scholarly journals Ocean Acidification: Calcifying Marine Organisms

EDIS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (2) ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Joseph Henry ◽  
Joshua Patterson ◽  
Lisa Krimsky

Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration leading to ocean acidification is a threat to marine ecosystems and organisms. As atmospheric CO2 rises, CO2 is driven into the ocean. When CO2 combines with seawater it makes carbonic acid. Carbonic acid then breaks down to form a hydrogen ion and a bicarbonate ion. Excess hydrogen ions building up over time result in decreased seawater pH. Furthermore, the excess hydrogen ions combine with carbonate ions in the water, resulting in fewer available carbonate ions for marine calcifiers. These carbonate ions are an essential element for marine calcifiers and their decreased availability is of increasing concern. The overall change in pH and available carbonate ions has been shown to have direct impacts on physiology, behavior, and calcification rates of marine organisms. Coastal Florida boasts an abundance and diversity of calcifying organisms that stand to be impacted by the altered carbonate chemistry resulting from increased atmospheric CO2 levels. This publication will focus on the impacts of ocean acidification on Calcification. Specifically focusing on how calcification in corals, bivalves, echinoderms and planktonic organisms are being impacte.

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 212-214
Author(s):  
AA El-Meligi

There is a significant effect of carbon dioxide on the acidification of the ocean. This research focuses on the acidification of the ocean and its effect on the animal life in the ocean. Also, it focuses on the effect of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere on the ocean acidification. The data are collected from the research institutions and laboratories, such as National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Japan, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), USA, Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, and other sources of research about acidification of ocean. The results show that the acidity increases with increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This is because ocean absorbs nearly 50% of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Carbonate ions (CO32-) will be used in forming carbonic acid, which will increase the acidity of the water. Increasing the acidity of water will affect building of the animal Skeleton. It is recommended to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; therefore the acidity will be decreased in the ocean.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Ruocco ◽  
Procaccini Gabriele ◽  
Francesco Musacchia ◽  
Remo Sanges ◽  
Irene Olivé ◽  
...  

Global climate changes are imposing multiple pressures to marine organisms. The rising atmospheric CO2 concentration is causing substantial changes in ocean physics, chemistry and biology. At least three synergic environmental stressors have been recognized as primary driven by CO2 emissions: ocean warming, oxygen loss and ocean acidification. The effects of CO2-driven ocean acidification on seagrass metabolism remain largely understudied. A few studies have been conducted near submarine volcanic vents, which mimic the future ocean acidification scenarios, allowing researchers to investigate the performance of marine organisms under long-term exposure to high-CO2 levels. Apart from these, some mesocosm-based experiments have investigated growth and physiological responses to high CO2. For this work, we built an outdoor mesocosm facility at the Centre of Marine Sciences’ field station in Algarve, Portugal, to experimentally manipulate CO2 levels and investigate the effects of high-CO2/low pH on seagrass metabolism and underlying molecular mechanisms. Cymodocea nodosa plants were collected in Cadiz Bay at the end of January 2014 and transported to the mesocosm facility. After a one week acclimation period, C. nodosa were either kept under normal (400 ppm) or elevated (1200 ppm) CO2 concentration for 12 days. Water physico-chemical parameters, irradiance, and chlorophyll-fluorescence-derived photosynthetic parameters were monitored on a daily basis. Here we present, for the first time in this species, results obtained using Illumina RNAseq technology and de-novo transcriptome assembly. Using C. nodosa RNAs extracted at the beginning and the end of the experiment, we assembled more than 70 thousands unique transcripts and were able to annotate more than 90% of them using the Annocript pipeline. Differential expression analysis revealed about 500 transcripts significantly differentially regulated between plants kept under control and high-CO2 conditions. Pathways showing largest changes in gene expression included isoprenoid and amino-acid biosynthesis, porphyrin-containing compound metabolism, amine and polyamine biosynthesis, lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. Transcriptome sequencing also significantly increases the molecular resources available for C. nodosa, almost completely absent before this study.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (22) ◽  
pp. 6293-6305 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Xue ◽  
W. Yu ◽  
H. Wang ◽  
L.-Q. Jiang ◽  
L. Feng ◽  
...  

