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Submarine springs reveal how coral reefs respond to ocean acidification
http://news.ucsc.edu/2013/06/calcifying-corals.html[font face=Serif][font size=5]Submarine springs reveal how coral reefs respond to ocean acidification[/font]
June 17, 2013
By Tim Stephens
[font size=3]Ocean acidification due to rising carbon dioxide levels will reduce the density of coral skeletons, making coral reefs more vulnerable to disruption and erosion, according to a new study of corals growing where submarine springs naturally lower the pH of seawater.
The study, led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), is the first to show that corals are not able to fully acclimate to low pH conditions in nature.
"People have seen similar effects in laboratory experiments," said coauthor Adina Paytan, a research scientist in the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz. "We looked in places where the corals are exposed to low pH for their entire life span. The good news is that they don't just die. They are able to grow and calcify, but they are not producing robust structures."
With atmospheric carbon dioxide rising steadily, the oceans are absorbing more carbon dioxide, which lowers the pH of the surface waters. Ocean acidification refers to changes in seawater chemistry that move it closer to the acidic range of the pH scale, although seawater is not expected to become literally acidic. Paytan's team studied coral reefs along the Caribbean coastline of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula where submarine springs lower the pH of the surrounding seawater in a localized, natural setting. The effect is similar to the widespread ocean acidification that is occurring as the oceans absorb increasing amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
…[/font][/font]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1301589110 (doesn’t work yet)
June 17, 2013
By Tim Stephens
[font size=3]Ocean acidification due to rising carbon dioxide levels will reduce the density of coral skeletons, making coral reefs more vulnerable to disruption and erosion, according to a new study of corals growing where submarine springs naturally lower the pH of seawater.
The study, led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), is the first to show that corals are not able to fully acclimate to low pH conditions in nature.
"People have seen similar effects in laboratory experiments," said coauthor Adina Paytan, a research scientist in the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz. "We looked in places where the corals are exposed to low pH for their entire life span. The good news is that they don't just die. They are able to grow and calcify, but they are not producing robust structures."
With atmospheric carbon dioxide rising steadily, the oceans are absorbing more carbon dioxide, which lowers the pH of the surface waters. Ocean acidification refers to changes in seawater chemistry that move it closer to the acidic range of the pH scale, although seawater is not expected to become literally acidic. Paytan's team studied coral reefs along the Caribbean coastline of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula where submarine springs lower the pH of the surrounding seawater in a localized, natural setting. The effect is similar to the widespread ocean acidification that is occurring as the oceans absorb increasing amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
…[/font][/font]
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/06/12/1301589110.abstract
