From Duke University
Fluctuation ‘adds insult to injury’ for marine creatures
DURHAM, N.C. – A new Duke University-led study has documented dramatic, natural short-term increases in the acidity of a North Carolina estuary.
“The natural short-term variability in acidity we observed over the course of one year exceeds 100-year global predictions for the ocean as a whole and may already be exerting added pressure on some of the estuary’s organisms, particularly shelled organisms that are especially susceptible to changes in pH,” said Zackary I. Johnson, Arthur P. Kaupe Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment.
The short-term spikes in the acidity of the estuary were driven by changes in temperature, water flow, biological activity and other natural factors, the researchers said. And they are occurring in addition to the long-term acidification taking place in Earth’s oceans as a result of human-caused climate change.
“For vulnerable coastal marine ecosystems, this may be adding insult to injury,” said Johnson, who was lead author of the study.
When the effects of long-term ocean acidification and short-term natural variation combine, they can create “extreme events” which may be especially harmful to coastal marine life, he said.
The study was conducted at the Pivers Island Coastal Observatory at the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C., as part of a long-term coastal monitoring program. Researchers collected seawater samples from Beaufort Inlet weekly for a year and on a daily and hourly basis for shorter periods to track changes in the water’s pH and dissolved inorganic carbon on multiple time scales.
Numerous studies have shown that increasing amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide from human sources are finding their way into the world’s oceans. When the carbon dioxide dissolves in seawater, it reduces the water’s pH and the ability of organisms to form calcium carbonate minerals that are the building blocks of many species’ shells and skeletons. This process is known as ocean acidification.
If current trends continue, experts predict that the mean ocean pH will decrease by about 0.2 units over the next 50 years. A drop of that magnitude could have far-reaching effects on ocean ecosystems and organisms.
“We may see significant changes in biological processes such as primary production,” said Dana Hunt, assistant professor of microbial ecology, who co-authored the new study. “Some organisms, such as phytoplankton, may benefit. Many others, including shelled organisms and corals, will not.”
The Duke team’s analysis showed that a wide range of natural variables, including changes in temperature, algal production and respiration, and water movement caused by tides and storms, triggered sharp spikes in the inlet’s acidity. Some changes occurred over the course of a season; others took place on a daily or hourly basis.
“Understanding to what extent pH naturally varies in coastal ecosystems worldwide will be essential for predicting where and when the effects of increasing ocean acidity will be most profound, and what organisms and ecosystems may be most affected,” Hunt said. “Our research demonstrates we have to take into account a wide range of environmental variables, not just pH.”
The study appears in the peer-reviewed open-access journal PLOS ONE.
Johnson and Hunt’s co-authors were research technician Benjamin Wheeler, doctoral student Christopher Ward and former undergraduate Christina Carlson, all of Duke; and Sara Blinebry, a student intern from Carteret County Community College. Blinebry is now a research technician in Johnson’s lab. Carlson is now a policy research assistant at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The study was funded by National Science Foundation grants to Johnson and Hunt and through private support through Duke’s Nicholas School.
CITATION: “Dramatic Variability of the Carbonate System at a Temperate Coastal Ocean Site (Beaufort, North Carolina) is Regulated by Physical and Biogeochemical Processes on Multiple Timescales,” by Zackary I. Johnson, Benjamin J. Wheeler, Sara K. Blinebry, Christina M. Carlson, Christopher S. Ward, Dana E. Hunt. PLOS ONE, Dec. 17, 2013. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0085117
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The magical CO2 strikes again. Sarc.
“A new Duke University-led study has documented dramatic, natural short-term increases in the acidity of a North Carolina estuary.”
I assume these very clever scientists mean a reduction in alkaninity?
Surely as the ocean is an alkaline solution, any change in pH should be described as a reduction or increase in alkalinity rather than in terms of acidity? Failure to do so brings into question the authors basic understanding of High School Chemistry and encourages the supposition that any science in the paper has been twisted to conform with the CAGW narrative.
“Our research demonstrates we have to take into account a wide range of environmental variables, not just pH.” That’s it. They have performed a study for the BS article they produce but they have absolutely nothing.
