Ocean Acidification

The purpose of the lessons is to teach about ocean acidification, its causes and impacts on marine life especially zooplankton, an essential part of marine food webs. Included in the materials is background information on ocean acidification. There are four different activities included in this document. To do all four you should plan on at least two 45 minute periods. The activities define and explain the process of acidification as well as its impacts on shelled organism. The materials can be adapted and used for grades 5-6 and adding more indepth information makes it suitable for middle and high school students. Educational levels: Middle school, High school

USING VOLCANIC MARINE CO2 VENTS TO STUDY THE EFFECTS OF OCEAN ACIDIFICATION ON BENTHIC BIOTA: HIGHLIGHTS FROM CASTELLO ARAGONESE D’ISCHIA (TYRRHENIAN SEA)

Current research into ocean acidification is mainly being carried out using short-term experiments whereby CO2 levels are manipulated in aquaria and enclosures. We have adopted a new approach in our studies of the effects of ocean acidification on Mediterranean marine biodiversity by using volcanic carbon dioxide vent systems as ‘natural laboratories’ as they cause long-term changes in seawater carbonate chemistry. A range of organisms, including macroalgae, seagrasses, invertebrates, and selected scleractinians and bryozoans have now been investigated in a shallow area located off the island of Ischia (Castello Aragonese, Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy). Our in situ observations give support to concerns, based on model predictions and short-term laboratory experiments, that ocean acidification will likely combine with other stressors (e.g., temperature rise) to cause a decrease in Mediterranean marine biodiversity and lead to shifts in ecosystem structure

Ocean acidification in the aftermath of the Marinoan glaciation

Boron isotope patterns preserved in cap carbonates deposited in the aftermath of the younger Cryogenian (Marinoan, ca. 635 Ma) glaciation confirm a temporary ocean acidification event on the continental margin of the southern Congo craton, Namibia. To test the significance of this acidification event and reconstruct Earth’s global seawater pH states at the Cryogenian-Ediacaran transition, we present a new boron isotope data set recorded in cap carbonates deposited on the Yangtze Platform in south China and on the Karatau microcontinent in Kazakhstan. Our compiled δ11B data reveal similar ocean pH patterns for all investigated cratons and confirm the presence of a global and synchronous ocean acidification event during the Marinoan deglacial period, compatible with elevated postglacial pCO2 concentrations. Differences in the details of the ocean acidification event point to regional distinctions in the buffering capacity of Ediacaran seawater

The impact of ocean acidification on the functional morphology of foraminifera

This work was supported by the NERC UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme grant NE/H017445/1. WENA acknowledges NERC support (NE/G018502/1). DMP received funding from the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland). MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions.Culturing experiments were performed on sediment samples from the Ythan Estuary, N. E. Scotland, to assess the impacts of ocean acidification on test surface ornamentation in the benthic foraminifer Haynesina germanica. Specimens were cultured for 36 weeks at either 380, 750 or 1000 ppm atmospheric CO2. Analysis of the test surface using SEM imaging reveals sensitivity of functionally important ornamentation associated with feeding to changing seawater CO2 levels. Specimens incubated at high CO2 levels displayed evidence of shell dissolution, a significant reduction and deformation of ornamentation. It is clear that these calcifying organisms are likely to be vulnerable to ocean acidification. A reduction in functionally important ornamentation could lead to a reduction in feeding efficiency with consequent impacts on this organism’s survival and fitness.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Ocean acidification

Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Scoping Workshop on Ocean Acidification Research, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, Sumner Auditorium, October 9-11, 2007The goal of this workshop was to bring together researchers to discuss potential ocean acidification research projects that support the OCB mission. We specifically wanted to move toward specific implementation strategies to address the many research gaps and unknowns about ocean acidification that have been identified in previous workshops.U.S. Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Program with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA)

Short-term growth and biomechanical responses of the temperate seagrass Cymodocea nodosa to CO2 enrichment

