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Ocean acidification is damaging some marine species while others thrive, say scientists. n international team studied the effect of ocean acidification on plankton in the North Sea over the past forty years, to see what impact future changes may have. The study, published in PLoS One found that different species react in different ways to changes in their environment. As carbon dioxide emissions dissolve in seawater they lower the pH of the oceans making them more acidic and more corrosive to shells. Foraminifera and coccoliths, which are small shelled plankton and algae, appear to be surviving remarkably well in the more acidic conditions. But numbers of pteropods and bivalves – such as mussels, clams and oysters – are falling. 'Ecologically, some species are soaring, whilst others are crashing out of the system,' says Professor Jason Hall-Spencer, of Plymouth University, who co-authored the paper. The scientists are unsure whether this drop in certain species is because of changing pH levels, or whether it is due to a combination of stress factors like warming, overfishing and eutrophication -which results from a build up of excess nutrients in water.
International research has suggested that many coral species won't survive beyond the end of this century, but marine biologists at Victoria University are offering an alternative scenario. Dr James Bell, who specialises in sponge ecology, is the lead author of an article published in Global Change Biology which suggests that sponges may become the dominant organisms inhabiting coral reefs when the effect of climate change and ocean acidification sets in. "Coral reefs face an uncertain future as a result of global climate change and other stressors which have a negative impact on reefs," says Dr Bell. "It has been predicted that many reefs will end up being dominated by algae rather than corals, which will have negative effects on biodiversity and ultimately on the ability of humans to derive protein from reefs." .................... Paleontological evidence from over 200 million years ago suggests past ocean acidification events were followed by a mass extinction of coral species and subsequent proliferation of sponges.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-05-coral-reefs-sponge-future.html#jCp
The Center for Biological Diversity CBD’s 66-page submission calls on the Federal Environment Protection Agency (EPA) to: ‘publish information to provide guidance to states on ocean acidification, including the factors necessary to prevent deleterious changes in seawater chemistry due to anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions and the factors necessary to prevent adverse impacts of ocean acidification on fish, shellfish, and wildlife.’ The main target of the 1972 Clean Water Act was pollutants in rivers and coastal waters, but the CBD contends it offers ‘tools’ for government to take action against acidification. “There is already a water quality standard for marine pH, which can be used to address ocean acidification,” CBD Senior Attorney Miyoko Sakashita told RTCC.
A type of marine algae could become bigger as increasing carbon dioxide emissions are absorbed by the oceans, according to research led by scientists based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS). The study, published this month in PLoS ONE, investigated how a strain of the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi might respond if all fossil fuels are burned by the year 2100 – predicted to drive up atmospheric CO2 levels to over four times the present day. Specimens grown under this high CO2 scenario were compared with specimens grown under present day CO2 levels. “Contrary to many studies, we see that this species of coccolithophore gets bigger and possesses more calcite under worst-case scenario CO2 levels for the year 2100,” says Dr Bethan Jones, lead author and former researcher at University of Southampton Ocean and Earth Science, which is based at NOCS. “They do not simply dissolve away under high CO2 and elevated acidity.” However, the researchers also observed that cells grew more slowly under the high CO2 scenario, which could be a sign of stress.
n April 2010, The Santa Barbara Independentpublished an in-depth cover story on ocean acidification, becoming one of the first general interest publications to explain how our planet’s 200-year addiction to burning fossil fuels is dramatically increasing the toxicity of the seas. Nearly three years later, despite much more media attention, lots of government funding, and repeated warnings from scientists, the everyday earthling still has very little clue how much trouble we are almost certain to face in our lifetimes when the oceans’ rising acidity decimates the marine system as we know it, putting the supply of seafood at risk, among other global impacts. But the public may be starting to pay attention, thanks to our collective love for oysters, as the popular slurpable shellfish is emerging as the canary in the acidification coal mine. “Oysters are the first things being affected that have a spokesman for them,” said Bill Dewey, who will speak at the Edible Institute this weekend and had the BBC and USA Today coming to visit his farm last week. “The science is irrefutable. Hopefully people start paying more attention.”
