Publication Date:
2024-03-15
Description:
The uptake of anthropogenic emission of carbon dioxide is resulting in a lowering of the carbonate saturation state and a drop in ocean pH. Understanding how marine calcifying organisms such as coralline algae may acclimatize to ocean acidification is important to understand their survival over the coming century. We present the first long-term perturbation experiment on the cold-water coralline algae, which are important marine calcifiers in the benthic ecosystems particularly at the higher latitudes. Lithothamnion glaciale, after three months incubation, continued to calcify even in undersaturated conditions with a significant trend towards lower growth rates with increasing pCO2. However, the major changes in the ultra-structure occur by 589 µatm (i.e. in saturated waters). Finite element models of the algae grown at these heightened levels show an increase in the total strain energy of nearly an order of magnitude and an uneven distribution of the stress inside the skeleton when subjected to similar loads as algae grown at ambient levels. This weakening of the structure is likely to reduce the ability of the alga to resist boring by predators and wave energy with severe consequences to the benthic community structure in the immediate future (50 years).
Keywords:
Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard deviation; Aragonite saturation state; Aragonite saturation state, standard deviation; Benthos; Bicarbonate ion; Bicarbonate ion, standard deviation; BIOACID; Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification; Biomass/Abundance/Elemental composition; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria (〈20 L); Calcite saturation state; Calcite saturation state, standard deviation; Calculated using CO2SYS; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. (2010); Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved, standard deviation; Carbonate ion; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Cell density; Cell density, standard deviation; Coast and continental shelf; Coralline algae, wall thickness, inter filament, standard deviation; Coralline algae, wall thickness, intra filament; Coralline algae, wall thickness, intra filament, standard deviation; EXP; Experiment; Fugacity of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); Growth/Morphology; Growth rate; Growth rate, standard deviation; Kattegat_OA; Laboratory experiment; Lithothamnion glaciale; Macroalgae; North Atlantic; OA-ICC; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide, standard deviation; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); pH; pH, standard deviation; Plantae; Potentiometric; Potentiometric titration; Rhodophyta; Salinity; Salinity, standard deviation; Single species; Species; Temperate; Temperature, standard deviation; Temperature, water; Treatment
Type:
Dataset
Format:
text/tab-separated-values, 152 data points
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