BLUE HILL — On Thursday, Oct. 20, Mark Green will be the featured speaker in the Marine Environmental Research Institute (MERI) Ocean Environment Lecture Series.

He will speak on “Ocean Acidification: Survival of Marine Ecosystems and Seafood.”

Green’s lecture at the MERI Center in Blue Hill begins at 7 p.m., preceded by a reception at 6. All lectures in the series are free and open to the public.

Clams, those bivalve mollusks that are so popular with seafood lovers, could disappear from the dining table. According to Green, a professor and chairman of environmental science at St. Joseph’s College of Maine in Standish, so much carbon dioxide has been put into the atmosphere that it’s dissolving into the surface layer of the ocean and turning into an acid strong enough to destroy young clams within days of exposure.

The implications for fisheries, marine ecosystems and seafood supplies worldwide will be devastating.

Green is an oceanographer and self-described oyster grower. He also is a pioneer in ocean acidification research, garnering international attention and three major grants from the National Science Foundation. His data was cited in a 2010 industry letter to a U.S. Senate Subcommittee hearing on the Environmental and Economic Impacts of Ocean Acidification. With his most recent grant, Green is focusing research on the impact of acidification on microscopic larval clams in several Maine estuaries.

While there is no single solution to ocean acidification, Green points out that there are many smaller solutions that can slow its rate, all of which involve reducing carbon emissions. This means finding low-carbon energy sources, increasing car fuel efficiency, limiting deforestation and using alternative energy.

“We certainly have the technical resources and the scientific minds,” Green said. “We just need people to step up to the plate and demand action.”

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