Impacts of seawater saturation state (ΩA = 0.4–4.6) and temperature (10, 25 °C) on the dissolution kinetics of whole-shell biogenic carbonates

Anthropogenic increase of atmospheric pCO2 since the Industrial Revolution has caused seawater pH to decrease and seawater temperatures to increase—trends that are expected to continue into the foreseeable future. Myriad experimental studies have investigated the impacts of ocean acidification and warming on marine calcifiers’ ability to build protective shells and skeletons. No studies, however, have investigated the combined impacts of ocean acidification and warming on the whole-shell dissolution kinetics of biogenic carbonates. Here, we present the results of experiments designed to investigate the effects of seawater saturation state (ΩA = 0.4–4.6) and temperature (10, 25 °C) on gross rates of whole-shell dissolution for ten species of benthic marine calcifiers: the oyster Crassostrea virginica, the ivory barnacle Balanus eburneus, the blue mussel Mytilus edulis, the conch Strombus alatus, the tropical coral Siderastrea siderea, the temperate coral Oculina arbuscula, the hard clam Mercenaria mercenaria, the soft clam Mya arenaria, the branching bryozoan Schizoporella errata, and the coralline red alga Neogoniolithon sp. These experiments confirm that dissolution rates of whole-shell biogenic carbonates decrease with calcium carbonate (CaCO3) saturation state, increase with temperature, and vary predictably with respect to the relative solubility of the calcifiers’ polymorph mineralogy [high-Mg calcite (mol% Mg > 4) ≥ aragonite > low-Mg calcite (mol% Mg < 4)], consistent with prior studies on sedimentary and inorganic carbonates. Furthermore, the severity of the temperature effects on gross dissolution rates also varied with respect to carbonate polymorph solubility, with warming (10–25 °C) exerting the greatest effect on biogenic high-Mg calcite, an intermediate effect on biogenic aragonite, and the least effect on biogenic low-Mg calcite. These results indicate that both ocean acidification and warming will lead to increased dissolution of biogenic carbonates in future oceans, with shells/skeletons composed of the more soluble polymorphs of CaCO3 being the most vulnerable to these stressors. The effects of saturation state and temperature on gross shell dissolution rate were modeled with an exponential asymptotic function (y=B0–B2·eB1Ω) that appeals to the general Arrhenius-derived rate equation for mineral dissolution [r=(C·e-Ea/RT)(1 − Ω)n]. Although the dissolution curves for the investigated biogenic CaCO3 exhibited exponential asymptotic trends similar to those of inorganic CaCO3, the observation that gross dissolution of whole-shell biogenic CaCO3 occurred (albeit at lower rates) even in treatments that were oversaturated (Ω > 1) with respect to both aragonite and calcite reveals fundamental differences between the dissolution kinetics of whole-shell biogenic CaCO3 and inorganic CaCO3. Thus, applying stoichiometric solubility products derived for inorganic CaCO3 to model gross dissolution of biogenic carbonates may substantially underestimate the impacts of ocean acidification on net calcification (gross calcification minus gross dissolution) of systems ranging in scale from individual organisms to entire ecosystems (e.g., net ecosystem calcification). Finally, these experiments permit rough estimation of the impact of CO2-induced ocean acidification on the gross calcification rates of various marine calcifiers, calculated as the difference between net calcification rates derived empirically in prior studies and gross dissolution rates derived from the present study. Organisms’ gross calcification responses to acidification were generally less severe than their net calcification response patterns, with aragonite mollusks (bivalves, gastropods) exhibiting the most negative gross calcification response to acidification, and photosynthesizing organisms, including corals and coralline red algae, exhibiting relative resilience

Juvenile Eastern Oysters More Resilient to Extreme Ocean Acidification than Their Mud Crab Predators

Ocean acidification is predicted to impair marine calcifiers' abilities to produce shells and skeletons. We conducted laboratory experiments investigating the impacts of CO2-induced ocean acidification (pCO2 = 478–519, 734–835, 8,980–9,567; Ωcalcite = 7.3–5.7, 5.6–4.3, 0.6–0.7) on calcification rates of two estuarine calcifiers involved in a classic predator-prey model system: adult Panopeus herbstii (Atlantic mud crab) and juvenile Crassostrea virginica (eastern oyster). Both oyster and crab calcification rates significantly decreased at the highest pCO2 level. Notably, however, oysters maintained positive net calcification rates in the highest pCO2 treatment that was undersaturated with respect to calcite, while mud crabs exhibited net dissolution (i.e., net loss of shell mass) in calcite-undersaturated conditions. Secondary electron imaging of oyster shells revealed minor microstructural alterations in the moderate-pCO2 treatment, and major microstructural and macrostructural changes (including shell dissolution, delamination of periostracum) in the high-pCO2 treatment. These results underscore the threat that ocean acidification poses for marine organisms that produce calcium carbonate shells, illustrate the strong biological control that some marine calcifiers exert over their shell-building process, and shows that ocean acidification differentially impacts the crab and oyster species involved in this classical predator-prey model system

The reef-building coral Siderastrea siderea exhibits parabolic responses to ocean acidification and warming

