scholarly journals Respiration of Mediterranean cold-water corals is not affected by ocean acidification as projected for the end of the century

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 7617-7640 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Maier ◽  
F. Bils ◽  
M. G. Weinbauer ◽  
P. Watremez ◽  
M. A. Peck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Acidification ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Dry Weight ◽  
Lophelia Pertusa ◽  
Seawater Ph ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Face ◽  
Abundance And Distribution

Abstract. The rise of CO2 has been identified as a major threat to life in the ocean. About one-third of the anthropogenic CO2 produced in the last 200 yr has been taken up by the ocean, leading to ocean acidification. Surface seawater pH is projected to decrease by about 0.4 unit between the pre-industrial revolution and 2100. The branching cold-water corals Madrepora oculata and Lophelia pertusa are important, habitat-forming species in the deep Mediterranean Sea. Although previous research has investigated the abundance and distribution of these species, little is known regarding their ecophysiology and potential responses to global environmental change. A previous study indicated that the rate of calcification of these two species remained constant up to 1000 μatm CO2 a value that is at the upper end of changes projected to occur by 2100. We examined whether the ability to maintain calcification rates in the face of rising pCO2 affected the energetic requirements of these corals. Over the course of three months, rates of respiration were measured at a pCO2 ranging between 350 and 1100 μatm to distinguish between short-term response and longer-term acclimation. Respiration rates ranged from 0.074 to 0.266 μmol O2 (g skeletal dry weight)−1 h−1 and 0.095 to 0.725 μmol O2 (g skeletal dry weight)−1 h−1 for L. and M. oculata, respectively, and were independent of pCO2. Respiration increased with time likely due to regular feeding which may have provided an increased energy supply to sustain coral metabolism. Future studies are needed to confirm whether the insensitivity of respiration to increasing pCO2 is a general feature of deep-sea corals in other regions.

scholarly journals Respiration of Mediterranean cold-water corals is not affected by ocean acidification as projected for the end of the century

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 5671-5680 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Maier ◽  
F. Bils ◽  
M. G. Weinbauer ◽  
P. Watremez ◽  
M. A. Peck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Acidification ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Dry Weight ◽  
Lophelia Pertusa ◽  
Seawater Ph ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Face ◽  
Abundance And Distribution

Abstract. The rise of CO2 has been identified as a major threat to life in the ocean. About one-third of the anthropogenic CO2 produced in the last 200 yr has been taken up by the ocean, leading to ocean acidification. Surface seawater pH is projected to decrease by about 0.4 units between the pre-industrial revolution and 2100. The branching cold-water corals Madrepora oculata and Lophelia pertusa are important, habitat-forming species in the deep Mediterranean Sea. Although previous research has investigated the abundance and distribution of these species, little is known regarding their ecophysiology and potential responses to global environmental change. A previous study indicated that the rate of calcification of these two species remained constant up to 1000 μatm CO2, a value that is at the upper end of changes projected to occur by 2100. We examined whether the ability to maintain calcification rates in the face of rising pCO2 affected the energetic requirements of these corals. Over the course of three months, rates of respiration were measured at a pCO2 ranging between 350 and 1100 μatm to distinguish between short-term response and longer-term acclimation. Respiration rates ranged from 0.074 to 0.266 μmol O2 (g skeletal dry weight)−1 h−1 and 0.095 to 0.725 μmol O2 (g skeletal dry weight)−1 h−1 for L. pertusa and M. oculata, respectively, and were independent of pCO2. Respiration increased with time likely due to regular feeding, which may have provided an increased energy supply to sustain coral metabolism. Future studies are needed to confirm whether the insensitivity of respiration to increasing pCO2 is a general feature of deep-sea corals in other regions.

scholarly journals Disrupting data sharing for a healthier ocean

2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (6) ◽  
pp. 1415-1423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linwood H Pendleton ◽  
Hawthorne Beyer ◽  
Estradivari ◽  
Susan O Grose ◽  
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Sharing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Impact Factors ◽  
Automatic Data ◽  
Community Currencies ◽  
Ocean Management ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Face ◽  
Data Translation