- Hi, what did you do on your birthday? - Oh, you know, ran a load of experiments to study the effect of ocean acidification on nitrogen cycling processes in the ocean around Antarctica. Not what you would call a typical birthday activity, but it certainly beats a day in the office. Glen in his birthday suit @Jeremy Young My name’s Glen Tarran from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and I’m part of the team on board the RRS James Clark Ross that’s conducting complex bioassay experiments to see how plankton react to increased carbon dioxide(CO2) concentrations and more acidic conditions. Why? We want to see what might happen in the oceans around the Antarctic in the future due to the increasing amount of CO2 dissolving into the oceans from the atmosphere as our climate changes. My part in all this is to help study the cycling of simple nitrogen compounds such as ammonium (NH4+) and nitrite (NO2-) as they are used and transformed by the plankton, particularly phytoplankton or algae.
The Chief Engineer was kind enough to take us on a tour around the engine rooms (somewhere us scientists don’t normally get to see!) and explain why and how the JCR is different from other ships. I thought I would share with you some of the things I learnt! The ship has been specifically designed for science work- that doesn’t just mean that there are labs on board (although there are), but runs all through the design of the ship down to the hull-shape around the propellers to make the ship less noisy with fewer vibrations, extra pumps to run all the fridges and cold rooms for our samples, and having small thrusters at the front and back of the boat to help us stay in the same place while we are sampling (otherwise the ocean currents would move us off position while we are measuring!). The ship’s diesel engines generate a high-voltage AC current which is then is converted to DC to power the main drive motors. As a result of this conversion the primary AC supply is uneven with glitches and imperfections. So, it cannot be directly converted to a low-voltage AC supply to run all the scientific instruments. Instead it is used to drive motors (which don’t mind the glitches) and these in turn drive generators that give a very pure signal to keep our instruments happily running. I work in the carbonate group and we have a lot of instruments that depend on this clean electricity to run. .
We have seen many significant changes to Washington's landscape, climate and waters in our lifetime. We have watched with dismay as We have seen many significant changes to Washington's landscape, climate and waters in our lifetime. We have watched with dismay as habitat, salmon runs, and shellfish beds have been lost. Ocean acidification is the most recently recognized of these changes, a serious and immediate threat to our marine resources, one that has developed at an alarming and unprecedented rate.
Salmon and shellfish are at the very core of the Tulalip Tribes' and other first nations' culture. More than just traditional food staples and economic health are at risk here. Our very culture is at stake. These Northwest icons and many other marine species and thousands of Washington jobs are in jeopardy and need our protection Global warming has melted glaciers, leading to early runoff then drought and sediment-loading problems in our streams and rivers. Another alarming effect is the deterioration of the marine food chain with key links such as plankton and forage fish in decline. Many of the small creatures at the base of the food web need calcium carbonate to build their shells and are especially vulnerable to ocean acidification, which reduces the calcium carbonate available in seawater.
Press Release – 07 January 2013
To begin 2013 with a big bang, a team of thirty scientists, from eight of the UK’s top research laboratories, will be setting out on an oceanographic mission to study the effect of ocean acidification in waters near Antarctica. The five week long research cruise, aboard the Natural Environment Research Council’s RRS James Clark Ross, departs on 8th January for some of the coldest waters on Earth. The ocean is an integral part of the climate system. By absorbing large amounts of the carbon dioxide (CO2), mostly produced as result of our use of fossil fuels, the ocean helps to slow the rate and severity of climate change. The global ocean has absorbed more than 30% of the total CO2 produced by human activities in the past 200 years. While this can be seen as a benefit, the down side is that as the ocean absorbs more and more CO2 its chemistry changes and the seawater moves down the pH scale towards acidity. This process is known as ocean acidification. Cold waters provide best indications Cold waters naturally hold more CO2 than warmer waters so the icy Southern Ocean is expected to be especially informative for studying the effects of ocean acidification. Additionally, deep-water upwelling around Antarctica brings water to the surface that already contains very high levels of CO2. For these reasons, the waters of the Southern Ocean are likely to provide a unique window into how the marine environment will respond to higher CO2 levels in the future. This expedition will include a visit to the Weddell Sea, which has some of the coldest surface waters (-1.8⁰C) anywhere in the world. During the expedition, scientists will study the impact of the changing chemistry on marine organisms and ecosystems, on the cycling of carbon and nutrients in the sea and on how the sea interacts with the atmosphere to influence climate.
