Journal ArticleDOI
Future ocean acidification will be amplified by hypoxia in coastal habitats
Frank Melzner,Jörn Thomsen,Wolfgang Koeve,Andreas Oschlies,Magdalena A. Gutowska,Hermann W. Bange,Hans Peter Hansen,Arne Körtzinger +7 more
TLDR
Coastal ocean acidification experimental designs need to be closely adjusted to carbonate system variability within the specific habitat, as the magnitude of expected changes in pCO2 in these regions indicates that coastal systems may be more endangered by future global climate change than previously thought.Abstract:
Ocean acidification is elicited by anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions and resulting oceanic uptake of excess CO2 and might constitute an abiotic stressor powerful enough to alter marine ecosystem structures. For surface waters in gas-exchange equilibrium with the atmosphere, models suggest increases in CO2 partial pressure (pCO2) from current values of ca. 390 μatm to ca. 700–1,000 μatm by the end of the century. However, in typically unequilibrated coastal hypoxic regions, much higher pCO2 values can be expected, as heterotrophic degradation of organic material is necessarily related to the production of CO2 (i.e., dissolved inorganic carbon). Here, we provide data and estimates that, even under current conditions, maximum pCO2 values of 1,700–3,200 μatm can easily be reached when all oxygen is consumed at salinities between 35 and 20, respectively. Due to the nonlinear nature of the carbonate system, the approximate doubling of seawater pCO2 in surface waters due to ocean acidification will most strongly affect coastal hypoxic zones as pCO2 during hypoxia will increase proportionally: we calculate maximum pCO2 values of ca. 4,500 μatm at a salinity of 20 (T = 10 °C) and ca. 3,400 μatm at a salinity of 35 (T = 10 °C) when all oxygen is consumed. Upwelling processes can bring these CO2-enriched waters in contact with shallow water ecosystems and may then affect species performance there as well. We conclude that (1) combined stressor experiments (pCO2 and pO2) are largely missing at the moment and that (2) coastal ocean acidification experimental designs need to be closely adjusted to carbonate system variability within the specific habitat. In general, the worldwide spread of coastal hypoxic zones also simultaneously is a spread of CO2-enriched zones. The magnitude of expected changes in pCO2 in these regions indicates that coastal systems may be more endangered by future global climate change than previously thought.read more
Citations
More filters
Dissertation
The adaptive potential of early life-stage Fucus vesiculosus under multifactorial environmental change
TL;DR: This study highlights that global change research requires an upscaling approach with regard to multiple factors, seasons, natural fluctuations, different developmental stages and levels of biological organisation in the light of the adaptive potential.
Dissertation
Responses of Jellyfish to Environmental Change
TL;DR: In this paper, the influence of environmental change on jellyfish is discussed and an overview of the authors' work is presented. But the authors do not discuss the effects of climate change stressors on the jellyfish.
A Climate Change Exposure Summary for Species and Key Habitats (Revised)
Andrew A. Whitman,Barbara Vickery,Phillip G. deMaynadier,Sally Stockwell,Steve Walker,Andrew Cutko,Robert Houston +6 more
References
More filters
Climate change 2007: the physical science basis
Susan Solomon,Dahe Qin,Martin R. Manning,Melinda Marquis,Kristen Averyt,Melinda M.B. Tignor,H. L. Miller,Z. Chen +7 more
TL;DR: The first volume of the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report as mentioned in this paper was published in 2007 and covers several topics including the extensive range of observations now available for the atmosphere and surface, changes in sea level, assesses the paleoclimatic perspective, climate change causes both natural and anthropogenic, and climate models for projections of global climate.
Book
Climate change 2007 : the physical science basis : contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a historical overview of climate change science, including changes in atmospheric constituents and radiative forcing, as well as changes in snow, ice, and frozen ground.
BookDOI
Methods of seawater analysis
TL;DR: The Automatic Determination of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) by Wet Chemical Oxidation is described in this paper, along with the results of HPLC analysis of photosynthetic pigments.
Supporting Online Material for Spreading Dead Zones and Consequences for Marine Ecosystems
Robert J. Diaz,Rutger Rosenberg +1 more
TL;DR: The formation of dead zones has been exacerbated by the increase in primary production and consequent worldwide coastal eutrophication fueled by riverine runoff of fertilizers and the burning of fossil fuels as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
Spreading Dead Zones and Consequences for Marine Ecosystems
Robert J. Diaz,Rutger Rosenberg +1 more
TL;DR: Dead zones in the coastal oceans have spread exponentially since the 1960s and have serious consequences for ecosystem functioning, exacerbated by the increase in primary production and consequent worldwide coastal eutrophication fueled by riverine runoff of fertilizers and the burning of fossil fuels.
Related Papers (5)
Anthropogenic ocean acidification over the twenty-first century and its impact on calcifying organisms
James C. Orr,Victoria J. Fabry,Olivier Aumont,Laurent Bopp,Scott C. Doney,Richard A. Feely,Anand Gnanadesikan,Nicolas Gruber,Akio Ishida,Fortunat Joos,Robert M. Key,Keith Lindsay,Ernst Maier-Reimer,Richard J. Matear,Patrick Monfray,Anne Mouchet,Raymond G. Najjar,Gian-Kasper Plattner,Keith B. Rodgers,Christopher L. Sabine,Jorge L. Sarmiento,Reiner Schlitzer,Richard D. Slater,I. Totterdell,Marie-France Weirig,Yasuhiro Yamanaka,Andrew Yool +26 more