Seawater carbonate chemistry and calcification rate of eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica, 2011, supplement to: Waldbusser, George G; Voigt, Erin P; Bergschneider, Heather; Green, Mark A; Newell, Roger I E (2011): Biocalcification in the Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea virginica) in Relation to Long-term Trends in Chesapeake Bay pH. Estuaries and Coasts, 34(2), 221-231

• Main Authors: Waldbusser, George G, Voigt, Erin P, Bergschneider, Heather, Green, Mark A, Newell, Roger I E
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2011
• Subjects: Animalia; Benthic animals; Benthos; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria <20 L; Brackish waters; Calcification/Dissolution; Crassostrea virginica; Laboratory experiment; Mollusca; North Atlantic; Single species; Temperate; Temperature; Experimental treatment; Species; Salinity; Temperature, water; pH; Alkalinity, total; Aragonite saturation state; Calcification rate of calcium carbonate; Calcification rate, standard deviation; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Fugacity of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Bicarbonate ion; Carbonate ion; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Calcite saturation state; Orion Ross conductivity probe; Two-point titration Edmond 1970; Calculated using CO2SYS; Alkalinity anomaly technique Smith and Key, 1975; Calculated; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. 2010; European network of excellence for Ocean Ecosystems Analysis EUR-OCEANS; European Project on Ocean Acidification EPOCA; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre OA-ICC; Newell; Orion; Carbonic acid; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.758181; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.758181

Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduce pH of marine waters due to the absorption of atmospheric CO2 and formation of carbonic acid. Estuarine waters are more susceptible to acidification because they are subject to multiple acid sources and are less buffered than marine waters. Consequently, estuarine shell forming species may experience acidification sooner than marine species although the tolerance of estuarine calcifiers to pH changes is poorly understood. We analyzed 23 years of Chesapeake Bay water quality monitoring data and found that daytime average pH significantly decreased across polyhaline waters although pH has not significantly changed across mesohaline waters. In some tributaries that once supported large oyster populations, pH is increasing. Current average conditions within some tributaries however correspond to values that we found in laboratory studies to reduce oyster biocalcification rates or resulted in net shell dissolution. Calcification rates of juvenile eastern oysters, Crassostrea virginica, were measured in laboratory studies in a three-way factorial design with 3 pH levels, two salinities, and two temperatures. Biocalcification declined significantly with a reduction of ~0.5 pH units and higher temperature and salinity mitigated the decrease in biocalcification. : In order to allow full comparability with other ocean acidification data sets, the R package seacarb (Lavigne and Gattuso, 2011) was used to compute a complete and consistent set of carbonate system variables, as described by Nisumaa et al. (2010). In this dataset the original values were archived in addition with the recalculated parameters (see related PI).