Key messages Surface-ocean pH has declined from 8.2 to 8.1 over the industrial era due to the growth of atmospheric CO2 concentrations. This decline corresponds to a 30 % change in oceanic acidity. Observed reductions in surface-water pH are nearly identical across the global ocean and throughout Europe’s seas. Ocean acidification in recent decades is occurring a hundred times faster than during past natural events over the last 55 million years. Ocean acidification already reaches into the deep ocean, particularly in the high latitudes. Average surface-water pH is projected to decline further to 7.7 or 7.8 by the year 2100, depending on future CO2 emissions. This decline represents a 100 to 150 % increase in acidity. Ocean acidification may affect many marine organisms within the next 20 years and could alter marine ecosystems and fisheries.
Last Wednesday I attended the City of Shoreline’s Sustainability Forum at the City Council Chambers. Councilmember Will Hall introduced us to Jay Manning, Co-Chair of the Governor’s Panel on Ocean Acidification, and Hilary Franz, Executive Director of Futurewise. This is a case of large, regional- even global- focus meets narrow, local focus in one place. Jay Manning led off, detailing the effects of ocean acidification in Puget Sound and on Washington’s coast. Now, many people may be unaware of that term. It actually means exactly what it says. As carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere increases it diffuses into the ocean. The CO2 joins with the water and forms carbonic acid, lowering the sea’s pH from perhaps 8.25 to 8.14. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s about a 30 percent increase in acidity. We’re not talking about turning the sea to vinegar, but any increase in acidity impacts those animals adapted to basic conditions- all of them- but particularly those which use calcium carbonate to build shells. You see, calcium carbonate dissolves in acids. Think of a few decades ago when DDT usage was widespread. Its effects on adult birds was negligible, but its effect on their eggs was devastating. The shells were so thin even roosting parents broke them, so reproduction almost stopped. Now that the Sound has gone to 8.2 pH that’s happening to oysters. Recently a major oyster producer found up to 100 percent of their larval oysters had died. Yes, there are other stressors- temperature, pathogens, deoxygenation- but this isn’t a few percentage points, where the effect can be argued back and forth- ‘it’s just part of a natural cycle’, ‘it’s just a local thing’, ‘you’re exaggerating’- no, it’s 100% mortality!
The Ocean Acidification talk that Paul Bown and Samantha Gibbs presented in the Third Symposium on The Ocean in a High-CO2 World, held on 24-27 September in Monterey, provoked interest from the journalists, and Nature have run a short piece on their News page. Tiny fossils hint at effects of ocean acidification A rare find of stunningly intact fossils of prehistoric plankton will allow researchers to study how the tiny marine organisms cope with rising acidity in the oceans. Finding such intact specimens of coccolithophores, micrometre-sized marine plankton encased in discs of calcium carbonate, is a real coup — searching for fossils of calcified single-celled organisms often yields only skeletal bits that have fallen to the ocean floor.
