Joanie Kleypas

National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
Scientist
Joanie Kleypas Image

Joanie Kleypas is a marine scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, who investigates how rising atmospheric carbon dioxide is affecting marine ecosystems. Joanie has been heavily involved in the topic of "ocean acidification" since 1999, and has served on multiple national and international committees to help define and tackle the problem, including serving as chair of the Ocean Acidification Subcommittee of the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Program, co-author of the National Academy of Sciences report on ocean acidification, contributing author on the topic of ocean acidification in the IPCC 5th Assessment Report, and international advisor to the European Project on Ocean Acidification. She has also given multiple briefings and testimony to the U.S. Congress on the topic of marine ecosystem and climate change. Joanie uses a combination of data analysis and modeling to understand coral reef response to climate change, with the goal to inform conservation strategies that ensure coral reef survival through this century. Joanie earned a B.S. in Marine Biology (Lamar Univ., Texas), and a M.S. in Marine Science (Univ. of South Carolina), with an emphasis in fish ecology. She obtained a PhD from James Cook University, as a Fulbright scholar to Australia, where she conducted a reef coring program to examine the history of reef growth since the last glacial maximum, and to determine why some reefs grow well in some areas but not in others.