Ocean acidification (OA) research seeks to understand how marine ecosystems and global elemental cycles will respond to changes in seawater carbonate chemistry in combination with other environmental perturbations such as warming, eutrophication, and deoxygenation. This paper discusses the effectiveness and limitations of current research approaches used to address this goal. ...
This report describes climatological mean monthly distributions of pH, total carbon dioxide concentration, and the degree of CaCO3 saturation for the global surface ocean waters (excluding coastal areas) to depths of approximately 160 feet (50 meters).
The carbonate system of the Baltic Sea is strongly influenced by the input of low salinity waters during spring and summer originating from the Bothnian Sea, the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga as well as by the input of high salinity waters during autumn and winter originating ...
This article provides an overview of how rivers, which tend to be acidic compared to the ocean, affect shellfish, with a focus on the Gulf of Maine.
When scientists collected pteropods living in the Southern Ocean, where high levels of CO2 caused low availability of calcium carbonate in the water for building shells, they found that the pteropods' shells had severely dissolved. In the laboratory, pteropods incubated under similar CO2 conditions had equivalent levels of dissolution. ...
Survival of pteropods in Puget Sound, Washington, may not be greatly affected by present ocean pH levels and those projected for the near future, although their shells may be more prone to dissolving. (Laboratory study)
When larvae of Mediterranean pteropods were cultured in pH 7.82 water, they had malformations and less shell growth. At pH 7.51, the larvae did not make shells but survived and showed normal development. In a natural setting, the smaller shells or lack of shells would have both ecological and biogeochemical ...
Although pteropods are able to build shells at low aragonite saturation state, the production of their shell appears to be very sensitive to decreased pH. (Laboratory study)
Ocean acidification (pH 7.7) impaired growth and development of an intertidal barnacle (Semibalanus balanoides), but warmer temperature (+4 °C) did not. The mineral composition of the shells did not change with either ocean acidification or warmer temperature. The combination of reduced growth and maintained mineral content suggests that the barnacles ...
Increased nutrient loading into estuaries causes the accumulation of algal biomass, and microbial degradation of this organic matter decreases oxygen levels and contributes towards hypoxia. A second, often overlooked consequence of microbial degradation of organic matter is the production of carbon dioxide (CO2) and a lowering of seawater pH. To ...