Abstract. Information on changes in the oceanic carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration and air–sea CO2 flux as well as on ocean acidification in the Indian Ocean is very limited. In this study, temporal changes of the inorganic carbon system in the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean (EIO, 5° N–5° S, 90–95° E) are examined using partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) data collected in May 2012, historical pCO2 data since 1962, and total alkalinity (TA) data calculated from salinity. Results show that sea surface pCO2 in the equatorial belt (2° N–2° S, 90–95° E) increased from ∼307 μatm in April 1963 to ∼373 μatm in May 1999, ∼381 μatm in April 2007, and ∼385 μatm in May 2012. The mean rate of pCO2 increase in this area (∼1.56 μatm yr−1) was close to that in the atmosphere (∼1.46 μatm yr−1). Despite the steady pCO2 increase in this region, no significant change in air–sea CO2 fluxes was detected during this period. Ocean acidification as indicated by pH and saturation states for carbonate minerals has indeed taken place in this region. Surface water pH (total hydrogen scale) and saturation state for aragonite (Ωarag), calculated from pCO2 and TA, decreased significantly at rates of −0.0016 ± 0.0001 and −0.0095 ± 0.0005 yr−1, respectively. The respective contributions of temperature, salinity, TA, and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) to the increase in surface pCO2 and the decreases in pH and Ωarag are quantified. We find that the increase in DIC dominated these changes, while contributions from temperature, salinity, and TA were insignificant. The increase in DIC was most likely associated with the increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration, and the transport of accumulated anthropogenic CO2 from a CO2 sink region via basin-scale ocean circulations. These two processes may combine to drive oceanic DIC to follow atmospheric CO2 increase.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (13) ◽  
pp. 10939-10983 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M. G. Mostofa ◽  
C.-Q. Liu ◽  
W. D. Zhai ◽  
M. Minella ◽  
D. Vione ◽  
...  

Abstract. Ocean acidification, a complex phenomenon that lowers seawater pH, is the net outcome of several contributions. They include the dissolution of increasing atmospheric CO2 that adds up with dissolved inorganic carbon (dissolved CO2, H2CO3, HCO3−, and CO32−) generated upon mineralization of primary producers (PP) and dissolved organic matter (DOM). The aquatic processes leading to inorganic carbon are substantially affected by increased DOM and nutrients via terrestrial runoff, acidic rainfall, increased PP and algal blooms, nitrification, denitrification, sulfate reduction, global warming (GW), and by atmospheric CO2 itself through enhanced photosynthesis. They are consecutively associated with enhanced ocean acidification, hypoxia in acidified deeper seawater, pathogens, algal toxins, oxidative stress by reactive oxygen species, and thermal stress caused by longer stratification periods as an effect of GW. We discuss the mechanistic insights into the aforementioned processes and pH changes, with particular focus on processes taking place with different time scales (including the diurnal one) in surface and subsurface seawater. This review also discusses these collective influences to assess their potential detrimental effects to marine organisms, and of ecosystem processes and services. Our review of the effects operating in synergy with ocean acidification will provide a broad insight into the potential impact of acidification itself on biological processes. The foreseen danger to marine organisms by acidification is in fact expected to be amplified by several concurrent and interacting phenomena.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1767-1786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khan M. G. Mostofa ◽  
Cong-Qiang Liu ◽  
WeiDong Zhai ◽  
Marco Minella ◽  
Davide Vione ◽  
...  

Abstract. Ocean acidification, a complex phenomenon that lowers seawater pH, is the net outcome of several contributions. They include the dissolution of increasing atmospheric CO2 that adds up with dissolved inorganic carbon (dissolved CO2, H2CO3, HCO3−, and CO32−) generated upon mineralization of primary producers (PP) and dissolved organic matter (DOM). The aquatic processes leading to inorganic carbon are substantially affected by increased DOM and nutrients via terrestrial runoff, acidic rainfall, increased PP and algal blooms, nitrification, denitrification, sulfate reduction, global warming (GW), and by atmospheric CO2 itself through enhanced photosynthesis. They are consecutively associated with enhanced ocean acidification, hypoxia in acidified deeper seawater, pathogens, algal toxins, oxidative stress by reactive oxygen species, and thermal stress caused by longer stratification periods as an effect of GW. We discuss the mechanistic insights into the aforementioned processes and pH changes, with particular focus on processes taking place with different timescales (including the diurnal one) in surface and subsurface seawater. This review also discusses these collective influences to assess their potential detrimental effects to marine organisms, and of ecosystem processes and services. Our review of the effects operating in synergy with ocean acidification will provide a broad insight into the potential impact of acidification itself on biological processes. The foreseen danger to marine organisms by acidification is in fact expected to be amplified by several concurrent and interacting phenomena.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Ruocco ◽  
Procaccini Gabriele ◽  
Francesco Musacchia ◽  
Remo Sanges ◽  
Irene Olivé ◽  
...  

