Modelling the carbonate system to adequately quantify ocean acidification

• Main Author: Coughlan, Clare
• Other Authors: Hoepffner, Nicolas, Stips, Adolf
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Publications Office of the European Union 2013
• Subjects: Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/57618/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/57618/1/lbna26450enn.pdf; https://doi.org/10.2788/57998

Given specific CO2 emission scenarios, predictions of future ocean carbonate chemistry are relatively certain at the global scale. However future regional ocean acidification and ocean carbonate chemistry are less well understood. A major challenge is assessing the risk of ocean acidification on marine food webs, ecosystems and ocean biogeochemistry. Due to a range of natural physical and biological processes, riverine inputs, boundary conditions and runoff, the natural variability of dissolved CO2 in sea water is relatively high in regional seas. Some species, calcifying or not, have the capacity to adapt to such conditions, others do not. Establishing the biological impacts of ocean acidification is difficult due to a range of physiological and ecological trade-offs. Including the carbonate system in such complicated regions is a challenge, and significant development will be required to adequately model this in regional seas.