A review and meta-analysis of potential impacts of ocean acidification on marine calcifiers from the Southern Ocean

Figuerola, Blanca; Hancock, Alyce M.; Bax, Narissa; Cummings, Vonda J.; Downey, Rachel; Griffiths, Huw J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1764-223X; Smith, Jodie; Stark, Jonathan S.. 2021 A review and meta-analysis of potential impacts of ocean acidification on marine calcifiers from the Southern Ocean. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, 584445. 22, pp. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.584445

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Copyright © 2021 Figuerola, Hancock, Bax, Cummings, Downey, Griffiths, Smith and Stark. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
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Abstract/Summary

Understanding the vulnerability of marine calcifiers to ocean acidification is a critical issue, especially in the Southern Ocean (SO), which is likely to be the one of the first, and most severely affected regions. Since the industrial revolution, ~30% of anthropogenic CO2 has been absorbed by the global oceans. Average surface seawater pH levels have already decreased by 0.1 and are projected to decline by ~0.3 by the year 2100. This process, known as ocean acidification (OA), is shallowing the saturation horizon, which is the depth below which calcium carbonate (CaCO3) dissolves, likely increasing the vulnerability of many resident marine calcifiers to dissolution. The negative impact of OA may be seen first in species depositing more soluble CaCO3 mineral phases such as aragonite and high-Mg calcite (HMC). Ocean warming could further exacerbate the effects of OA in these particular species. Here we combine a review and a quantitative meta-analysis to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge about skeletal mineralogy of major taxonomic groups of SO marine calcifiers and to make projections about how OA might affect a broad range of SO taxa. We consider a species' geographic range, skeletal mineralogy, biological traits, and potential strategies to overcome OA. The meta-analysis of studies investigating the effects of the OA on a range of biological responses such as shell state, development and growth rate illustrates that the response variation is largely dependent on mineralogical composition. Species-specific responses due to mineralogical composition indicate that taxa with calcitic, aragonitic, and HMC skeletons, could be at greater risk to expected future carbonate chemistry alterations, and low-Mg calcite (LMC) species could be mostly resilient to these changes. Environmental and biological control on the calcification process and/or Mg content in calcite, biological traits, and physiological processes are also expected to influence species-specific responses.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.584445
ISSN:	2296-7745
Additional Keywords:	carbonate mineralogy, magnesium, aragonite, climate change, vulnerability, Antarctica, saturation horizon
Date made live:	04 Feb 2021 08:52 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529574

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.584445

ISSN:

2296-7745

Additional Keywords:

carbonate mineralogy, magnesium, aragonite, climate change, vulnerability, Antarctica, saturation horizon

Date made live:

04 Feb 2021 08:52 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529574