From the University of British Columbia: Endangered Gourmet Sea Snail Could be Doomed by Increasing Ocean Acidity
Increasing levels of ocean acidity could spell doom for British Columbia’s already beleaguered northern abalone, according to the first study to provide direct experimental evidence that changing sea water chemistry is negatively affecting an endangered species.
The northern abalone–prized as a gourmet delicacy–has a range that extents along the North American west coast from Baja California to Alaska. Even though British Columbia’s northern abalone commercial fisheries where closed in 1990 to protect dwindling populations, the species has continued to struggle, largely due to poaching.
To better understand the impact climate change — and specifically, increasing ocean acidity — has on this endangered species, UBC researchers exposed northern abalone larvae to water containing increased levels of CO2. Increases from 400 to 1,800 parts per million killed 40 per cent of larvae, decreased the size of larvae that did survive, and increased the rate of shell abnormalities.
“This is quite bad news, not only in terms of the endangered populations of abalone in the wild, but also the impact it might have on the prospects for aquaculture and coastal economics,” says Christopher Harley, Associate Professor with the Department of Zoology and one of the authors of the study.
“And because the species is already thought to be limited by reproductive output and recruitment, these effects are likely to scale up to the population level, creating greater limits on population growth.”
Average CO2 levels in the open ocean hover at 380 parts per million, a number which is excepted to increase slowly over the next century.
What concerns the researchers are the much higher spikes in dissolved CO2 that are already being observed along the BC coast, particularly in late spring and early summer when northern abalone populations are spawning.
The findings were published in the latest issue of the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology.
“While we’re looking at a single species that is culturally important as a source of food and artistic inspiration for many coastal Pacific Northwest First Nations, this information may have implications for other abalone species in other parts of the world,” says Ryan Crim, lead author on the paper who conducted the research while a graduate student with the UBC Department of Zoology.
Other species of abalone are farmed around the world, principally in China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. The black, white and pink abalone are also endangered on the west coast–red abalone are still an economically viable food species.
The study was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and conducted in collaboration with the Bamfield-Huu-ay-aht Community Abalone Project, a small abalone hatchery in Bamfield which has subsequently gone out of business. The dual mission of the hatchery was to produce cultured abalone for high end restaurants, and to restore endangered abalone by culturing and releasing larvae and juveniles to the wild.
Harley and Crim will continue to work with the aquaculture industry to study the effects of acidification on oysters and other shellfish.
Paper:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022098111000499 (paywalled)
Erik Ramberg says:
May 25, 2011 at 11:19 am
Is the concern we should have for the natural environment now predicated on whether the animals and plants nearing extinction are tasty or not?
Sounds like a plan to me. /sarc
Let’s put some numbers on this:
It would take 1475 times as much CO2 as is in the atmosphere (752,000 Peta g) to bring the oceans up to 1800 ppm, and even then, that would be the average, with a much lower value near the surface. And it would have to be frozen solid, or better, to get that high.
What planet are these people from?? It is really hard not to make ad hom remarks when faced with such nonsense.
in the boiler world there is a situation in the water chemistry called “dissolved oxygen”. that is oxygen dissolved in the water that literally eats holes in the really important parts of the boiler.
dissolved oxygen has been removed for nearly a century by cascading the water down a series of steps in a deareating feed tank (DFT or DA Tank) or through the use of spray patterns (exactly like the cone shaped pattern of a hand garden nozzle only much larger).
true the temperature in the tank (at normal atmospheric pressure) is somewhat in excess of 164F but i am referring to the agitation present in the liquid/vapor.
if this situation removes dissolved oxygen then wouldn’t agitation [granted over a longer period of time and a different temperature] remove the dissolved carbon dioxide thereby making the abalone thing a nonproblem ???
C
Another paper demolished by WUWT on-line peer review.
Crispin in Waterloo says:
May 25, 2011 at 2:31 pm
The CO2 content of seawater is 90 ppm.
http://www.seafriends.org.nz/oceano/seawater.htm
Making it…
Worse that we thought!
From 90 to 400 ppm is a lot – to 1800 ppm is well over “a lot”!
“Empirical evidence”. – LOL
BravoZulu says on May 25, 2011 at 12:08 pm:
In the ocean it typically exists as carbonates which is what its shell is made of. If they expose a relatively small amount of water to unrealistically high atmosphere CO2, it is not surprising that they might cause problems with some of the larva. The extra calcium and buffers in an open ocean would probably translate that into increased shell growth.
About 99% of the CO2 that enters the ocean stays as CO2 molecules dissolved in the water. Any carbonic acid formed is neutralized by solid calcium and magnesium carbonates. The pH of the open ocean can never fall below ca 8 due to the buffering action of the massive amounts of solid calcium and magnesium carbonates on the ocean floor. There is very little carbonate ions in seawater, ca 8 mg per liter.