A U.S. lawmaker said fallout from ocean acidification won't go away unless there's widespread recognition of global climate change. A study published by the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Georgia said there is a higher level of atmospheric carbon emissions coupled with carbon dioxide released by decaying algal blooms is leading to higher levels of ocean acidification. NOAA said ocean acidification is putting the seafood industry at risk because of effects on the ecosystem. U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, called on his fellow lawmakers to take action to reduce carbon pollution. "These problems won't go away if we continue to ignore climate change but the millions of jobs linked inextricably to the bounty of our seas surely will," he said in a statement. The so-called Stop the War on Coal Act passed through the House of Representatives last week. The measure would block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases, though it's unlikely to pass through the Senate. NOAA researchers found that processes leading to ocean acidification were accelerating at a rate that made resource management difficult. Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2012/09/25/Ocean-acidification-troubles-US-lawmaker/UPI-95471348573269/#ixzz27fNV1OAV
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The chemistry of the ocean is changing. Most climate change discussion focuses on the warmth of the air, but around one-quarter of the carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere dissolves into the ocean. Dissolved carbon dioxide makes seawater more acidic—a process called ocean acidification—and its effects have already been observed: the shells of sea butterflies, also known as pteropods, have begun dissolving in the Antarctic. Tiny sea butterflies are related to snails, but use their muscular foot to swim in the water instead of creep along a surface. Many species have thin, hard shells made of calcium carbonate that are especially sensitive to changes in the ocean’s acidity. Their sensitivity and cosmopolitan nature make them an alluring study group for scientists who want to better understand how acidification will affect ocean organisms. But some pteropod species are proving to do just fine in more acidic water, while others have shells that dissolve quickly. So why do some species perish while others thrive?
Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/artscience/2013/05/amazing-sea-butterflies-are-the-oceans-canary-in-the-coal-mine/#ixzz2TOhxGkWE
In a Swedish fjord, European researchers are conducting an ambitious experiment aimed at better understanding how ocean acidification will affect marine life. Ultimately, these scientists hope to determine which species might win and which might lose in a more acidic ocean. The sea urchin is a doughty animal that can withstand cold and turbulent seas, eat almost anything, and defend itself from many predators — though not human gourmands — with its pincushion of tough spines. It’s one of the creatures that lured biologists to establish one of the world’s first marine research stations in 1877 at Kristineberg on Sweden’s west coast, for the sheltered Gullmar Fjord there is characterized by deep, cold waters that support a wide array of sea life.
That water is still being piped into laboratories to nourish aquariums filled with urchins, fish, sea stars, and other local marine fauna. But today most of the ongoing experiments in Kristineberg revolve around what biologists have taken to calling “the other CO2 problem” — the ways in which humanity’s giant, ongoing experiment in altering the world’s atmosphere is causing the oceans to become more acidic. Even the pristine-looking Gullmar Fjord — with its granite shores lined with spruce and pine trees, clear waters, and teeming populations of eiders, gulls, and many fish species — isn’t immune to that global change.
SAN FRANCISCO— The Obama administration released its National Ocean Policy Implementation Plan today, intended to strengthen ocean health and coordinate national management. The plan calls for actions aimed at improving ocean science, planning marine reserves and conservation, reducing risks from increased industrial activity in the Arctic, and bolstering the ocean economy. Missing in the plan are badly needed steps to reduce carbon pollution that’s plaguing oceans and rapidly transforming marine life. “We’re glad to see President Obama taking ocean health more seriously, but this plan falls short in one very critical way. Without concrete steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ocean warming and acidification will quickly erode the health of our oceans,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Coral reefs are already in deep trouble. If we’re going save them and other sea life from disaster, we have to begin rapid reductions in carbon pollution, and soon.” The Ocean Plan calls for assessments of the vulnerability of regions to climate change and ocean acidification and recommends the development of adaptation strategies. However, it does not call for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, which are urgently needed to prevent the worst consequences of ocean acidification and climate change. Every day, some 22 million tons of carbon pollution are absorbed by the world’s oceans. This plan is a step toward putting conservation at the center of ocean management. It provides a framework for agencies to work together to ensure the sustainability of our oceans, and it also provides guidance for the key areas of management: commercial uses of the ocean, safety and security, coastal and ocean conservation, local stewardship, and science and research. The Arctic is a key focus because of increasing interest in industrial activities in the Arctic Ocean such as shipping and oil and gas exploration.
