Researchers from the University of Tsukuba find that ocean acidification restricts algal communities to a state of low biodiversity and complexity
UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA
Tsukuba, Japan – Out with the old, in with the new, as the New Year’s saying goes, but not where the marine environment is concerned. Researchers from Japan have discovered that ocean acidification keeps algal communities locked in a simplified state of low biodiversity.
In a study published on 11th January 2021 in Global Change Biology, researchers from the University of Tsukuba have revealed that as oceanic carbon dioxide levels rise, the biodiversity and ecological complexity of marine algal communities decline.
Ocean acidification is the continuing increase in the acidity of the Earth’s oceans, caused by the absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). The largest contributor to this acidification is human-caused CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.
“Ocean acidification is harmful to a lot of different marine organisms,” says lead author of the study Professor Ben P. Harvey. “This affects not only ecosystem functions, but the goods and services that people get from marine resources.”
To examine the changes caused by CO2-enriched waters in algal communities, the researchers anchored tiles in the ocean for the algae to grow on. The tiles were placed in reference conditions (i.e., ones that represent the structure and function of biological communities subject to no/very minor human-caused disturbances) and acidified conditions. The team used a natural CO2 seep for the acidified conditions to represent the CO2 conditions at the end of this century, and compared differences between the cooler months (January to July) and warmer months (July to January).
“We found that the tiles ended up being taken over by turf algae in the acidified conditions, and the communities had lower diversity, complexity and biomass,” explains Professor Harvey. “This pattern was consistent throughout the seasons, keeping these communities locked in simplified systems that had low biodiversity.”
The team also transplanted established communities between the two conditions. The transplanted communities ultimately matched the other communities around them (i.e., high biodiversity, complexity and biomass in the reference conditions, and vice versa for the acidified conditions).
“By understanding the ecological processes that change community structure, we can better evaluate how ocean acidification is likely to alter communities in the future,” says Professor Harvey.
The results of this study highlight that if atmospheric CO2 emissions are not reduced, we may see an increased loss of large algal habitats (such as kelp forests). But the study also shows that shallow-water marine communities can recover if significant reductions in CO2 emissions are achieved, such as those urged by the Paris Agreement.
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The article, “Ocean acidification locks algal communities in a species-poor early successional stage,” was published in Global Change Biology at DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15455
I just swallowed a glass of water that was over 1000% more acidic than sea water. Wish me luck.
Just don’t swallow the volcanic seep water. They don’t mention temperature or mineral differences in the abstract. Extreme conditions are dominated by extremophiles? Shocking, must be global warming.
Here is a good paper on the chemistry of CO2 seeps:https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10533-020-00737-9
CO2 seeps apparently often include H2S, that perfectly benign compound (sarc) that is only mildly acidifying and therefore of no concern.
I survived and am about to experiment with a fully carbonated beverage, which contains CO2, CH3CH2OH and various other fermentation products. Most scary, the acidity of this beverage is one million % greater than that of sea water.
I hope you gag! Because of you almost killing my granma by not wearing a mask just 15 000 miles away, my entire country has been proscribed alcohol, and all the liquor stores are boarded up.
I hate you and your bragging about committing suicide by fermentation product, you…you…denier!
Climate alarmism locks the scientific community in a simplified state.
Yeah somehow a tiny inflow of CO2 over time is a concern in a body of water already loaded with around the estimated 38,000 PgC of CO2, it is so silly.
Source
How many olympic swimming pools is that?
No doubt that soon seawater will be a good substitute for sulpheric acid…
And we could all charge our batteries! Finally, a renewable that might work!
Using “acidification”, the paper doesn’t woth the ink it’s printed with.
worse…much much worse….these people are idiots…on flat out lying cons
““We found that the tiles ended up being taken over by turf algae in the acidified conditions”
turf algae is always the first to establish….it creates a strata for the higher algae to attach to
…and then go on to admit their lying…by saying this
CO2 had no effect at all……
====================
“The team also transplanted established communities between the two conditions. The transplanted communities ultimately matched the other communities around them (i.e., high biodiversity, complexity and biomass in the reference conditions, and vice versa for the acidified conditions).
