Global declines in oceanic nitrification rates as a consequence of ocean acidification
Ocean acidification produced by dissolution of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in seawater has profound consequences for marine ecology and biogeochemistry. The oceans have absorbed one-third of CO2 emissions over the past two centuries, altering ocean chemistry, reducing seawater pH, a...
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ftsouthampton:oai:eprints.soton.ac.uk:356538 2023-07-30T04:06:00+02:00 Global declines in oceanic nitrification rates as a consequence of ocean acidification Beman, J. Michael Chow, Cheryl-Emiliane King, Andrew L. Feng, Yuanyuan Fuhrman, Jed A. Andersson, Andreas Bates, Nicholas R. Popp, Brian Hutchins, David A. 2011-01-04 https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/356538/ English eng Beman, J. Michael, Chow, Cheryl-Emiliane, King, Andrew L., Feng, Yuanyuan, Fuhrman, Jed A., Andersson, Andreas, Bates, Nicholas R., Popp, Brian and Hutchins, David A. (2011) Global declines in oceanic nitrification rates as a consequence of ocean acidification. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108 (1), 208-213. (doi:10.1073/pnas.1011053108 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1011053108>). Article PeerReviewed 2011 ftsouthampton https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1011053108 2023-07-09T21:48:50Z Ocean acidification produced by dissolution of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in seawater has profound consequences for marine ecology and biogeochemistry. The oceans have absorbed one-third of CO2 emissions over the past two centuries, altering ocean chemistry, reducing seawater pH, and affecting marine animals and phytoplankton in multiple ways. Microbially mediated ocean biogeochemical processes will be pivotal in determining how the earth system responds to global environmental change; however, how they may be altered by ocean acidification is largely unknown. We show here that microbial nitrification rates decreased in every instance when pH was experimentally reduced (by 0.05–0.14) at multiple locations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Nitrification is a central process in the nitrogen cycle that produces both the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide and oxidized forms of nitrogen used by phytoplankton and other microorganisms in the sea; at the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series and Hawaii Ocean Time-series sites, experimental acidification decreased ammonia oxidation rates by 38% and 36%. Ammonia oxidation rates were also strongly and inversely correlated with pH along a gradient produced in the oligotrophic Sargasso Sea (r2 = 0.87, P < 0.05). Across all experiments, rates declined by 8–38% in low pH treatments, and the greatest absolute decrease occurred where rates were highest off the California coast. Collectively our results suggest that ocean acidification could reduce nitrification rates by 3–44% within the next few decades, affecting oceanic nitrous oxide production, reducing supplies of oxidized nitrogen in the upper layers of the ocean, and fundamentally altering nitrogen cycling in the sea. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ocean acidification University of Southampton: e-Prints Soton Pacific Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108 1 208 213 |
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University of Southampton: e-Prints Soton |
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ftsouthampton |
language |
English |
description |
Ocean acidification produced by dissolution of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in seawater has profound consequences for marine ecology and biogeochemistry. The oceans have absorbed one-third of CO2 emissions over the past two centuries, altering ocean chemistry, reducing seawater pH, and affecting marine animals and phytoplankton in multiple ways. Microbially mediated ocean biogeochemical processes will be pivotal in determining how the earth system responds to global environmental change; however, how they may be altered by ocean acidification is largely unknown. We show here that microbial nitrification rates decreased in every instance when pH was experimentally reduced (by 0.05–0.14) at multiple locations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Nitrification is a central process in the nitrogen cycle that produces both the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide and oxidized forms of nitrogen used by phytoplankton and other microorganisms in the sea; at the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series and Hawaii Ocean Time-series sites, experimental acidification decreased ammonia oxidation rates by 38% and 36%. Ammonia oxidation rates were also strongly and inversely correlated with pH along a gradient produced in the oligotrophic Sargasso Sea (r2 = 0.87, P < 0.05). Across all experiments, rates declined by 8–38% in low pH treatments, and the greatest absolute decrease occurred where rates were highest off the California coast. Collectively our results suggest that ocean acidification could reduce nitrification rates by 3–44% within the next few decades, affecting oceanic nitrous oxide production, reducing supplies of oxidized nitrogen in the upper layers of the ocean, and fundamentally altering nitrogen cycling in the sea. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Beman, J. Michael Chow, Cheryl-Emiliane King, Andrew L. Feng, Yuanyuan Fuhrman, Jed A. Andersson, Andreas Bates, Nicholas R. Popp, Brian Hutchins, David A. |
spellingShingle |
Beman, J. Michael Chow, Cheryl-Emiliane King, Andrew L. Feng, Yuanyuan Fuhrman, Jed A. Andersson, Andreas Bates, Nicholas R. Popp, Brian Hutchins, David A. Global declines in oceanic nitrification rates as a consequence of ocean acidification |
author_facet |
Beman, J. Michael Chow, Cheryl-Emiliane King, Andrew L. Feng, Yuanyuan Fuhrman, Jed A. Andersson, Andreas Bates, Nicholas R. Popp, Brian Hutchins, David A. |
author_sort |
Beman, J. Michael |
title |
Global declines in oceanic nitrification rates as a consequence of ocean acidification |
title_short |
Global declines in oceanic nitrification rates as a consequence of ocean acidification |
title_full |
Global declines in oceanic nitrification rates as a consequence of ocean acidification |
title_fullStr |
Global declines in oceanic nitrification rates as a consequence of ocean acidification |
title_full_unstemmed |
Global declines in oceanic nitrification rates as a consequence of ocean acidification |
title_sort |
global declines in oceanic nitrification rates as a consequence of ocean acidification |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/356538/ |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
Ocean acidification |
genre_facet |
Ocean acidification |
op_relation |
Beman, J. Michael, Chow, Cheryl-Emiliane, King, Andrew L., Feng, Yuanyuan, Fuhrman, Jed A., Andersson, Andreas, Bates, Nicholas R., Popp, Brian and Hutchins, David A. (2011) Global declines in oceanic nitrification rates as a consequence of ocean acidification. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108 (1), 208-213. (doi:10.1073/pnas.1011053108 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1011053108>). |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1011053108 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
container_volume |
108 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
208 |
op_container_end_page |
213 |
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1772818349131038720 |