This group of Native Americans has been fishing and harvesting here for the past 2,000 years. McCarty, the tribe’s 42-year-old former chairman, pulls out a pocket knife and squats down to scrape a handful of mussels and barnacles into his hand. “We call them slippers and boots,” he says. “I’ll make them into a Makah paella tonight.” McCarty and his family grew up picking these marine delights along the coast. Oysters, clams, cockles, barnacles, and other types of mollusks and shellfish have always been part of the Makah diet, as well as the tribe’s culture. The shells are used both as beads in ceremonial regalia and as musical instruments. But now, changes in the global climate have led to rising ocean acidification that has put in peril the future of the Makah harvest. “It’s already starting to impact the way that the shellfish cling to the rocks,” says McCarty as he points to a group of “boots.” The gooseneck barnacles are a species with a flexible orange “neck” that attaches itself to the wave-tossed rocks. “They can’t hold on very well. When the waves hit, you see there’s very few left of that colony
Microscopic ocean algae called coccolithophores are providing clues about the impact of climate change both now and many millions of years ago. The study found that their response to environmental change varies between species, in terms of how quickly they grow. Coccolithophores, a type of plankton, are not only widespread in the modern ocean but they are also prolific in the fossil record because their tiny calcium carbonate shells are preserved on the seafloor after death – the vast chalk cliffs of Dover, for example, are almost entirely made of fossilised coccolithophores. In article, published in Nature Geoscience this week, the scientists report that they responded in different ways to a rapid climate warming event that occurred 56 million years ago, the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).
By Laura Bretherton on January 24, 2013 in Antarctic, Ocean Acidification If you’ve been keeping up with the blog, you’ll by now be well acquainted with marine plankton. These little guys are the topic of my PhD, though more specifically, I look at the phytoplankton – the photosynthetic microalgae – and how they might be affected by ocean acidification. That means I’ve been particularly focussed on the bioassay experiments we’ve been conducting at sea, and today marked the end of our second one. With that comes an early start and many water samples to process… My role on this cruise is to look at the physiology of phytoplankton populations, and how that changes over the course of the bioassays. I use an instrument called a fast-rate repetition fluorometer (or FRRF for short), which monitors photosynthesis by detecting fluorescence given off by the chlorophyll inside the microalgae. Because we understand how changes in this chlorophyll fluorescence are linked to photosynthesis, the fluorometer can tell us things like how efficiently the phytoplankton are photosynthesising, or if they’re changing the structures within their cells that catch sunlight.
Last night we began to head north away from the polar waters at the ice edge and back towards the Polar Front and sub-polar waters. We are currently about mid-way between the South Orkney Islands and South Georgia in the Scotia Sea. The flat calm, penguins, seals and icebergs have gone, replaced by the more typical uneven water, petrels and albatrosses that we experienced whilst crossing Drake Passage. This is an important part of the cruise since we are passing across significant gradients of carbonate chemistry that occur between polar and sub-polar regions. Much of my work on this cruise is to obtain phytoplankton samples for genetic analysis. We are particularly interested in how different types of phytoplankton will respond in the long term to changes in ocean chemistry that are associated with ever increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and ocean surface water. One way of trying to discover this is to try to assess the ways in which different types of phytoplankton respond to experimentally imposed changes. To do this we take freshly isolated phytoplankton cells from the cruise and culture them back in the laboratory at home for more detailed experimental analysis. In parallel we are building a record of genetic variability by taking many samples for DNA analysis. We also extract RNA from our samples which, when analysed, can give an indication of the genes that are switched on or off in particular phytoplankton groups. This kind of molecular genetic analysis can also tell us how much natural variation there is in a single species – and it is that level of variation that can determine how fit a population is to survive changes. In this respect our main interests are in the calcifying coccolithophores, particularly the globally distributed species Emiliania huxleyi.
PSO is a shorthand for Principal Science Officer. Mostly it is a senior scientist who has a strategic overview of science operations and also an understanding of how a science vessel is run. Their role is to coordinate daily activities, liaising between the scientists and the ship’s crew so that things run as harmoniously as possible. This is not my first PSO role but it is certainly the most complex, with many different types of activities carried out by a number of different working groups. My tasks are varied and multifarious and so far, each day has brought new challenges, some foreseen and others not. I thought I would take you through this particular day as my contribution to the blog, as typical or atypical as it may be. 01:35 My alarm goes off and I wonder for a few moments where I am and why I need to get up in the middle of the night. Then I remember it is a bioassay set up day. This is an activity we undertake every 5 days to bring water on board to incubate in our specialised containers. Setting up a new bioassay involves almost three quarters of all the scientists on board, and one by one, they start appearing, sleep heavy in their eyes. They set to their task soon enough, carrying ultra-clean water sampling bottles to the CTD (a water profiling instrument) which is waiting on deck.
