean acidification can affect life: primarily life that creates shells out of calcite or aragonite such as clams, mussels, coral reefs, pterpods (i.e., a type of shelled mollusk). Lab studies have shown that many shelled animals are very sensitive to small increases in acidification: it makes them "work harder" to make a shell.

The informal educators I worked with do a lot of professional development with classroom educators. We discussed that these maps -- and the process of creating them using COSEE-OS tools -- can help cultivate and nurture dialog between scientists, informal and formal educators. In terms of my original map, we decided to "start from scratch" and focus on: "How do Humans impact ocean acidification and what are the consequences?" for an audience of 8th grade science teachers (and their students). We spent quite a bit of time making sure that we used the appropriate vocabulary. We decided that "Human Impacts" is a good "hook," so we colored these concepts in bright red. On the map, the size of circle represents the relative size of that item's contribution.

In addition to fossil fuels and land use, we brought in cement production as a key contributor. These all contribute carbon dioxide to the atmosphere but, to be clear, we also added the natural phenomena that contribute carbon dioxide to the atmosphere (shown in green). In terms of the impact of ocean acidification, we focused on three main "Ocean Biology" topics: plankton, shelled organisms, and coral reefs. When you "roll over" these, you can see brief descriptions of which organisms are affected by ocean acidification and how: e.g., rolling over "plankton" reveals various plankton types and how ocean acidification can lower plankton metabolism and reproduction rates. In the upper right of the map, we added: "So what?" to prompt people to think about ways they can change their own behavior to help mitigate consequences.