Nutrition and income from molluscs today imply vulnerability to ocean acidification tomorrow

• Published in: Fish and Fisheries
• Main Authors: Cooley, Sarah R., Lucey, Noelle, Kite-Powell, Hauke L., Doney, Scott C.
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Ocean acidification; Mollusc harvests; Aquaculture; Population growth; Food security; Adaptability
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5207

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of John Wiley & Sons for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Fish and Fisheries 13 (2012): 182-215, doi:10.1111/j.1467-2979.2011.00424.x. Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from human industrial activities are causing a progressive alteration of seawater chemistry, termed ocean acidification, that has decreased seawater pH and carbonate ion concentration markedly since the Industrial Revolution. Many marine organisms, like molluscs and corals, build hard shells and skeletons using carbonate ions, and they exhibit negative overall responses to ocean acidification. This adds to other chronic and acute environmental pressures and promotes shifts away from calcifierrich communities. In this study, we examine the possible implications of ocean acidification on mollusc harvests worldwide by examining present production, consumption, and export and by relating those data to present and future surface ocean chemistry forecast by a coupled-climate ocean model (Community Climate System 3.1; CCSM3). We identify the “transition decade” when future ocean chemistry will distinctly differ from that of today (2010), and when mollusc harvest levels similar to those of the present cannot be guaranteed if present ocean chemistry is a significant determinant of today’s mollusc production. We assess nations’ vulnerability to ocean acidification-driven decreases in mollusc harvests by comparing nutritional and economic dependences on mollusc harvests, overall societal adaptability, and the amount of time until the transition decade. Projected transition decades for individual countries will occur 10-50 years after 2010. Countries with low adaptability, high nutritional or economic dependence on molluscs, rapidly approaching transition decades, or rapidly growing populations will therefore be most vulnerable to ocean acidification-driven mollusc harvest decreases. ...