Publication Date:
2024-03-15
Description:
Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are causing ocean acidification, compromising the ability of some marine organisms to build and maintain support structures as the equilibrium state of inorganic carbon moves away from calcium carbonate. Few marine organisms tolerate conditions where ocean pH falls significantly below today's value of about 8.1 and aragonite and calcite saturation values below 1. Here we report dense clusters of the vent mussel B. brevior in natural conditions of pH values between 5.36 and 7.29 on northwest Eifuku volcano, Mariana arc, where liquid carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide emerge in a hydrothermal setting. We find that both shell thickness and daily growth increments in shells from northwest Eifuku are only about half those recorded from mussels living in water with pH〉7.8. Low pH may therefore also be implicated in metabolic impairment. We identify four-decade-old mussels, but suggest that the mussels can survive for so long only if their protective shell covering remains intact: crabs that could expose the underlying calcium carbonate to dissolution are absent from this setting. The mussels' ability to precipitate shells in such low-pH conditions is remarkable. Nevertheless, the vulnerability of molluscs to predators is likely to increase in a future ocean with low pH.
Keywords:
Alkalinity, potentiometric; Alkalinity, total; Animalia; Aragonite saturation state; Bathymodiolus brevior; Bathymodiolus brevior, daily growth band, width; Bathymodiolus brevior, daily growth band, width, standard error; Bathymodiolus brevior, distance from shell edge; Bathymodiolus brevior, distance from umbo; Bathymodiolus brevior, shell, length; Bathymodiolus brevior, shell, weight; Bathymodiolus brevior, shell thickness; Bathymodiolus brevior, shell thickness, standard deviation; Benthic animals; Benthos; Bicarbonate ion; Calcite saturation state; Calculated; Calculated using CO2SYS; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. (2010); Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Carbonate ion; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; CO2 vent; Date; Deep-sea; DEPTH, water; Electron microprobe (EMP); EPOCA; EUR-OCEANS; European network of excellence for Ocean Ecosystems Analysis; European Project on Ocean Acidification; Field observation; Fugacity of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); Growth/Morphology; Hydrogen sulfide; LATITUDE; LONGITUDE; Measured; Mollusca; North Pacific; OA-ICC; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); pH; Salinity; Single species; Site; Temperature, water; Tropical
Type:
Dataset
Format:
text/tab-separated-values, 780 data points
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