CO2 leakage can cause loss of benthic biodiversity in submarine sands

One of the options to mitigate atmospheric CO2 increase is CO2 Capture and Storage in sub-seabed geological formations. Since predicting long-term storage security is difficult, different CO2 leakage scenarios and impacts on marine ecosystems require evaluation. Submarine CO2 vents may serve as natu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine Environmental Research
Main Authors: Molari, Massimiliano, Guilini, Katja, Lins Pereira, Lidia, Ramette, Alban, Vanreusel, Ann
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Biology and Life Sciences
Medicine and Health Sciences
Benthos
Bacteria
Invertebrates
Biodiversity
CO2 vents
Carbon capture and storage (CCS)
Panarea island
Mediterranean sea
DEEP-SEA
OCEAN ACIDIFICATION
CARBON-DIOXIDE
CLIMATE-CHANGE
SEAWATER ACIDIFICATION
COMMUNITY STRUCTURE
MARINE ORGANISMS
CYTOPLASMIC PH
IN-SITU
DIVERSITY
Ocean acidification
Online Access:https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8617022
http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8617022
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2019.01.006
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8617022/file/8617024
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Summary:One of the options to mitigate atmospheric CO2 increase is CO2 Capture and Storage in sub-seabed geological formations. Since predicting long-term storage security is difficult, different CO2 leakage scenarios and impacts on marine ecosystems require evaluation. Submarine CO2 vents may serve as natural analogues and allow studying the effects of CO2 leakage in a holistic approach. At the study site east of Basiluzzo Islet off Panarea Island (Italy), gas emissions (90-99% CO2) occur at moderate flows (80-120 Lm(-2) h(-1)). We investigated the effects of acidified porewater conditions (pH(T) range: 5.5-7.7) on the diversity of benthic bacteria and invertebrates by sampling natural sediments in three subsequent years and by performing a transplantation experiment with a duration of one year, respectively. Both multiple years and one year of exposure to acidified porewater conditions reduced the number of benthic bacterial operational taxonomic units and invertebrate species diversity by 30-80%. Reduced biodiversity at the vent sites increased the temporal variability in bacterial and nematode community biomass, abundance and composition. While the release from CO2 exposure resulted in a full recovery of nematode species diversity within one year, bacterial diversity remained affected. Overall our findings showed that seawater acidification, induced by seafloor CO2 emissions, was responsible for loss of diversity across different size-classes of benthic organisms, which reduced community stability with potential relapses on ecosystem resilience.

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