The Geological Record of Ocean Acidification

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Hönisch, Bärbel, Pelejero, Carles
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2012
• Subjects: Ocean acidification
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/52784; https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1208277

Bärbel Hönisch . et al. -- 6 pages, 4 figures Ocean acidification may have severe consequences for marine ecosystems; however, assessing its future impact is difficult because laboratory experiments and field observations are limited by their reduced ecologic complexity and sample period, respectively. In contrast, the geological record contains long-term evidence for a variety of global environmental perturbations, including ocean acidification plus their associated biotic responses. We review events exhibiting evidence for elevated atmospheric CO2, global warming, and ocean acidification over the past ~300 million years of Earth’s history, some with contemporaneous extinction or evolutionary turnover among marine calcifiers. Although similarities exist, no past event perfectly parallels future projections in terms of disrupting the balance of ocean carbonate chemistry—a consequence of the unprecedented rapidity of CO2 release currently taking place Funding for the “Workshop on Paleocean Acidification and Carbon Cycle Perturbation Events” was provided by NSF OCE 10-32374 and Past Global Changes (PAGES) Peer reviewed