Global climate changes are imposing multiple pressures to marine organisms. The rising atmospheric CO2 concentration is causing substantial changes in ocean physics, chemistry and biology. At least three synergic environmental stressors have been recognized as primary driven by CO2 emissions: ocean warming, oxygen loss and ocean acidification. The effects of CO2-driven ocean acidification on seagrass metabolism remain largely understudied. A few studies have been conducted near submarine volcanic vents, which mimic the future ocean acidification scenarios, allowing researchers to investigate the performance of marine organisms under long-term exposure to high-CO2 levels. Apart from these, some mesocosm-based experiments have investigated growth and physiological responses to high CO2. For this work, we built an outdoor mesocosm facility at the Centre of Marine Sciences’ field station in Algarve, Portugal, to experimentally manipulate CO2 levels and investigate the effects of high-CO2/low pH on seagrass metabolism and underlying molecular mechanisms. Cymodocea nodosa plants were collected in Cadiz Bay at the end of January 2014 and transported to the mesocosm facility. After a one week acclimation period, C. nodosa were either kept under normal (400 ppm) or elevated (1200 ppm) CO2 concentration for 12 days. Water physico-chemical parameters, irradiance, and chlorophyll-fluorescence-derived photosynthetic parameters were monitored on a daily basis. Here we present, for the first time in this species, results obtained using Illumina RNAseq technology and de-novo transcriptome assembly. Using C. nodosa RNAs extracted at the beginning and the end of the experiment, we assembled more than 70 thousands unique transcripts and were able to annotate more than 90% of them using the Annocript pipeline. Differential expression analysis revealed about 500 transcripts significantly differentially regulated between plants kept under control and high-CO2 conditions. Pathways showing largest changes in gene expression included isoprenoid and amino-acid biosynthesis, porphyrin-containing compound metabolism, amine and polyamine biosynthesis, lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. Transcriptome sequencing also significantly increases the molecular resources available for C. nodosa, almost completely absent before this study.


2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 675-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.-J. Henrot ◽  
L. François ◽  
E. Favre ◽  
M. Butzin ◽  
M. Ouberdous ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Middle Miocene was one of the last warm periods of the Neogene, culminating with the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO, approximatively 17–15 Ma). Several proxy-based reconstructions support warmer and more humid climate during the MMCO. The mechanisms responsible for the warmer climate at the MMCO and particularly the role of the atmospheric carbon dioxide are still highly debated. Here we carried out a series of sensitivity experiments with the model of intermediate complexity Planet Simulator, investigating the contributions of the absence of ice on the continents, the opening of the Central American and Eastern Tethys Seaways, the lowering of the topography on land, the effect of various atmospheric CO2 concentrations and the vegetation feedback. Our results show that a higher than present-day CO2 concentration is necessary to generate a warmer climate at all latitudes at the Middle Miocene, in agreement with the terrestrial proxy reconstructions which suggest high atmospheric CO2 concentrations at the MMCO. Nevertheless, the changes in sea-surface conditions, the lowering of the topography on land and the vegetation feedback also produce significant local warming that may, locally, even be stronger than the CO2 induced temperature increases. The lowering of the topography leads to a more zonal atmospheric circulation and allows the westerly flow to continue over the lowered Plateaus at mid-latitudes. The reduced height of the Tibetan Plateau notably prevents the development of a monsoon-like circulation, whereas the reduction of elevations of the North American and European reliefs strongly increases precipitation from northwestern to eastern Europe. The changes in vegetation cover contribute to maintain and even to intensify the warm and humid conditions produced by the other factors, suggesting that the vegetation-climate interactions could help to improve the model-data comparison.


