The benthic foraminiferal community in a naturally CO2-rich coastal habitat of the southwestern Baltic Sea ...

• Main Authors: Haynert, Kristin, Schönfeld, Joachim, Polovodova Asteman, Irina, Thomsen, Jörn
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2012
• Subjects: Ammonia aomoriensis; Ammotium cassis; Baltic Sea; Benthos; Calcification/Dissolution; Coast and continental shelf; Community composition and diversity; Elphidium albiumbilicatum; Elphidium excavatum clavatum; Elphidium excavatum excavatum; Elphidium gerthi; Elphidium incertum; Entire community; Field observation; Growth/Morphology; Reophax dentaliniformis; Soft-bottom community; Temperate; Identification; Species; Station label; LATITUDE; LONGITUDE; DEPTH, water; Date; Description; Number of individuals; Percentage; Number of species; Sample volume; Split; Population density; Shannon Diversity Index; Fishers alpha index of diversity; Diameter; Salinity; Temperature, water; Pressure, water; Alkalinity, total; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Calcite saturation state; Carbonate system computation flag; pH; Carbon dioxide; Fugacity of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Bicarbonate ion; Carbonate ion; Aragonite saturation state; Experiment; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.830063; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.830063

It is expected that the calcification of foraminifera will be negatively affected by the ongoing acidification of the oceans. Compared to the open oceans, these organisms are subjected to much more adverse carbonate system conditions in coastal and estuarine environments such as the southwestern Baltic Sea, where benthic foraminifera are abundant. This study documents the seasonal changes of carbonate chemistry and the ensuing response of the foraminiferal community with bi-monthly resolution in Flensburg Fjord. In comparison to the surface pCO2, which is close to equilibrium with the atmosphere, we observed large seasonal fluctuations of pCO2 in the bottom and sediment pore waters. The sediment pore water pCO2 was constantly high during the entire year ranging from 1244 to 3324 µatm. Nevertheless, in contrast to the bottom water, sediment pore water was slightly supersaturated with respect to calcite as a consequence of higher alkalinity (AT) for most of the year. Foraminiferal assemblages were dominated by ... : 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). The date of carbonate chemistry calculation by seacarb is 2014-02-26. ...