TIME AND SPACE CONSIDERATIONS OF OCEAN ACIDIFICATION
Ocean acidification resulting from anthropogenic CO2 will likely take place over basin scales since anthropogenic CO2 is globally dispersed throughout the atmosphere but with notable spatial bias (Conway et al. 1994). Moreover, the impact of ocean acidifica-tion will vary by latitude due to the low...
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.561.9363 http://www.int-res.com/articles/theme/m373p239.pdf |
| Summary: | Ocean acidification resulting from anthropogenic CO2 will likely take place over basin scales since anthropogenic CO2 is globally dispersed throughout the atmosphere but with notable spatial bias (Conway et al. 1994). Moreover, the impact of ocean acidifica-tion will vary by latitude due to the low CO32 – concen-trations in cold, polar waters as well as increased con-centrations of CO2 associated with recently upwelled water, also prevalent at high latitudes (Orr et al. 2005). Ideally, methods to study the impact of ocean acidifica-tion should match the global scale of its influence. Sampling frequencies for detecting the impact of ocean acidification should be at least annual, in order to discern the complicating effects of other well-known climate phenomena such as El Niño that cause strong interannual variability in global weather patterns and marine productivity. Seasonal aliasing also could be significant, however (e.g. due to temperature effects on CO2 equilibrium as well as seasonal variability in phytoplankton primary production and community respiration). We could resolve seasonal variability with a sampling frequency of 8 times yr–1, (i.e. the Nyquist frequency, the minimal frequency with which one could unambiguously represent the data without alias-ing; Nyquist 1928). By far, one of the biggest predicted biogeochemical effects of ocean acidification will be on the global ocean carbonate cycle. The global standing stock of particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) depends on calcium carbonate production and dissolution, both of which are expected to be affected by ocean acidification. In the pelagic ocean, PIC is contributed by a host of marine organisms, including: coccolithophores, calci-fying dinoflagellates (e.g. Thoracosphaera sp.), fora-minifera, pteropods, and diverse larval species of calci-© Inter-Research 2008 · www.int-res.com*Email: |
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