2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 489-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.-J. Henrot ◽  
L. François ◽  
E. Favre ◽  
M. Butzin ◽  
M. Ouberdous ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Middle Miocene was one of the last warm periods of the Neogene, culminating with the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO, approximatively 17–15 Ma). Several proxy-based reconstructions support warmer and more humid climate during the MMCO. The mechanisms responsible for the warming at MMCO and particulary the role of the atmospheric carbon dioxide CO2 are still highly debated. Here we carried out a series of sensitivity experiments with the model of intermediate complexity Planet Simulator, investigating the contributions of the absence of ice on the continents, the opening of the Central American and Eastern Tethys Seaways, the lowering of the topography on land, the effect of various atmospheric CO2 concentrations and the vegetation retroaction. Our results show that a higher than present-day CO2 concentration is necessary to generate a warmer climate at all latitudes at the Middle Miocene, in agreement with the terrestrial proxy reconstructions which suggest high atmospheric CO2 concentrations at MMCO. Nevertheless, the changes in sea-surface conditions and the lowering of the topography on land also produce significant local warming that may, locally, even be stronger than the CO2 induced temperature increases. The lowering of the topography leads to a more zonal atmospheric circulation and allows the westerly flow to continue over the lowered Plateaus at mid-latitudes. The reduced height of the Tibetan Plateau notably prevents the development of a monsoon-like circulation, whereas the reduction of elevations of the North American and European reliefs strongly increases precipitation from northwestern to eastern Europe. The changes in vegetation cover contributes to maintain and even to intensify the the warm and humid conditions produced by the other factors, suggesting that the vegetation-climate interactions could help to improve the model-data comparison.


Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 737
Author(s):  
Xindong Liang ◽  
Hao Liu ◽  
Tao Chen ◽  
Wei Kong ◽  
Guanglie Hong

An intensity modulated, continuous-wave (IM-CW) integrated path differential absorption (IPDA) fiber-based lidar is developed herein for measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). There are two main challenges in improving measurement accuracy, which have not been given enough attention in the previous research: one is that temperature sensitivity in optical components causes biases, due to the drift of component characteristic, and the other is that speckle noise deteriorates the signal-to-noise ratio. With the components thermally controlled, a target calibration accuracy of 0.003 dB is realized, corresponding to a CO2 concentration precision of better than 1 ppm for a 1 km path. A moving diffuser can reduce speckle noise by time averaging. In this paper, movement of the diffuser is substituted by the perturbation of the emitted laser beam by using a vibrating motor mounted on the optical antenna. Selecting on and off wavelengths with a small wavelength separation can improve the correlation between two laser speckle fields. These improvements result in the improved accuracy of the IPDA lidar system. Finally, the lidar performance was analyzed after the improvements described above were implemented. The diurnal variations of the atmospheric CO2 concentration using a topographic target were performed, and the results showed good agreement with the data measured by an in situ sensor. The root mean square (rms) of the deviation between the IPDA lidar and the in situ sensor was less than 1.4%.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9397
Author(s):  
Yusri Yusup ◽  
Nur Kamila Ramli ◽  
John Stephen Kayode ◽  
Chee Su Yin ◽  
Sabiq Hisham ◽  
...  

We analyzed real-time measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), with total electricity production and nationwide restrictions phases in China, the United States of America, Europe, and India due to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on atmospheric CO2. A decline of 3.7% in the global energy demand at about 150 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020 was recorded compared to Q1 2019 due to the cutback on international economic activities. Our results showed that: (1) electricity production for the same period in 2018, 2019, and 2020 shrunk at an offset of 9.20%, which resulted in a modest reduction (−1.79%) of atmospheric CO2 to the 2017–2018 CO2 level; (2) a non-seasonal, abrupt, and brief atmospheric CO2 decrease by 0.85% in mid-February 2020 could be due to Phase 1 restrictions in China. The results indicate that electricity production reduction is significant to the short-term variability of atmospheric CO2. It also highlights China’s significant contribution to atmospheric CO2, which suggests that, without the national restriction of activities, CO2 concentration is set to exceed 2019 by 1.79%. Due to the lockdown, it quickly decreased and sustained for two months. The results underscore atmospheric CO2 reductions on the monthly time scale that can be achieved if electricity production from combustible sources was slashed. The result could be useful for cost-benefit analyses on the decrease in electricity production of combustible sources and the impact of this reduction on atmospheric CO2.


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