Of course but Caveat–I know nothing about volcanic seeps in Japan or anywhere else and this is only the abstract, the first line of which is their conclusion
“Long term exposure to CO2 enriched waters can considerably alter marine biological community development, often resulting in simplified systems dominated by turf algae that possess reduced biodiversity and low ecological complexity.” Second to last line has more to do about telling what we need to do
“This shows that meaningful reductions in pCO2 can enable the recovery of algal communities” They used recruitment tiles at “(pHT 8.137 ± 0.056 SD) and CO2 enriched conditions (pHT 7.788 ± 0.105 SD)” I have a little experience with recruitment tiles, yes as they conclude–“This locked the community in a species poor early successional stage.” First come, first serve.
Never mind as this has me confused “Our transplant of preestablished communities from enriched CO2 to reference conditions demonstrated their high resilience, since they became indistinguishable from communities maintained entirely in reference conditions.” At three decimal places they are also.
they set up clean tiles…and assumed it stopped with turf algae
…if they had given it enough time…the other plants, animals, etc would have colonized it
…and proved it by moving communities (rocks with crap growing on them) and they grew and flourished
the bigger question is…how do they get away with writing this crap?
doesn’t anyone at “UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA” know any better?
First, anyone talking about “acidification” is an alarmist. I remember titration in high school chemistry, where adding a small amount of a base to an acid or a small amount of acid to a base is called “neutralization”. The ocean is slowly neutralizing.
Next, these folks talk as though going from a pH of 8.1 to a pH of 7.8 is some kind of death sentence from the ocean. According to them its gonna “lock algal communities in a simplified state.
Seems they never noticed that the pH in Alaska is on the order of 7.7, and those are some of the most productive marine regions on the planet.
Finally, people think of the pH as being both the same everywhere and constant over time. Here is the average, standard deviation and range of some locations.
And here are the changes at the inlet pipe for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
They go past the range of the study at the high and low ends, and guess what?
All of the creatures in the aquarium are doing just fine.
As you can see, these alarmist “scientists” are just hyping their results. Why? Likely for further funding, perhaps for professional advancement, I don’t know … but they are clearly alarmists.
w.
Nice graphs!
Are they? or are they just “theoretically” neutralizing.
The Aloha study showed a change, but it was too short to be any significance given the oscillations seen as other places in the Pacific.
A composition of all surface pH readings taken around the world shows a very slight increase in pH
Fred, sounds like one of those things that shouldn’t be averaged. Like “global temperature” or “global sea level”.
Which ocean, Willis?
Is it THE ocean that is reported to be in extremis by THE science?
Great graphs Willis, and Fred too. My confession is that as an organic chemist I would have probably said “acidification” for neutralizing a solution. Then again, who would have predicted the perversion of the words “progressive” and “liberal” and the more recent “insurrection”. If someone had told me that these freaks would battle fascism by banning free speech, I probably could have predicted it.
I had the same argument with Richard Black formerly the BBC’s environmental activist, er, I mean editor.
This is a guy whos column was read by many, knew the impression he was creating, the lie he was spreading and still had the gall to push the party line.
Why is my BS detector on high alert.
So a process that might take 80 years and might not even occur they have sped up so it takes a fraction of the time and they think that is scientific.
“But the study also shows that shallow-water marine communities can recover if significant reductions in CO2 emissions are achieved, such as those urged by the Paris Agreement.”
That’a a Garbage disinformation statement thrown in for virtue signaling and propaganda.
The Paris agreement makes no reductions for all the developing world, including the world’s largest emitter of CO2 by a long ways, China.
A CO2 seep can cause highly saturated CO2 conditions in the surrounding water that far exceed any high end emissions scenarios. Without quantifying the CO2 saturation levels at both locations in the water surrounding the tiles, this is a useless study that tells us nothing about ocean water pH and algae growth. High saturation levels of CO2 can make the water toxic for animal life that the diversity of algal colonies depends on.
Waters around Dobu Island in the Trobriands. On top of the Ring of Fire. Those bubbles are almost neat CO2 pouring out of the sea bed. Sea grass lush, nearby corals lush etc. Things are a bit different very close to the fumaroles, but they teem with life as well.
http://jennifermarohasy.com/2008/07/ocean-acidification-photographs-from-bob-halstead-and-a-note-from-floor-anthoni/
The study does not show the oceans are “acidifying”
It shows that algae in a rich CO2 seep is different from in normal seawater.
This is entirely expected.
A real case of a “SO WHAT” study. pertaining to NOTHING.
Having had aquaria as scholar, I always had a bottle with sugarwater and yeast, a flexible tube leading the CO2 in the water, plants were happy, as were the algae 😀
What utter nonsense. I can’t believe anyone is still talking about “ocean acidification” after years of continual correction by real scientists. The word “acidification” is a meaningless neologism intended to scare uninformed hysterics. Anyone using the term except as a parody, should be laughed out of the science department.
