Publication Date:
2024-03-15
Description:
The rate of change in ocean carbonate chemistry is a vital determinant in the magnitude of effects observed. Benthic marine ecosystems are facing an increasing risk of acute CO2 exposure that may be natural or anthropogenically derived (e.g. engineering and industrial activities). However, our understanding of how acute CO2 events impact marine life is restricted to individual organisms, with little understanding for how this manifests at the community level. Here, we investigated in situ the effect of acute CO2 enrichment on the coralline algal ecosystem—a globally ubiquitous, ecologically and economically important habitat, but one which is likely to be sensitive to CO2 enrichment due to its highly calcified reef-like structures engineered by coralline algae. Most notably, we observed a rapid community-level shift to favour net dissolution rather than net calcification. Smaller changes from net respiration to net photosynthesis were also observed. There was no effect on the net flux of DMS/DMSP (algal secondary metabolites), nor on the nutrients nitrate and phosphate. Following return to ambient CO2 levels, only a partial recovery was seen within the monitoring timeframe. This study highlights the sensitivity of biogenic carbonate marine communities to acute CO2 enrichment and raises concerns over the capacity for the system to 'bounce back' if subjected to repeated acute high-CO2 events.
Keywords:
Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard deviation; Aragonite saturation state; Aragonite saturation state, standard deviation; Benthos; Bicarbonate ion; Bicarbonate ion, standard deviation; Calcification/Dissolution; Calcification rate of calcium carbonate; Calcite saturation state; Calcite saturation state, standard deviation; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. (2010); Calculated using seacarb after Orr et al. (2018); Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved, standard deviation; Carbonate ion; Carbonate ion, standard deviation; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide, standard deviation; Coast and continental shelf; Containers and aquaria (20-1000 L or 〈 1 m**2); Dimethyl sulfide + Dimethylsulfoniopropionate, flux; Entire community; Estuary; EXP; Experiment; Field experiment; Fugacity of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); Fugacity of carbon dioxide in seawater, standard deviation; Irradiance; Loch_Sween; Nitrate, flux; North Atlantic; OA-ICC; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre; Other metabolic rates; Oxygen, flux; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide, standard deviation; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); pH; pH, standard deviation; Phosphate, flux; Primary production/Photosynthesis; Respiration; Rocky-shore community; Salinity; Salinity, standard deviation; Temperate; Temperature, water; Temperature, water, standard deviation; Time point, descriptive; Treatment; Type
Type:
Dataset
Format:
text/tab-separated-values, 1226 data points
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