Ocean acidification

1
Ocean acidification

• is occurring
• negative impacts climate
• negative impacts fisheries

2

• Sybil Seitzinger
• Executive Director, IGBP

www.IGBP.net
3
Ocean acidification
Atmos CO2
seawater CO2
pH

• (Feely et al., 2008)

4
Ocean acidification

• is occurring
• negative impacts climate
• negative impacts fisheries

5
Fate of anthropogenic CO2 emissions (2000-2008)

Le Quéré et al. 2009, Nature geoscience Canadell
et al. 2007, PNAS, updated
6
Climate ocean acidification

• CO2 dissolves sw
• decreases with pH

7
Climate ocean acidification

• CO2 dissolves sw
• decreases with pH
• Organisms remove CO2
• make biomass
• calcium carbonate shells

8
Coccolithophores
Ambient pH
Coccolithophores largest producer of calcite on
Earth
NASA image
Riebesell et al. 2000 Langer et al. 2006
9
pH disrupts shell formation
Ambient pH
pH
Coccolithophores largest producer of calcite on
Earth
NASA image
Riebesell et al. 2000 Langer et al. 2006
10
Ocean acidification

• is occurring
• negative impact climate
• negative impacts fisheries

11
Ocean acidification slows shell calcification

• economic losses
• global shellfish prod. 10.5 billion US
• disruption livelihoods

Net calcification rate (wt per 60 d)
Ries et al. 2009 Cooley and Doney 2009
Decreasing pH
12
International coordination

• standardize methods
• coordinate field campaigns
• synthesis

www.imber.info
13
Summary for Policymakers
14
Ocean acidification

• is occurring
• negative impacts climate
• negative impacts fisheries
• Still much to be learned!

15

• Sybil Seitzinger
• Executive Director, IGBP

16
(No Transcript)