Don’t send your kids to Duke University unless it has been your objective to breed “Morons” from the beginning.
I have sailed around these estuaries for years. There are innumerable swamps upstream and on the edge of these that contain enough tannic acid to stain your boat brown. A good rain or a change in wind will drive these waters out into the currents and changes can occur fairly rapidly. Plus this area is extremely shallow.
Maybe not the best place to conduct a “representative” study. Of course, Duke has their research center located there so it is much easier to go out the back door of the building and drop a water bottle in than to set up multiple locations that require someone getting in a boat on bad days.
Reduced alkalinity… Oceanic acidification always reminds me of Nektar’s second album, ‘A Tab in the Ocean’.
What they don’t tell you:
1) aquatic organisms EAT CO2 and carbonate ions when they grow causing order of magnitude pH shifts of higher pH to 9 – 10 from ~8 of the water that surrounds them
2) sea water has massive buffering capacity so that while local water pH may shift, subsequent mixing will generally quickly restore prior equilibrium.
Conclusion: ocean life is already adapted to the usual changes in local pH far larger than the pitiful “long term .2 pH units” observed from air CO2 concentrations.
Just more tales “full of sound and fury; signifying nothing.”
Acidity occurs around remote beach front hotels. usually where the climate kiddies have been drinking too much pop ‘n eating too much poop from the day before they scoop the water and start pushing local trees over clinging for life on the old exposed coral beds.
The fact of the matter is, the warmer the water, the less CO2 stays in solution.
How stupid this article is becomes evident when you replace acidity with warming and Ph by temperature.
Claim: Local factors cause dramatic spikes in warming.
Conclusion: “Our research demonstrates to take into account a wide range of environmental variables, not just temperature”.
I think I go fishing.
‘ acidification’ what a nice ‘scary ‘ word , while the scientifical more accurate ‘less base’ is rather boring. But then what matters is the ‘message’ not the data
Makes you wonder given these animals evolved and have been around for hundred of thousands or even millions year how they managed to last this long given all the past changes in ocean ‘acidification’.
The real take is that the marine environment is very robust and capable of handling a wide range of conditions, including dynamic pH.
Better URL:
http://nicholas.duke.edu/news/local-factors-cause-dramatic-spikes-coastal-ocen-acidity
Last I checked, the Duke Foundation people had spent well north of $1 billion on global warming stuff.
Sounds like the ocean can buffer the effects of the river quite effectively then. Which is a positive sign.
Scientists are just now beginning to discover just how variable pH can be in different marine ecosystems. For example, on the west coast, depending on whether there is substantial upwelling or not (it varies), pH can vary from about 7.8 to about 8.1. A few years ago, nobody knew this could happen, at least in the published literature. The Scripps Institute study which made the findings above sampled something like 18 sites worldwide, and found that even in the least variable parts of the oceans, pH wasn’t constant.
You can say that it isn’t the natural variability that is the problem, but the small added CO2-induced reduction in pH. That certainly seems backwards: if natural organisms can tolerate wide swings in pH, it speaks to resiliency, not to fragility.
We need long term studies, such as are now happening in the Great Barrier Reef, where you take a natural system with all its complexity, and then you add CO2 with bubblers, so that you get an area with pH that is lower by about .2 points, with the effect diminishing with distance from the bubbler. You can then look at what happens in the natural world, with the pH of 2100 or thereabouts. THAT is when you can find out if there are any deleterious effects.
The reason you have to do this is partly that lab studies won’t get you the answer, but partly because many of these sea creatures, whether with shells or not, were around at the end of the Eocene, when CO2 levels were about 1,100 ppm, plus or minus. They survived then, so they may well have the genetic capability to deal with 600 ppm of CO2 and the pH that results. Of course, there are likely to be some CHANGES, yes. But do we take apart western economies because of changes in ecosystems that let all creatures survive, but just change the balance? Let’s see what capabilities these creatures really do have. We need real science.
