TY - JOUR
T1 - Chemical and Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification along the West Coast of North America
AU - Feely, Richard A.
AU - Alin, Simone R.
AU - Carter, Brendan
AU - Bednaršek, Nina
AU - Hales, Burke
AU - Chan, Francis
AU - Hill, Tessa M.
AU - Gaylord, Brian
AU - Sanford, Eric
AU - Byrne, Robert H.
AU - Sabine, Christopher L.
AU - Greeley, Dana
AU - Juranek, Lauren
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - The continental shelf region off the west coast of North America is seasonally exposed to water with a low aragonite saturation state by coastal upwelling of CO 2 -rich waters. To date, the spatial and temporal distribution of anthropogenic CO 2 (C anth ) within the CO 2 -rich waters is largely unknown. Here we adapt the multiple linear regression approach to utilize the GO-SHIP Repeat Hydrography data from the northeast Pacific to establish an annually updated relationship between C anth and potential density. This relationship was then used with the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program West Coast Ocean Acidification (WCOA) cruise data sets from 2007, 2011, 2012, and 2013 to determine the spatial variations of C anth in the upwelled water. Our results show large spatial differences in C anth in surface waters along the coast, with the lowest values (37–55 μmol kg −1 ) in strong upwelling regions off southern Oregon and northern California and higher values (51–63 μmol kg −1 ) to the north and south of this region. Coastal dissolved inorganic carbon concentrations are also elevated due to a natural remineralized component (C bio ), which represents carbon accumulated through net respiration in the seawater that has not yet degassed to the atmosphere. Average surface C anth is almost twice the surface remineralized component. In contrast, C anth is only about one third and one fifth of the remineralized component at 50 m and 100 m depth, respectively. Uptake of C anth has caused the aragonite saturation horizon to shoal by approximately 30–50 m since the preindustrial period so that undersaturated waters are well within the regions of the continental shelf that affect the shell dissolution of living pteropods. Our data show that the most severe biological impacts occur in the nearshore waters , where corrosive waters are closest to the surface. Since the pre-industrial times, pteropod shell dissolution has, on average, increased approximately 19–26% in both nearshore and offshore waters.
AB - The continental shelf region off the west coast of North America is seasonally exposed to water with a low aragonite saturation state by coastal upwelling of CO 2 -rich waters. To date, the spatial and temporal distribution of anthropogenic CO 2 (C anth ) within the CO 2 -rich waters is largely unknown. Here we adapt the multiple linear regression approach to utilize the GO-SHIP Repeat Hydrography data from the northeast Pacific to establish an annually updated relationship between C anth and potential density. This relationship was then used with the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program West Coast Ocean Acidification (WCOA) cruise data sets from 2007, 2011, 2012, and 2013 to determine the spatial variations of C anth in the upwelled water. Our results show large spatial differences in C anth in surface waters along the coast, with the lowest values (37–55 μmol kg −1 ) in strong upwelling regions off southern Oregon and northern California and higher values (51–63 μmol kg −1 ) to the north and south of this region. Coastal dissolved inorganic carbon concentrations are also elevated due to a natural remineralized component (C bio ), which represents carbon accumulated through net respiration in the seawater that has not yet degassed to the atmosphere. Average surface C anth is almost twice the surface remineralized component. In contrast, C anth is only about one third and one fifth of the remineralized component at 50 m and 100 m depth, respectively. Uptake of C anth has caused the aragonite saturation horizon to shoal by approximately 30–50 m since the preindustrial period so that undersaturated waters are well within the regions of the continental shelf that affect the shell dissolution of living pteropods. Our data show that the most severe biological impacts occur in the nearshore waters , where corrosive waters are closest to the surface. Since the pre-industrial times, pteropod shell dissolution has, on average, increased approximately 19–26% in both nearshore and offshore waters.
KW - California current large marine ecosystem
KW - Ocean acidification
KW - Anthropogenic CO2
KW - Upwelling
KW - Pteropod dissolution
UR - https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/1785
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2016.08.043
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecss.2016.08.043
DO - 10.1016/j.ecss.2016.08.043
M3 - Article
VL - 183
JO - Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science
JF - Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science
ER -