Dias, B

Hall-Spencer, J

Hart, M

Smart, C

Wall-Palmer, D

English

PEARL (Univ. of Plymouth)

School of Biological and Marine Sciences Faculty of Science and Engineering 2011-04-03 Response of pteropods and foraminifera to changing pCO2 and pH: Examples from the Mediterranean Sea M Hart B Dias J Hall-Spencer School of Biological and Marine Sciences D Wall-Palmer C Smart Let us know how access to this document benefits you General rights All content in PEARL is protected by copyright law. Author manuscripts are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact the library providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Follow this and additional works at: https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/bms-research Recommended Citation Hart, M., Dias, B., Hall-Spencer, J., Wall-Palmer, D., & Smart, C. (2011) 'Response of pteropods and foraminifera to changing pCO2 and pH: Examples from the Mediterranean Sea', EGU2011-2472, 13. Retrieved from https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/bms-research/417 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty of Science and Engineering at PEARL. It has been accepted for inclusion in School of Biological and Marine Sciences by an authorized administrator of PEARL. For more information, please contact openresearch@plymouth.ac.uk. Geophysical Research AbstractsVol. 13, EGU2011-2472, 2011EGU General Assembly 2011© Author(s) 2011Response of pteropods and foraminifera to changing pCO2 and pH:Examples from the Mediterranean SeaMalcolm Hart (1), Bruna Dias (2), Deborah Wall-Palmer (1), Christopher Smart (1), and Jason Hall-Spencer (3)(1) University of Plymouth, School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Plymouth, United Kingdom(mhart@plymouth.ac.uk, +44 1752 584776), (2) Universidad Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil(diasbb@hotmail.com), (3) University of Plymouth, School of Marine Sciences & Engineering, Plymouth, United Kingdom(jason.hall-spencer@plymouth.ac.uk)The seas around the island of Ischia (Italy) have a variable and, on average, lowered pH as a result of volcanicgas vents that emit carbon dioxide from the sea floor at ambient seawater temperatures. These areas of acidifiedseawater provide natural laboratories in which to study the long-term biological response to rising CO2 levels.Benthic foraminifera are routinely used to interpret the effects of climate change as they have short life histories,are environmentally sensitive and have an excellent fossil record. Here, we examined changes in foraminiferalassemblages along gradients in pH at CO2 vents on the coast of Ischia as they may provide a useful modelon which to base future predictions of the consequences of ocean acidification. We show that foraminiferalabundance, diversity and ability to calcify decreased markedly in living and dead assemblages as pH decreases,the result of CO2 percolating through the seawater. These results are in accord with the responses recorded bycoralline algae, corals, molluscs, barnacles and echinoderms at the same sites.Samples from the normal (pH 8.17) environments around Ischia contain a diverse fauna dominated by miliolidforaminifera (e.g., Peneroplis planatus, P. pertusus, Quinqueloculina spp.) while those from areas with reducedpH (7.8 to 7.6) have faunas that are progressively less diverse and composed of <100% agglutinated taxa (e.g.,Ammoglobigerina globigeriniformis, Miliammina fusca, Trochammina inflata, Textularia sp. cf. T. bocki). Thechanges in the benthic foraminifera are quite dramatic and confirm the possibility that events, such as the PETM,could quite easily record a widespread loss of diversity or extinction as a result of ocean acidification.Over the last 250,000 years the diversity and quality of preservation of pteropods (holoplanktic gastropods) hasfluctuated in response to glacial/interglacial cycles. This is almost certainly related to the change in oceanic pHas the best preservation is recorded in glacial cycles when pCO2 was lower than during interglacials. Detailedstudies of the pteropods assemblages from marine cores taken near Montserrat (Caribbean Sea) have provided ahigh resolution database with which to make comparisons world-wide. There are peaks of diversity (and excellentpreservation) in Marine Isotope Stages 2 and 6 and these can be found elsewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, IndianOcean and the South China Sea. Using a “Limacina Dissolution Index” (LDX) it can be seen that this parallels thechanging pCO2 (and pH).Two cores from the Western Mediterranean Sea are being investigated in order to provide the validity of the LDXapproach used successfully in the Caribbean Sea. Core B5 – 1, collected south of Mallorca is 494 cm long and mayextend back to MIS 6. Preservation of pteropods in MIS 5 is poor to very poor and this would confirm the resultsfrom the CAR-MON 2 core in the Caribbean Sea. Core B5 – 1 from the Mediterranean Sea, therefore, contains arecord of changes in global pCO2 and fluctuations in oceanic pH as well as a complete record of changes in thepteropod assemblage through time.brought to you by COREView metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.ukprovided by Plymouth Electronic Archive and Research Library

Response of pteropods and foraminifera to changing pCO2 and pH: Examples from the Mediterranean Sea

https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1416&context=bms-research

Response of pteropods and foraminifera to changing pCO2 and pH: Examples from the Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

PEARL (Univ. of Plymouth)