Seagrasses are often regarded as climate change 'winners' because they exhibit higher rates of photosynthesis, carbon fixation and growth when exposed to increasing levels of ocean acidification. However, questions remain whether such growth enhancement compromises the biomechanical properties of the plants, altering their vulnerability to structural damage and leaf loss. Here, we investigated the short-term (6 wk) effects of decreasing pH by CO2 enrichment on the growth, morphology and leaf-breaking force of the temperate seagrass Cymodocea nodosa. We found that the plant biomass balance under levels of acidification representative of short-term climate change projections (pH 8.04) was positive and led to an increase in leaf abundance in the shoots. However, we also found that plant biomass balance was negative under levels of acidification experienced presently (pH 8.29) and those projected over the long-term (pH 7.82). Leaf morphology (mean leaf length, thickness and width) was invariant across our imposed acidification gradient, although leaves were slightly stronger under [CO2] representative of short-term climate change. Taken together, these findings indicate that a subtle increase in growth and mechanical resistance of C. nodosa is likely to occur following short-to medium-term changes in ocean chemistry, but that these positive effects are unlikely to be maintained over the longer term. Our study emphasises the need to account for the interdependencies between environmental conditions and variations in multiple aspects of the structure and functioning of seagrass communities when considering the likely consequences of climate change.Mobility Fellowships Programme of the EuroMarine Consortium (European Commission Seventh Framework Programme) [FP7-ENV-2010.2.2.1-3]; Foundation of Science and Technology of Portugal [SFRH/BPD/119344/2016, PTDC/MAR-EST/3223/2014]; Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) through the UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme (UKOARP) [NE/H017445/1]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Towards improved socio-economic assessments of ocean acidification’s impacts

Ocean acidification is increasingly recognized as a component of global change that could have a wide range of impacts on marine organisms, the ecosystems they live in, and the goods and services they provide humankind. Assessment of these potential socio-economic impacts requires integrated efforts between biologists, chemists, oceanographers, economists and social scientists. But because ocean acidification is a new research area, significant knowledge gaps are preventing economists from estimating its welfare impacts. For instance, economic data on the impact of ocean acidification on significant markets such as fisheries, aquaculture and tourism are very limited (if not non-existent), and non-market valuation studies on this topic are not yet available. Our paper summarizes the current understanding of future OA impacts and sets out what further information is required for economists to assess socio-economic impacts of ocean acidification. Our aim is to provide clear directions for multidisciplinary collaborative research

Ocean acidification

KEY HEADLINES • Global-scale patterns and processes of ocean acidification are superimposed on other factors influencing seawater chemistry over local to regional space scales, and hourly to seasonal time scales. • Future ocean conditions will depend on future CO2 emissions; there is now international agreement that these should be reduced to net zero, thereby reducing the consequences of both climate change and ocean acidification. • Assessments of ocean acidification by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) gave high or very high confidence to chemical aspects, but a much wider range of confidence levels to projected biological and biogeochemical impacts. Biotic impacts will depend on species-specific responses, interactions with other stressors and food-web effects. • Previous MCCIP statements are considered to still be valid, with increased confidence for some aspects. • Observed pH decreases in the North Sea (over 30 years) and at coastal UK sites (over 6 years) seem more rapid than in the North Atlantic as a whole. However, shelf sea and coastal data sets show high variability over a range of timescales, and factors affecting that variability need to be much better understood. • UK research on ocean acidification has been productive and influential. There is no shortage of important and interesting topic areas that would improve scientific knowledge and deliver societally-important outcomes

Preface "Arctic ocean acidification: pelagic ecosystem and biogeochemical responses during a mesocosm study"

The growing evidence of potential biological impacts of ocean acidification affirms that this global change phenomenon may pose a serious threat to marine organisms and ecosystems. Whilst ocean acidification will occur everywhere, it will happen more rapidly in some regions than in others. Due to the high CO2 solubility in the cold surface waters of high-latitude seas, these areas are expected to experience the strongest changes in seawater chemistry due to ocean acidification. This will be most pronounced in the Arctic Ocean. If atmospheric pCO2 levels continue to rise at current rates, about 10% of the Arctic surface waters will be corrosive for aragonite by 2018 (Steinacher et al., 2009). By 2050 one-half of the Arctic Ocean will be sub-saturated with respect to aragonite. By the end of this century corrosive conditions are projected to have spread over the entire Arctic Ocean (Steinacher et al., 2009). In view of these rapid changes in seawater chemistry, marine organisms and ecosystems in the Arctic are considered particularly vulnerable to ocean acidification. With this in mind, the European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA) chose the Arctic Ocean as one of its focal areas of research

Champagne Seas—Foretelling the Ocean’s Future?

Imagine you are an ocean researcher and you want to study the ecological impacts of ocean acidification. You know from studies carried out under controlled laboratory conditions that lowered pH can impact the physiology, growth, and development of certain organisms. What you want to know next is how these changes in individual species translate into the direct and indirect ecological changes that occur in the open ocean. Here we summarize the results from a new approach to understanding the ecological implications of ocean acidification: observational studies and IN SITU experimentation at ocean sites with low pH and high CO2