Seawater carbonate chemistry and shell opacity of pteropod, supplement to: Oakes, Rosie L; Peck, Victoria L; Manno, C; Bralower, Timothy J (2019): Degradation of Internal Organic Matter is the Main Control on Pteropod Shell Dissolution After Death. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 33(6), 749-760

• Main Authors: Oakes, Rosie L, Peck, Victoria L, Manno, C, Bralower, Timothy J
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2019
• Subjects: Animalia; Antarctic; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria <20 L; Calcification/Dissolution; Laboratory experiment; Limacina helicina antarctica; Mollusca; Nekton; Open ocean; Pelagos; Polar; Single species; Event label; Type; Species; Registration number of species; Uniform resource locator/link to reference; Experiment; Time in days; Identification; Greyscale value; Opacity; Treatment; Temperature, water; Temperature, water, standard deviation; Salinity; Salinity, standard deviation; pH; pH, standard deviation; Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard deviation; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved, standard deviation; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide, 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; Bicarbonate ion; Bicarbonate ion, standard deviation; Carbonate ion; Carbonate ion, standard deviation; Calcite saturation state; Calcite saturation state, standard deviation; Calculated using CO2SYS; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. 2010; Calculated using seacarb after Orr et al. 2018; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre OA-ICC; Scotia Sea; Antarc*; Antarctica; Limacina helicina; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.908817; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.908817

The potential for preservation of thecosome pteropods is thought to be largely governed by the chemical stability of their delicate aragonitic shells in seawater. However, sediment trap studies have found that significant carbonate dissolution can occur above the carbonate saturation horizon. Here we present the results from experiments conducted on two cruises to the Scotia Sea to directly test whether the breakdown of the organic pteropod body influences shell dissolution. We find that, on the timescales of three to thirteen days, the oxidation of organic matter within the shells of dead pteropods is a stronger driver of shell dissolution than the saturation state of seawater. Three to four days after death, shells became milky white and nano‐SEM images reveal smoothing of internal surface features and increased shell porosity, both indicative of aragonite dissolution. These findings have implications for the interpretation of the condition of pteropod shells from sediment traps and the fossil record, as well as for understanding the processes controlling particulate carbonate export from the surface ocean. : 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 2019-11-20.