Multiscale Mechanical Consequences of Ocean Acidification for Cold-Water Corals
Ocean acidification is a threat to deep-sea corals and could lead to dramatic and rapid loss of the reef framework habitat they build. Weakening of structurally critical parts of the coral reef framework can lead to physical habitat collapse on an ecosystem scale, reducing the potential for biodiver...
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ftdatacite:10.48550/arxiv.2110.01701 2023-05-15T17:50:50+02:00 Multiscale Mechanical Consequences of Ocean Acidification for Cold-Water Corals Wolfram, Uwe Peña-Fernandez, Marta McPhee, Samuel Smith, Ewan Beck, Rainer J. Shephard, Jonathan D. Ozel, Ali Erskine, Craig Scott Büscher, Janina Titschack, Jürgen Roberts, J. Murray Hennige, Sebastian 2021 https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2110.01701 https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.01701 unknown arXiv arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/ Materials Science cond-mat.mtrl-sci Tissues and Organs q-bio.TO FOS Physical sciences FOS Biological sciences Preprint Article article CreativeWork 2021 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2110.01701 2022-04-01T18:36:03Z Ocean acidification is a threat to deep-sea corals and could lead to dramatic and rapid loss of the reef framework habitat they build. Weakening of structurally critical parts of the coral reef framework can lead to physical habitat collapse on an ecosystem scale, reducing the potential for biodiversity support. The mechanism underpinning crumbling and collapse of corals can be described via a combination of laboratory-scale experiments and mathematical and computational models. We synthesise data from electron back-scatter diffraction, micro-computed tomography, and micromechanical experiments, supplemented by molecular dynamics and continuum micromechanics simulations to predict failure of coral structures under increasing porosity and dissolution. Results reveal remarkable mechanical properties of cold-water coral skeletons of 462 MPa compressive strength and 45-67 GPa stiffness. This is 10 times stronger than concrete, twice as strong than ultrahigh performance fibre reinforced concrete, or nacre. Contrary to what would be expected, CWCs skeletons retain their strength despite a loss of stiffness and even when synthesised under future oceanic conditions. Our models capture the impact of corrosive waters on exposed skeletons and illustrate how small modifications in their skeleton lead to significantly increased risk of crumbling coral habitat. This new understanding, combined with projections of how seawater chemistry will change over the coming decades, will help support future conservation and management efforts of these vulnerable marine ecosystems by identifying which ecosystems are at risk and when they will be at risk, allowing assessment of the impact upon associated biodiversity. : 45 (article + supplements), 8 Figures, 2 Tables Report Ocean acidification DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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topic |
Materials Science cond-mat.mtrl-sci Tissues and Organs q-bio.TO FOS Physical sciences FOS Biological sciences |
spellingShingle |
Materials Science cond-mat.mtrl-sci Tissues and Organs q-bio.TO FOS Physical sciences FOS Biological sciences Wolfram, Uwe Peña-Fernandez, Marta McPhee, Samuel Smith, Ewan Beck, Rainer J. Shephard, Jonathan D. Ozel, Ali Erskine, Craig Scott Büscher, Janina Titschack, Jürgen Roberts, J. Murray Hennige, Sebastian Multiscale Mechanical Consequences of Ocean Acidification for Cold-Water Corals |
topic_facet |
Materials Science cond-mat.mtrl-sci Tissues and Organs q-bio.TO FOS Physical sciences FOS Biological sciences |
description |
Ocean acidification is a threat to deep-sea corals and could lead to dramatic and rapid loss of the reef framework habitat they build. Weakening of structurally critical parts of the coral reef framework can lead to physical habitat collapse on an ecosystem scale, reducing the potential for biodiversity support. The mechanism underpinning crumbling and collapse of corals can be described via a combination of laboratory-scale experiments and mathematical and computational models. We synthesise data from electron back-scatter diffraction, micro-computed tomography, and micromechanical experiments, supplemented by molecular dynamics and continuum micromechanics simulations to predict failure of coral structures under increasing porosity and dissolution. Results reveal remarkable mechanical properties of cold-water coral skeletons of 462 MPa compressive strength and 45-67 GPa stiffness. This is 10 times stronger than concrete, twice as strong than ultrahigh performance fibre reinforced concrete, or nacre. Contrary to what would be expected, CWCs skeletons retain their strength despite a loss of stiffness and even when synthesised under future oceanic conditions. Our models capture the impact of corrosive waters on exposed skeletons and illustrate how small modifications in their skeleton lead to significantly increased risk of crumbling coral habitat. This new understanding, combined with projections of how seawater chemistry will change over the coming decades, will help support future conservation and management efforts of these vulnerable marine ecosystems by identifying which ecosystems are at risk and when they will be at risk, allowing assessment of the impact upon associated biodiversity. : 45 (article + supplements), 8 Figures, 2 Tables |
format |
Report |
author |
Wolfram, Uwe Peña-Fernandez, Marta McPhee, Samuel Smith, Ewan Beck, Rainer J. Shephard, Jonathan D. Ozel, Ali Erskine, Craig Scott Büscher, Janina Titschack, Jürgen Roberts, J. Murray Hennige, Sebastian |
author_facet |
Wolfram, Uwe Peña-Fernandez, Marta McPhee, Samuel Smith, Ewan Beck, Rainer J. Shephard, Jonathan D. Ozel, Ali Erskine, Craig Scott Büscher, Janina Titschack, Jürgen Roberts, J. Murray Hennige, Sebastian |
author_sort |
Wolfram, Uwe |
title |
Multiscale Mechanical Consequences of Ocean Acidification for Cold-Water Corals |
title_short |
Multiscale Mechanical Consequences of Ocean Acidification for Cold-Water Corals |
title_full |
Multiscale Mechanical Consequences of Ocean Acidification for Cold-Water Corals |
title_fullStr |
Multiscale Mechanical Consequences of Ocean Acidification for Cold-Water Corals |
title_full_unstemmed |
Multiscale Mechanical Consequences of Ocean Acidification for Cold-Water Corals |
title_sort |
multiscale mechanical consequences of ocean acidification for cold-water corals |
publisher |
arXiv |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2110.01701 https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.01701 |
genre |
Ocean acidification |
genre_facet |
Ocean acidification |
op_rights |
arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2110.01701 |
_version_ |
1766157737195995136 |