Anthropogenic ocean acidification over the twenty-first century and its impact on calcifying organisms

peer reviewed Today's surface ocean is saturated with respect to calcium carbonate, but increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are reducing ocean pH and carbonate ion concentrations, and thus the level of calcium carbonate saturation. Experimental evidence suggests that if these t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature
Main Authors: Orr, James C., Fabry, Victoria J., Aumont, Olivier, Bopp, Laurent, Doney, Scott C., Feely, Richard A., Gnanadesikan, Anan, Gruber, Nicolas, Ishida, Akio, Joos, Fortunat, Key, Robert M., Lindsay, Keith, Maier-Reimer, Ernst, Matear, Richard, Monfray, Patrick, Mouchet, Anne, Najjar, Raymond G., Plattner, Gian-Kasper, Rodgers, Keith B., Sabine, Christopher L., Sarmiento, Jorge L., Schlitzer, Reiner, Slater, Richard D., Totterdell, Ian J., Weirig, Marie-France, Yamanaka, Yasuhiro, Yool, Andrew
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2005
Subjects:
Physical
chemical
mathematical & earth Sciences
Physique
chimie
mathématiques & sciences de la terre
Ocean acidification
Southern Ocean
Subarctic
Online Access:https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/39986
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04095
Description
Summary:peer reviewed Today's surface ocean is saturated with respect to calcium carbonate, but increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are reducing ocean pH and carbonate ion concentrations, and thus the level of calcium carbonate saturation. Experimental evidence suggests that if these trends continue, key marine organisms - such as corals and some plankton - will have difficulty maintaining their external calcium carbonate skeletons. Here we use 13 models of the ocean - carbon cycle to assess calcium carbonate saturation under the IS92a 'business-as-usual' scenario for future emissions of anthropogenic carbon dioxide. In our projections, Southern Ocean surface waters will begin to become undersaturated with respect to aragonite, a metastable form of calcium carbonate, by the year 2050. By 2100, this undersaturation could extend throughout the entire Southern Ocean and into the subarctic Pacific Ocean. When live pteropods were exposed to our predicted level of undersaturation during a two-day shipboard experiment, their aragonite shells showed notable dissolution. Our findings indicate that conditions detrimental to high-latitude ecosystems could develop within decades, not centuries as suggested previously.

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