Chemical and biological impacts of ocean acidification along the west coast of North America

  • Posted on: Fri, 12/16/2016 - 10:17
  • By: jackie

The continental shelf region off the west coast of North America is seasonally exposed to water with a low aragonite saturation state by coastal upwelling of CO2-rich waters. To date, the spatial and temporal distribution of anthropogenic CO2 (Canth) within the CO2-rich waters is largely unknown. Here we adapt the multiple ...

Water quality criteria for an acidifying ocean: Challenges and opportunities for improvement

  • Posted on: Tue, 11/01/2016 - 11:50
  • By: jackie

Acidification has sparked discussion about whether regulatory agencies should place coastal waters on the Clean Water Act 303(d) impaired water bodies list. Here we describe scientific challenges in assessing impairment with existing data, exploring use of both pH and biological criteria. Application of pH criteria is challenging because present coastal ...

Energetic plasticity underlies a variable response to ocean acidification in the pteropod, Limacina helicina antarctica

  • Posted on: Mon, 06/13/2016 - 05:56
  • By: Anonymous

Ocean acidification conditions suppressed the metabolism of an Antarctic pteropod by approximately 20 percent in some instances. However, the effect on metabolism depended on abundance of phytoplankton in the region and the pteropods' baseline level of metabolism. Pteropod populations may be compromised by climate change, both directly by acidification-related suppression ...

Impact of ocean acidification and elevated temperatures on early juveniles of the polar shelled pteropod Limacina helicina: Mortality, shell degradation, and shell growth.

  • Posted on: Mon, 06/13/2016 - 05:56
  • By: Anonymous

When pre-winter juvenile pteropods were cultured at a range of warmer temperatures and ocean acidification levels for 29 days, temperature was the overriding cause of increased mortality. However, ocean acidification was the main factor in reducing shell diameter by 10-12 percent and increasing shell degradation by 41 percent. This study ...

The metabolic response of pteropods to acidification reflects natural CO2-exposure in oxygen minimum zones.

  • Posted on: Mon, 06/13/2016 - 05:56
  • By: Anonymous

Four species of pteropods from the tropical Pacific Ocean that naturally migrate into low-oxygen waters were not adversely affected when grown under ocean acidification conditions. However, another pteropod species, which does not migrate, responded to ocean acidification conditions with reduced oxygen consumption and ammonia excretion. This indicates that the natural ...

Extensive dissolution of live pteropods in the Southern Ocean

  • Posted on: Mon, 06/13/2016 - 05:56
  • By: Anonymous

When scientists collected pteropods living in the Southern Ocean, where high levels of CO2 caused low availability of calcium carbonate in the water for building shells, they found that the pteropods' shells had severely dissolved. In the laboratory, pteropods incubated under similar CO2 conditions had equivalent levels of dissolution. ...

Larvae of the pteropod Cavolinia inflexa exposed to aragonite undersaturation are viable but shell-less

  • Posted on: Mon, 06/13/2016 - 05:56
  • By: Anonymous

When larvae of Mediterranean pteropods were cultured in pH 7.82 water, they had malformations and less shell growth. At pH 7.51, the larvae did not make shells but survived and showed normal development. In a natural setting, the smaller shells or lack of shells would have both ecological and biogeochemical ...

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