Anthropogenic increases in atmospheric CO2 over this century are predicted to cause global average surface ocean pH to decline by 0.1–0.3 pH units and sea surface temperature to increase by 1–4°C. We conducted controlled laboratory experiments to investigate the impacts of CO2-induced ocean acidification (pCO2 = 324, 477, 604, 2553 µatm) and warming (25, 28, 32°C) on the calcification rate of the zooxanthellate scleractinian coral Siderastrea siderea, a widespread, abundant and keystone reef-builder in the Caribbean Sea. We show that both acidification and warming cause a parabolic response in the calcification rate within this coral species. Moderate increases in pCO2 and warming, relative to near-present-day values, enhanced coral calcification, with calcification rates declining under the highest pCO2 and thermal conditions. Equivalent responses to acidification and warming were exhibited by colonies across reef zones and the parabolic nature of the corals' response to these stressors was evident across all three of the experiment's 30-day observational intervals. Furthermore, the warming projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the end of the twenty-first century caused a fivefold decrease in the rate of coral calcification, while the acidification projected for the same interval had no statistically significant impact on the calcification rate—suggesting that ocean warming poses a more immediate threat than acidification for this important coral species

Nearshore coral growth declining on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System

Anthropogenic global change and local stressors are impacting coral growth and survival worldwide, altering the structure and function of coral reef ecosystems. Here, we show that skeletal extension rates of nearshore colonies of two abundant and widespread Caribbean corals (Siderastrea siderea, Pseudodiploria strigosa) declined across the Belize Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS) over the past century, while offshore coral conspecifics exhibited relatively stable extension rates over the same temporal interval. This decline has caused nearshore coral extension rates to converge with those of their historically slower growing offshore coral counterparts. For both species, individual mass coral bleaching events were correlated with low rates of skeletal extension within specific reef environments, but no single bleaching event was correlated with low skeletal extension rates across all reef environments. We postulate that the decline in skeletal extension rates for nearshore corals is driven primarily by the combined effects of long-term ocean warming and increasing exposure to higher levels of land-based anthropogenic stressors, with acute thermally induced bleaching events playing a lesser role. If these declining trends in skeletal growth of nearshore S. siderea and P. strigosa continue into the future, the structure and function of these critical nearshore MBRS coral reef systems is likely to be severely impaired

Calibration of the pH-δ11B and temperature-Mg/Li proxies in the long-lived high-latitude crustose coralline red alga Clathromorphum compactum via controlled laboratory experiments

A solid understanding of global oceanic change throughout Holocene time is needed to contextualize and interpret recent observations of rapid warming (Moore, 2016), ocean acidification (Popova et al., 2014; Qi et al., 2017), increasing meltwater input (Halfar et al., 2013; Notz and Stroeve, 2016) and circulation changes (Liu et al., 2017; Rahmstorf et al., 2015; Yang et al., 2016) in the Arctic and subarctic Oceans. Precisely reconstructing acidification and temperature variations throughout the Holocene will provide a vital context for interpreting current environmental changes and future climate projections in the region. However, existing paleoenvironmental reconstructions are sparse and uncertain, largely owing to limited availability of high fidelity paleoceanographic archives, such as marine carbonates, in high latitude waters. Coralline algae of the genus Clathromorphum have emerged as key candidates for reconstructing high-latitude environmental variability at annual to sub-annual resolution. Here, we present the first empirical calibrations of boron isotope-pH and Mg/Li-temperature relationships within the long-lived, crustose coralline red alga Clathromorphum compactum. Calibration experiments were performed in triplicate, growing wild-collected specimens for four months at three controlled temperatures (6.4–12.4 °C) and four pCO2 conditions (352–3230 ppm), to test the effects of these environmental parameters on the isotopic and elemental composition of the algal skeleton. We find that boron isotopes within the skeleton of C. compactum (δ11Bcc) are well correlated with δ11B of seawater borate (δ11Βborate), defining the following equation: δ11Βcc (2σ) = 1.46 (0.06) δ11Βborate + 6.91 (0.72). This equation can be used to reconstruct δ11Βborate of the coralline alga’s ambient seawater, from which past seawater pH can be calculated. We also identified a strong correlation between skeletal Mg/Li ratio and seawater temperature, defined by the equation: Mg/Li (2σ) = 0.17 (0.02) temperature (oC) + 1.02 (0.16). Therefore, despite the strong biological control that this species appears to exert on calcification site pH (elevated 1.0–1.6 pH units above seawater pH, inferred from δ11Bcc > δ11Βborate), and the apparent relationship between skeletal extension rate and skeletal Li/Ca and Mg/Ca, the δ11Bcc and Mg/Li ratios of the coralline alga’s skeleton strongly and significantly respond to ambient seawater pH and temperature, respectively. These results support the use of δ11B and Mg/Li within C. compactum for pH and temperature reconstructions of northern high-latitude oceans

Why the Greek government must grant political and economic independence to the Central Bank of Greece

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Central bank independence A review of theories

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Monetary policy delegation and optimal wage indexation

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Monetary policy credibility, inflation and long-run growth

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Decentralised policymaking in a game-theoretic model with capital accumulation

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