Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-dwq4g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-26T05:29:15.910Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Impacts of changing ocean chemistry in a high-CO2 world

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

C. Turley
C. Turley*
Affiliation:
Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, The Hoe, Plymouth, PL1 3DH, UK
*
*E-mail: ct@pml.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Over the last ∼200 years, since the start of the industrial revolution, the increase in the burning of fossil fuels, cement manufacturing and changes to land use has increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations from ∼80 to 385 ppm. These are the highest levels experienced on Earth for at least the last 800,000 years, possibly for the past 10’s of millions of years. The 2007 IPCC report on climate change predicts a continued rapid rise in atmospheric CO2 leading to significant temperature increases in the atmosphere and ocean in the coming decades, as well as other climate changes. The IPCC (2007) also reports, for the first time, that increasing anthropogenic CO2 will result in increased acidity of the world’s surface oceans. This process is already happening and further rapid decreases in ocean pH will occur this century, concomitantly with warming seas, creating multiple threats to the marine environment. The future addition of massive amounts of CO2 to surface waters will have a profound impact on ocean chemistry and could have an equally profound impact on biogeochemical cycles, marine organisms, ecosystems and the services they provide. ‘Ocean acidification’ is a strong additional argument to that of climate change for urgent and substantial reduction of CO2 emissions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 72 , Issue 1 , February 2008 , pp. 359 - 362
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Caldeira, K. and Wickett, M.E. (2003) Anthropogenic carbon and ocean pH. Nature, 425, 365.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feely, R.A., Sabine, C.L., Lee, K., Berelson, W., Kleypas, I. Fabry, VJ. and Millero, FJ. (2004) Impact of anthropogenic CO2 on the CaCO2 system in the ocean. Science, 305, 362–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guinotte, J.M., Orr, J., Cairns, S., Freiwald, A., Morgan, L. and George, R. (2006) Will human induced changes in seawater chemistry alter the distribution of deep-sea scleractinian corals? Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 4, 141–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IPCC (2007) Climate Change 2007: The physical science basis. Summary for policymakers. Contribution of working group I to the fourth assessment report. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2febO7.pdf Google Scholar
Kleypas, J.A., Feely, R.A., Fabry, V.J., Langdon, C, Sabine, C.L. and Robbins, L.L. (2006) Impacts of ocean acidification on coral reefs and other marine calcifiers: A guide for future research. Report of a workshop held 18–20 April 2005, St. Petersburg, FL, sponsored by NSF, NOAA, and the US Geological Survey, http://www.ucar.edu/communications/Finalacidification.pdf Google Scholar
Orr, J.C., Fabry, V.J., Aumont, O., Bopp, L., Doney, S.C., Feely, R.A., Gnanadesikan, A., Gruber, N., Ishida, A., Joos, F., Key, R.M., Lindsay, K., Maier-Reimer, E., Matear, R., Monfray, P., Mouchet, A., Najjar, R.G., Plattner, G.-K., Rodgers, K.B., Sabine, C.L., Sarmiento, J.L., Schlitzer, R., Slater, R.D., Totterdell, , LI, , Weirig, M.-F., Yamanaka, Y. and Yool, A. (2005) Anthropogenic ocean acidification over the twenty-first century and its impact on calcifying organisms. Nature, 437, 681–686.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Royal Society (2005) Ocean acidification due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. Policy document 12/05 Royal Society, London. The Clyvedon Press Ltd, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Sabine, C.L., Feely, R.A., Gruber, N., Key, R.M., Lee, K., Bullister, J.L., Wanninkhof, R., Wong, C.S., Wallace, D.W.R., Tilbrook, B., Millero, F.J., Peng, T.H., Kozyr, A., Ono, T. and Rios, A.F. (2004) The oceanic sink for anthropogenic CO2 . Science, 305, 367–371.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turley, CM., Roberts, J.M. and Guinotte, J.M. (2007) Corals in deep-water: Will the unseen hand of ocean acidification destroy cold-water ecosystems. Coral Reefs, 26, 445–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zachos, J.C. (2005) Rapid acidification of the ocean during the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum. Science, 308, 1611–1615.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zeebe, R.E. and Wolf-Gladrow, D. (2001) CO2 in Seawater: Equilibrium, Kinetics, Isotopes. Elsevier Oceanography Series. Elsevier: Amsterdam.Google Scholar