And despite the attempt at fear mongering from these scientists (or perhaps their PR people), they are doing real science, their problem isn’t the science, but the fear mongering in the press statement.
This looks like a non-issue to me. One local factor I didn’t see mentioned is the presence of natural tannic acids in the tributaries that flow into these estuaries. Swamps and rivers in the southeast are typically the color of coffee/cola with pH values in the range of 3 to 5. This is due to relatively high levels of tannic acids released during the decomposition of plant matter in the surrounding forests and marshes. It’s nothing new and nothing bad. Estuarine ecosystems evolved with these natural influxes of acidic water. As a result, estuarine organisms have likely adapted to these natural pH fluctuations. One would expect Duke University Ph.Ds who study these environments to know that.
My stars! This is as scary as if long term Global Warming was compounded by horrific things called ‘winter’ and ‘summer’. Or maybe just ‘day’ and ‘night’. How will the ecosystem survive?
Oh wait. What they’re calling acidification is just neutralisation. The sophistry of shysters does not will intellectual assent from any honest person.
R Babcock says: @ur momisugly January 3, 2014 at 5:25 am
I have sailed around these estuaries for years. There are innumerable swamps upstream and on the edge of these that contain enough tannic acid…
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Tannic acid is just one of the organic acids found in swamps.
I had the displeasure of titrating water from the Merrimack river (MA) (aka swamp water) to figure out how much KOH to add to the deionized water for each batch to bring the pH into the correct range. Since we were in a drought fresh rain water caused the swamps to be ‘Flushed’ every time it rained. so the amount changed wildly from day to day and even batch to batch on the same day.
My boss insisted I come up with a standard amount to add and fired me when I refused to do the impossible.
Reality bit her but good when she came up with a standard amount, ruined a large number of batches and joined me in the unemployment as the VP of manufacturing got back from vacation.
Don’t you love Karma? :>)
Oh God! Now that the first card of the annual pack failed (Antarctic melting) they soon come to the second card, played every year in November and March (ocean acidification)
Look at the two annual peaks clearly here: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=ocean%20acidification
This is getting too predictable…
Later came: tornadoes, permafrost, hurricanes, ocean acidification again, blah, blah, blah
Oops re typo. Should have read:
…Does not earn intellectual assent from any honest person.
If a reduction in alkalinity is called acidification then I want to see Minute Maid advertize its reduced acid orange juice as alkalized orange juice.
When I see phrases such as “long-term ocean acidification,” I see the purported study as being nothing but eco-activism run amok. I would be more receptive to the message if it used such terms as “long-term ocean neutralization.”
But then, science has prostituted itself to keep the funding spigot open, so they choose the “correct” hot-button phrases. Just keep on pushing the panic mode … eventually the wolf will eat the boy.
Call this stuff “Tabloid” publication. Fact light, and emotion heavy. “What your acidity reveals about your bio-future.”
That’s not necessarily bad. As Mark Steyn pointed out one time, at least the tabloids are recognizing that they can’t take their audience for granted. They have to write in an interesting style.
North Carolina has blackwater and brownwater rivers/estuaries, and I believe that the Duke laboratory is near the confluence of both of those types of rivers. The changes relate to lots of factors, and the study notes that the observed changes are natural. Then, the speculation begins on adding CO2 to the process. The assumption is that there will be incremental impacts from a trend to lower pH for the estuaries and ocean. However, as noted above, this doesn’t account for the dynamics of ocean current, upwelling, or biological responses and adaptations. They assert that shellfish will definitely be harmed, which needs to be studied in real estuaries and oceans–not just in the lab. The suggested study around the Great Barrier reef is a great suggestion, but it also needs to be done in other marine environments with different geological and biological components and biological systems.
As noted above, the study is useful, but the speculation exceeds what was shown.
LEt me see if I have this right. There are huge natural variations in acidity that organisms have no trouble dealing with. On the other hand the small changes caused by CO2 are going to cause everything to die?
@ur momisugly Gail Combs says: January 3, 2014 at 6:07 am
Sounds like your boss was a Duke alumna.
Duke must have run short on students to abuse.