Formation of carbonic acid:
CO2 + H2O —> H2CO3
Neutralization of carbonic acid:
H2CO3 + CaCO3 —> Ca(HCO3)2
By spiking the CO2 to such high levels in the air over the water, these guys suffocated the poor little larva and young adults.
In recent times I have read several articles in the Vancouver Sun about poachers being nabbed with large amounts of abalone. Hungry sea otters are gobbling up lots of ablone also.
ferd berple says:
May 25, 2011 at 12:26 pm
“What these so called scientists forget is that not all abalone are the same. Some will carry the genes to thrive in lower PH oceans, some will carry the genes to survive in higher PH oceans. Having already survived both, they will adapt. ”
Maybe adaptation (in the sense of Darwinian mutation and selection) is not even necessary, but only a change in the methylation pattern of the genom; switching off some genes and switching on some others. Methylation patterns can be inherited but also modified by environmental influences; IOW parents could theoretically react on higher acidity and inherit this experience via the methylation. I know it sounds a bit like Lysenkoism but this time it seems to be true.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics
Ray says:
May 25, 2011 at 1:19 pm
Now you are on to something. In our heavily medicated culture we have been passing substantial amounts of various medications into the sewers for years now. You’d think we’d be looking into whether there is any harm being caused. Look what happened with Diclofenac. That’s Voltaren for those that wonder. A medication widely available without a prescription that causes death in birds within 24 hours. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2812785/
But oh no. We are running around on bent knees wailing about carbon dioxide to the point where previously respectable centres for higher learning have to gas helpless molluscs with high doses of CO2 until they expire to “prove” a specious point. UBC is a joke.
By the way, there is a thriving first nation industry in Abalone. Every restaurant owner in the Lower Mainland will tell you about trucks showing up at their back door loaded with various species of sea life that are banned to anyone else. I live in the heart of the so called native food fishery and can tell you it is anything but. I can get anything — including Sea Otter — if I want it. CO2 my sweaty backside!
Shame on UBC!
Charlie Foxtrot says:
May 25, 2011 at 12:20 pm
“Any time fish, and probably mollusks, are subjected to a rapid change in their environment, there tends to be a die-off, based on my limited experience with tropical fish. I suspect Abalone would not respond well to a rapid change in the chemistry of their water. A slow change, over a number of generations, would undoubtedly result in an entirely different outcome. ”
Maybe also an effect of epigenetics in action.
Mike says:
May 25, 2011 at 11:52 am
“You demand empirical evidence we are damaging the planet, but when you get some you simply dismiss it. Amazing.”
Somebody puts Abalone larvae into a mixture of water and CO2 in ridiculous amounts, and you call that evidence for anything that happens in the real world?
You could just as well point to Venus and say this will happen on Earth next…
Oh wait, you probably do… Nevermind.
So poachers are decimating the species but AGW is the focus? No wonder abalone is endangered.
Erik Ramberg says:
May 25, 2011 at 11:19 am
I am quite sure there is a posh soiree going on in some multi zillion dollar home somewhere that is serving nothing but endangered species to give the guests a fuller sense of their power. Personally, I like to mow down on a nice fillet of Spotted Owl, or roasted Marbled Murrelet. Bald Eagle is quite tasty (I’m serious!) and Green Turtle soup is to die for!
mmmmmmmmmmm… sea otter….
They took CO2 to an unreasonable level, and only saw a 40% reduction???? Extrapolating down from unrealistic high numbers is just junk science. You don’t need a lab to show that at some level of acidity there will be negative effects, that is just common sense.
Lethal dosage of radiation vs local differences in background radiation come to mind. How about the effects of one or two glasses of wine vs. 20 glasses of wine. The analogies of why this study is flawed are all around.
…explains why there’s no abalone on Mars……
Other than that, a total waste of time and money.
“a small abalone hatchery in Bamfield which has subsequently gone out of business”
“Harley and Crim will continue to work with the aquaculture industry to study the effects of acidification on oysters and other shellfish.”
===========================================================
Try aerating your hatchery you nubnuts………………………
Save the Abalone – hippys can’t be denied those cool shells. I had blue Abalone on Chatham Island, NZ in 1995. It’s OK, but gimme lobster any day!
You’re never alone with an abalone.
But when they’re extinct, you’re sinked.
(Late apology to Ogden Nash)
For their next study, they will assume the average water temperature in British Columbia goes up 10 degrees Celsius, and then document the effect on fish reproduction….
Reporter: “Are the oceans more acidic”?
Scientist pushing publicity for his pet research project funding: “Well, no, but they could be in the future”
“Average CO2 levels in the open ocean hover at 380 parts per million, a number which is excepted to increase slowly over the next century.”