Key Points Humans burning of fossil fuels contribute to ocean acidification. When fuels are burned, CO2 is produced. The ocean absorbs approximately 25% of the CO2 produced through the burning of fossil fuels. The decreasing pH of the ocean through carbonic acid formation is known as ocean acidification. New research suggests that the ocean's pH will decrease by an additional .03 to 0.5 pH units before the end of the century. Fossil fuel burning also creates a large amount of sulfur dioxides and nitrogen oxides. These compounds form strong acids when they react with water. If sulfur dioxides and nitrogen oxides react with water in the air, a strong acid is formed and can fall to the ground as rain or snow. This is referred to as acid precipitation, which is when rain, snow, or fog has a pH of 5.2 or lower. A pH of 5.6 is normal for uncontaminated rain.
You’ve heard about acid mine drainage and ocean acidification, but the problems don’t end there. After reviewing a slew of scientific papers from different disciplines, researchers found that combustion of fossil fuels, smelting of ores, mining of coal and metal ores, and application of nitrogen fertilizer to soils are all driving down the pH of the air, water, and the soil at rates far faster than Earth’s natural systems can buffer. That could pose threats to both land and sea life. “It’s a bigger picture than most of us know,” said Janet Herman of the Department of Environmental Sciences at University of Virginia in Charlottesville. In their work, Herman and USGS researcher Karen Rice tried to anticipate future acidification hot spots to enable communities to plan proactively and mitigate the harmful environmental effects, says Herman.
It seems that Paul’s Bown and Samantha’s Gibbs talk at the Third Symposium on The Ocean in a High-CO2 World, held on 24-27 September in Monterey, stimulated a lot of discussion among science journalists. Sciencemagazine run a piece on their news page. Here an extract from the article. The meeting was a coming-out party of sorts for scientists interested in the biological implications of the chemical changes occurring as the oceans absorb huge and growing amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Just 8 years ago, an inaugural symposium on the topic in Paris drew only 125 researchers from 20 nations; this year, more than 550 scientists from 40 nations showed up. The field is getting “much bigger and more competitive,” Gattuso says. Acidification researchers are also shifting their focus. To date, many experiments have involved simply plopping sea creatures into laboratory tanks full of acidified water for a few days or months to see how they respond. Many species suffer, researchers reported. Fish and shellfish larvae exposed to more acidic waters, for example, often fail to thrive: They don’t grow as big or live as long as those born in more alkaline waters. But some species show substantial resilience, reported biologist Sam Dupont of the University of Gothenburg, Kristineberg, in Sweden. After he used acidic water to completely dissolve the shells of developing sea urchins, for instance, the urchins were able to regrow them and live normally once they were returned to normal seawater.
Emissions from human activities are changing the ocean’s chemistry and temperature, in ways that threaten the livelihoods of those who depend on fish and seafood for all or part of their diets. The changes may reduce the amount of wild caught seafood that can be supplied by the oceans and also redistribute species, changing the locations at which seafood can be caught and creating instability for ocean-based food security, or seafood security. This report ranks nations based on the seafood security hardships they may experience by the middle of this century due to changing ocean conditions from climate change and ocean acidification. This is done by combining each nation’s exposure to climate change and ocean acidification, its dependence on and consumption of fish and seafood and its level of adaptive capacity based on several socioeconomic factors. Country rankings are developed for risks from climate change and ocean acidification independently, as well as from both problems combined. Fish and seafood are a primary source of protein for more than one billion of the poorest people on Earth. By 2050 the global demand for seafood is expected to rise, mainly due to an increase in population to about nine billion people. The oceans can be a large part of the solution to this global food security challenge. But at the same time, emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are disrupting ocean conditions and threatening the future of the essential food resources we receive from the oceans.
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