The continental shelf region off the west coast of North America is seasonally exposed to water with a low aragonite saturation state by coastal upwelling of CO2-rich waters. To date, the spatial and temporal distribution of anthropogenic CO2 (Canth) within the CO2-rich waters is largely unknown. Here we adapt the multiple ...
Acidification has sparked discussion about whether regulatory agencies should place coastal waters on the Clean Water Act 303(d) impaired water bodies list. Here we describe scientific challenges in assessing impairment with existing data, exploring use of both pH and biological criteria. Application of pH criteria is challenging because present coastal ...
At an oyster hatchery on the Oregon coast, researchers found that production of oyster larvae and growth of young oysters dropped when the aragonite saturation state decreased in seawater. (Laboratory study)
Three direct effects of increasing ocean acidification on marine plankton have been recognized: enhanced phytoplankton growth rate, changing elemental composition of primary produced organic matter, and reduced biogenic calcification.
More than 98% of the carbon of the atmosphere-ocean system is stored in the oceans as dissolved inorganic carbon. This textbook describes equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties and stable isotope fractionation among the elements of the carbonate system.
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. ...