Abstract Ocean ecosystems are in decline, yet we also have more ocean data, and more data portals, than ever before. To make effective decisions regarding ocean management, especially in the face of global environmental change, we need to make the best use possible of these data. Yet many data are not shared, are hard to find, and cannot be effectively accessed. We identify three classes of challenges to data sharing and use: uploading, aggregating, and navigating. While tremendous advances have occurred to improve ocean data operability and transparency, the effect has been largely incremental. We propose a suite of both technical and cultural solutions to overcome these challenges including the use of natural language processing, automatic data translation, ledger-based data identifiers, digital community currencies, data impact factors, and social networks as ways of breaking through these barriers. One way to harness these solutions could be a combinatorial machine that embodies both technological and social networking solutions to aggregate ocean data and to allow researchers to discover, navigate, and download data as well as to connect researchers and data users while providing an open-sourced backend for new data tools.

scholarly journals Volcanic CO2 seep geochemistry and use in understanding ocean acidification

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Aiuppa ◽  
J. M. Hall-Spencer ◽  
M. Milazzo ◽  
G. Turco ◽  
S. Caliro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Ocean Acidification ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Sea Urchins ◽  
Coralline Algae ◽  
Geochemical Data ◽  
Ecosystem Responses ◽  
Dissolved Carbon ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Seawater Ph

AbstractOcean acidification is one of the most dramatic effects of the massive atmospheric release of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution, although its effects on marine ecosystems are not well understood. Submarine volcanic hydrothermal fields have geochemical conditions that provide opportunities to characterise the effects of elevated levels of seawater CO2 on marine life in the field. Here, we review the geochemical aspects of shallow marine CO2-rich seeps worldwide, focusing on both gas composition and water chemistry. We then describe the geochemical effects of volcanic CO2 seepage on the overlying seawater column. We also present new geochemical data and the first synthesis of marine biological community changes from one of the best-studied marine CO2 seep sites in the world (off Vulcano Island, Sicily). In areas of intense bubbling, extremely high levels of pCO2 (> 10,000 μatm) result in low seawater pH (< 6) and undersaturation of aragonite and calcite in an area devoid of calcified organisms such as shelled molluscs and hard corals. Around 100–400 m away from the Vulcano seeps the geochemistry of the seawater becomes analogous to future ocean acidification conditions with dissolved carbon dioxide levels falling from 900 to 420 μatm as seawater pH rises from 7.6 to 8.0. Calcified species such as coralline algae and sea urchins fare increasingly well as sessile communities shift from domination by a few resilient species (such as uncalcified algae and polychaetes) to a diverse and complex community (including abundant calcified algae and sea urchins) as the seawater returns to ambient levels of CO2. Laboratory advances in our understanding of species sensitivity to high CO2 and low pH seawater, reveal how marine organisms react to simulated ocean acidification conditions (e.g., using energetic trade-offs for calcification, reproduction, growth and survival). Research at volcanic marine seeps, such as those off Vulcano, highlight consistent ecosystem responses to rising levels of seawater CO2, with the simplification of food webs, losses in functional diversity and reduced provisioning of goods and services for humans.

scholarly journals Getting out of Crises: Environmental, Social-ecological and Evolutionary Research Needed to Avoid Future Risks of Pandemics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Delphine Destoumieux-Garzon ◽  
Franziska Matthies-Wiesler ◽  
Nicolas Bierne ◽  
Aurélie Binot ◽  
Jérôme Boissier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Face ◽  
Climate And Health ◽  
Relationship Of

