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
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Journal ArticleDOI
Is Ocean Acidification an Open-Ocean Syndrome? Understanding Anthropogenic Impacts on Seawater pH
Carlos M. Duarte,Carlos M. Duarte,Iris E. Hendriks,Tommy S. Moore,Ylva S. Olsen,Ylva S. Olsen,Alexandra Steckbauer,Laura Ramajo,Laura Ramajo,Jacob Carstensen,Julie Trotter,Malcolm T. McCulloch +11 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that ocean acidification from anthropogenic CO2 emissions is largely an open ocean syndrome and that a concept of anthro- pogenic impacts on marine pH, which is applicable across the entire ocean, from coastal to open-ocean environments, provides a superior framework to consider the multiple components of the anthropogenic perturbation of marine pH trajectories.
Journal ArticleDOI
Multiple Stressors in a Changing World: The Need for an Improved Perspective on Physiological Responses to the Dynamic Marine Environment
TL;DR: The find that multi-stressor experiments have rarely incorporated naturalistic physicochemical variation into their designs, and the importance of doing so to make ecologically relevant inferences about physiological responses to global change is emphasized.
Journal ArticleDOI
Food availability outweighs ocean acidification effects in juvenileMytilus edulis: laboratory and field experiments
TL;DR: It is concluded that benthic stages of M. edulis tolerate high ambient pCO2 when food supply is abundant and that important habitat characteristics such as species interactions and energy availability need to be considered to predict species vulnerability to ocean acidification.
Journal ArticleDOI
Coastal ocean acidification: The other eutrophication problem
TL;DR: In this paper, the potential for acidification in eutrophic estuaries was assessed during the onset, peak, and demise of low oxygen conditions in systems across the northeast US including Narragansett Bay (RI), Long Island Sound (CT-NY), Jamaica Bay (NY), and Hempstead Bay ( NY).
Journal ArticleDOI
Physiological impacts of elevated carbon dioxide and ocean acidification on fish
Rachael M. Heuer,Martin Grosell +1 more
TL;DR: The present review presents a clear message that ocean acidification may cause significant effects on fish across multiple physiological systems, suggesting that pH compensation does not necessarily confer tolerance as downstream consequences and tradeoffs occur.
References
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Book ChapterDOI
Chapter 10 Metabolic and Molecular Responses of Fish to Hypoxia
TL;DR: It has long been held that hypoxia-tolerant animals are able to extend the period of survival under severely hypoxic conditions through a depression of basal metabolic rate, which limits the extent of activation of O 2 -independent pathways of ATP production.
Journal ArticleDOI
Biological impacts of deep-sea carbon dioxide injection inferred from indices of physiological performance.
Brad A. Seibel,Patrick J. Walsh +1 more
TL;DR: Deep-sea CO2 injection as a means of controlling atmospheric CO2 levels should be assessed with careful consideration of potential biological impacts, and a much more aggressive approach to research is warranted.
Journal ArticleDOI
The challenges of living in hypoxic and hypercapnic aquatic environments
TL;DR: Some of the specific adaptations and responses of organisms to low oxygen, to high carbon dioxide, and to the cooccurrence of low oxygen and highcarbon dioxide are reviewed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Carbon dioxide degassing and inorganic carbon export from a marsh‐dominated estuary (the Duplin River): A marsh CO2 pump
Zhaohui Aleck Wang,Wei-Jun Cai +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the seasonal changes and the interactions of the CO2 system in a marshdominated estuary, the Duplin River, on Sapelo Island, Georgia.
Journal ArticleDOI
Limits to marine life
TL;DR: Ocean "dead zones" devoid of aerobic life are likely to grow as carbon dioxide concentrations rise, according to research published in the journal Science.
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