Seawater carbonate chemistry and composition of intertidal and subtidal communities, supplement to: Agostini, Sylvain; Harvey, Ben P; Wada, Shigeki; Kon, Koetsu; Milazzo, Marco; Inaba, Kazuo; Hall-Spencer, Jason M (2018): Ocean acidification drives community shifts towards simplified non-calcified habitats in a subtropical−temperate transition zone. Scientific Reports, 8(1)

• Main Authors: Agostini, Sylvain, Harvey, Ben P, Wada, Shigeki, Milazzo, Marco, Inaba, Kazuo, Hall-Spencer, Jason M
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2018
• Subjects: Benthos; CO2 vent; Coast and continental shelf; Community composition and diversity; Entire community; Field observation; North Pacific; Rocky-shore community; Temperate; Type; Site; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Individuals; Coverage; pH; pH, standard deviation; Temperature, water; Temperature, water, standard deviation; Salinity; Salinity, standard deviation; Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard deviation; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide, standard deviation; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved, standard deviation; Bicarbonate ion; Bicarbonate ion, standard deviation; Carbonate ion; Carbonate ion, standard deviation; Calcite saturation state; Calcite saturation state, standard deviation; Aragonite saturation state; Aragonite saturation state, standard deviation; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide, standard deviation; Fugacity of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Fugacity of carbon dioxide in seawater, standard deviation; Experiment; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. 2010; Calculated using seacarb after Orr et al. 2018; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre OA-ICC; Kon; Pacific; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.906023; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.906023

Rising atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are causing surface seawater pH and carbonate ion concentrations to fall in a process known as ocean acidification. To assess the likely ecological effects of ocean acidification we compared intertidal and subtidal marine communities at increasing levels of pCO2 at recently discovered volcanic seeps off the Pacific coast of Japan (34° N). This study region is of particular interest for ocean acidification research as it has naturally low levels of surface seawater pCO2 (280–320 µatm) and is located at a transition zone between temperate and sub-tropical communities. We provide the first assessment of ocean acidification effects at a biogeographic boundary. Marine communities exposed to mean levels of pCO2 predicted by 2050 experienced periods of low aragonite saturation and high dissolved inorganic carbon. These two factors combined to cause marked community shifts and a major decline in biodiversity, including the loss of key habitat-forming species, with even more extreme community changes expected by 2100. Our results provide empirical evidence that near-future levels of pCO2 shift sub-tropical ecosystems from carbonate to fleshy algal dominated systems, accompanied by biodiversity loss and major simplification of the ecosystem. : In order to allow full comparability with other ocean acidification data sets, the R package seacarb (Gattuso et al, 2019) 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 2019-09-18.