Hey, they also continue to show steam from power station cooling towers to indicate CO2 “pollution”
Its a CON to fool the lowest form of human mind.
They can either have ocean warming c/w decreased CO2 saturation (increased pH) or they can have ocean cooling with increased saturation and lower pH. They can’t have both at the same time.
Scary ocean acidification is just something to stir up the thumb suckers.
YES but logic and reason have no place in “Climate Science.”
GASLIGHTING EXPLAINED – Author Unknown
https://dbdailyupdate.com/2020/11/28/you-are-being-gaslighted-by-the-media-an-explainer/
Meanwhile, more proof of a MUCH warmer Holocene optimum
https://notrickszone.com/2021/01/17/proof-of-warmer-earlier-climate-swiss-geologist-studies-10800-year-old-tree-trunk-under-alps-glacier/
I’d be interested in learning how the study authors controlled for the differences in study site conditions other than CO2 concentrations. Temperatures, mineral concentrations, tides and etc.
VERY, VERY good point!
Yes. But that would be doing science properly.
They used a “CO2 seep”. What else was seeping out?
I have obtained the paper. So far, I have not found any evidence of the kind of “bending over backwards to get it right” – as advocated by Feynman.
CO2 is supposed to be leaving the oceans due to higher temp and thus less tendency towards acidity? Coastal waters can be different from open ocean due to man made and natural runoff. The world’s oceans have a huge amount of limestone which over time will offset any tendency towards becoming acidic.
“in a simplified state…”
You mean like Illinois? I am “locked in” by the collapse of my property values.
Thank You, Governor Jelly Belly Pritzker.
I think they’re talking about the mind of the “president elect”.
You mean the “President Defect?” LOL
“The largest contributor to this acidification is human-caused CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.”
Trolling for money, that is all this paper did.
Please. Human’s are responsible for around 3% of the annual CO2 budget so they can’t be responsible for the major portion of “Ocean Acidification”
BTW until the ocean achieves a pH value of 7.0 you can’t talk about increasing acidification because the ocean is still alkaline.
Hang on a minute the oceans are getting warmer, the world is getting warmer catastrophically apparently. Warm oceans outgas co2 so this shouldn’t be a problem for the oceans. This new religion seems to have some bloody big holes in it
“This new religion seems to have some bloody big holes in it”
They all do. It’s a feature, not a bug.
No, you don’t get it. Warming oceans, according to the Eco-Fascists, can only cause sea level rise that “threatens” coastal developments and cities. They can’t admit that warming oceans outgas CO2, because that undermines their claim that all of the CO2 level increase is due to human fossil fuel use, AND undermines their claim that “ocean acidification” via an increase in CO2 content is ALSO caused by human fossil fuel use..
Climate “Science” is a textbook example of the old saying “What tangled webs we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”
“This affects not only ecosystem functions, but the goods and services that people get from marine resources.”
Services? What services do people get from marine resources?
Recreational angler licenses?
Is that like the service we get from the Department of Motor Vehicles when we want permission to drive? So the DMV is a resource I guess.
No, I don’t consider government fees to be a service.
anyone who uses the term ocean acidification is no scientist … they are a propagandist …
An Alkaline solution cannot become more acidic – it can only become less alkaline.
Either we listen to the science or we are practicing scientism!
So carbon dioxide is toxic to carbon-based life forms in the ocean.. who’da thunk it?
The last time I opened a warm can of soda much of the CO2 came fizzing out. Solubility of gas in a liquid is a function of temperature, so to prevent “acidification” we would want warmer oceans that would absorb less gas. “Save the whales, I mean save the algae, warm the oceans!!”
The actual problem is that the AGW narrative keeps scientific communities locked in a simplified state of enfeebled intelligence.
Nicely put, Pat. I like to say that “climate science is in its infancy, and will remain there until the so-called “climate scientists” get over their CO2 fetish.”
I was hoping the East Asian universities, scholars and scientists could provide a bulwark of sanity while Western academe dissolves into a mush of Post-Modern nonsense.
So I’m quite disappointed to discover that they are importing half-baked western junk-scientists like Prof Harvey.
Hi Rud,
Meanwhile the chemist among us should look to –
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/A-Bjerrum-plot-of-the-carbonate-system-showing-how-the-relative-proportions-of-H2CO3_fig1_294685308
and
https://www.aqion.de/site/101
Geoff S