This makes no sense. The 390 ppm is the CO2 in the atmosphere, not the ocean. By mass the solubility using a solubility constant of 0.002 and 0.000390 atm CO2, CO2 is about 34 ppb and by molecule it’s 14 ppb. Thus, any calculations that simply substitutes the atmospheric [CO2] will be a gross exaggeration; here, it looks like a 10,000-fold over-estimation. The solubility of CO2 is increased by its formation of carbonic acid and subsequent deprotonation but I see no way that this leads to a concentration exactly the same as in the atmosphere. It is just too pat an answer.
Since “The species is struggling largely due to poaching” then acidity is the least of its worries.
Harold Pierce Jr Says:
“About 99% of the CO2 that enters the ocean stays as CO2 molecules dissolved in the water. Any carbonic acid formed is neutralized by solid calcium and magnesium carbonates. The pH of the open ocean can never fall below ca 8 due to the buffering action of the massive amounts of solid calcium and magnesium carbonates on the ocean floor. There is very little carbonate ions in seawater, ca 8 mg per liter.”
The carbonates used to be CO2. All the limestone on the bottom of the oceans is carbonates. Limestone is magnesium and calcium carbonate. That is where the CO2 goes in the carbon cycle. The vast majority of the CO2 will end up as carbonates in the ocean and eventually limestone deposits . Some will end up as oil from dead animals and other organic matter falling in to the ocean floor especially in eutrification zones. Volcanoes would normally resupply the atmosphere with CO2. We were saying the same thing actually except the part about the CO2 remaining CO2. Increasing the CO2 would increase the carbonates of magnesium and calcium. There is many times as much of those ions as there is carbon dioxide. Carbon is sequestered either by organic matter falling to the ocean bottom, carbonates precipitating or in the shells and skeletons of living organisms.
My point was that it was ridiculous to assume that an ocean is going to act the same as a pool exposed to very high CO2 which sounds like exactly what you were saying. It would probably be impossible for humans to raise CO2 that high in the first place with the ocean being there even if we tried. The carbonates in the ocean are mostly precipitated but there is vast quantities of them on the ocean floor. Increasing acidity or more precisely adding more acid would just increase the carbonates that are dissolved and that is what would probably help the abalone build its shells. More carbonates means that more is sequestered. Changing the pH probably has more to do with the effects of photosynthesis and decomposition than CO2 concentration.
I’ve been keeping reef tank for over 20 years, currently I have 3 x 135 gallons, and a 75 gallon.
My pH varies dramatically throughout the day, and all the fish and inverts are okay. The pH typically swings between 7.8 and 8.3 as lights come on, fish are fed, and other perfectly normal biological processes occur. Temperature varies by several degrees F too.
I really don’t worry about pH swings, as the creatures I care for obviously don’t worry about it much either. A good argonite substrate and sufficient rock will assure that the pH never dips to harmful levels, analogous to the limestone in the world’s oceans. pH will never be acidic, it simply won’t happen again. Many aquarists actually run CO2 systems, purposefully injecting CO2 into the water column.
Sure the pH of the oceans did use to be acidic, the same time all the shelled sea creatures were evolving: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/12/oldest-shrimp-world-oklahoma/
Good luck debating that point Lubchenco as you attempt to restore credibility to NOAA.
“Pompous Git says:
May 25, 2011 at 1:08 pm
My now ex-boss used to have a prawn farm. He fed his prawns on phytoplankton that he also farmed. To increase the yield of phytoplankton, he injected extra CO2 into the ponds. One of the things that made me sceptical of the recent claim that phytoplankton had declined 50% in the world’s oceans. The CO2 increase over the last century should have led to an increase.
REPLY: It has, see this. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/03/24/the-earths-biosphere-is-booming-data-suggests-that-co2-is-the-cause-part-2/
The claim of CO2 causing phytoplankton reduction is Alarmist BS – Anthony”
The decline in ocean phytoplankton is believed to be due to warming causing slower overturning resulting in few nutrients circulating u0 from the deep ocean to the surface. Land plant production is increased through the 1990’s due to higher CO2 levels but has now dipped down because of increased drought as predicted.
Global phytoplankton decline over the past century
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7306/abs/nature09268.html
Drought-Induced Reduction in Global Terrestrial Net Primary Production from 2000 Through 2009
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/329/5994/940.short
TrueNorthist says:
May 25, 2011 at 3:11 pm
This was my point. We all know that mollusks are natural filters. They will absorb every chemicals out there. And we all know that they don’t really remove chemicals from sewage. Those go through the system.
Sewers are not what they used to be. People and companies throw everything in there from all sorts of chemicals and heavy metals too. This is why it was never a good idea from the beginning to spread it to farm lands. Carbon dioxide is really the last of a worry if we want to protect aquatic species.
I don’t know why they actually got a grant to do this research.
I am also in the Lower Mainland and wouldn’t mind having your contact. I am appalled that we live next to the ocean and have so little of it in our stores and markets.