The implementation of One Health/EcoHealth/Planetary Health approaches has been identified as key (i) to address the strong interconnections between risk for pandemics, climate change and biodiversity loss, and (ii) to develop and implement solutions to these interlinked crises. As a response to the multiple calls of scientists in that direction, we have put forward seven long term research questions regarding COVID-19 and emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) that are based on an effective integration of environmental, ecological, evolutionary, and social sciences to better anticipate and mitigate EIDs. Research needs cover the social-ecology of infectious disease agents, their evolution, the determinants of susceptibility of humans and animals to infections, and the human and ecological factors accelerating infectious disease emergence. For comprehensive investigation, they include the development of nature-based solutions to interlinked global planetary crises, addressing ethical and philosophical questions regarding the relationship of humans to nature and regarding transformative changes to safeguard the environment and human health. In support of this research, we propose the implementation of innovative multidisciplinary facilities embedded in social-ecosystems locally: the &ldquo;ecological health observatories&rdquo; and the &ldquo;living laboratories&rdquo;. This work has been carried out in the frame of the EC project HERA (www.HERAresearchEU.eu) that aims to set the priorities for an environment, climate and health research agenda in the EU by adopting a systemic approach in the face of global environmental change.

scholarly journals Ocean acidification increases the vulnerability of native oysters to predation by invasive snails

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1778) ◽  
pp. 20132681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Sanford ◽  
Brian Gaylord ◽  
Annaliese Hettinger ◽  
Elizabeth A. Lenz ◽  
Kirstin Meyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Acidification ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Interaction Strength ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Invasive Predators ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Common Response ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Olympia Oysters

There is growing concern that global environmental change might exacerbate the ecological impacts of invasive species by increasing their per capita effects on native species. However, the mechanisms underlying such shifts in interaction strength are poorly understood. Here, we test whether ocean acidification, driven by elevated seawater p CO 2 , increases the susceptibility of native Olympia oysters to predation by invasive snails. Oysters raised under elevated p CO 2 experienced a 20% increase in drilling predation. When presented alongside control oysters in a choice experiment, 48% more high-CO 2 oysters were consumed. The invasive snails were tolerant of elevated CO 2 with no change in feeding behaviour. Oysters raised under acidified conditions did not have thinner shells, but were 29–40% smaller than control oysters, and these smaller individuals were consumed at disproportionately greater rates. Reduction in prey size is a common response to environmental stress that may drive increasing per capita effects of stress-tolerant invasive predators.

The Architecture of Global Environmental Governance: Bringing Science to Bear on Policy

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oran R. Young
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Focus On Form ◽  
Organizational Reform ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Institutional Challenges

This article draws on the findings of the international research project on the Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change to evaluate current proposals for reforming organizational arrangements that address environmental protection and especially calls for strengthening the UN Environment Programme or creating a UN Environment Organization. The first section explores pitfalls arising when policy-makers focus on form before sorting out functional matters. The next section examines institutional challenges confronting efforts to create effective environmental governance systems. The final section broadens the scope to address issues extending beyond environmental protection in a world of nation states. The goal is not to throw cold water on specific proposals of those who advocate organizational reform. Rather, the article argues that form should follow function in this realm as in others. By itself, organizational reform cannot achieve environmental protection, much less the broader goal of sustainable development.

Geographers and environmental change

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
John B. Thornes
Keyword(s):  
Water Pollution ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Physical Geography ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Face ◽  
Indirect Impacts

Within geography, physical geography is concerned with the characteristics of the natural environment, the atmosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere; how they influence human activities and how they are affected by them across the face of the globe. It comprises geomorphology, climatology and biogeography, and proceeds by monitoring, modelling and managing environmental change. Geographical research at first concentrated on the direct impacts of glaciation on the geomorphology of Britain, such as the glacial erosion of northern Britain and its indirect impacts, especially the effects of changing sea levels. Physical geographers in the last 100 years have taken some comfort from the knowledge that their skills are applied in matters of public interest and importance. Now the pace of global environmental change is such that these skills will be essential in the next 100 years, in solving some of the great contemporary environmental problems such as global warming, the global disappearance of forests, desertification and water pollution.

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