*[Enwl-eng] Ocean Acidification Impacts Marine Life

[ENWLine]

*What Does Ocean Acidification Mean for Sea Life?*
Scientists take a closer look at the impact of carbon dioxide on
marine ecosystems

Illustration Omitted:
Purple urchin photoPhoto by Dana Roeber Murray for Heal the Bay
(Flickr/Creative Commons)

Writer Elizabeth Grossman Author and journalist

February 7, 2013 --- The sky is low and dusky, and the rain comes in
blustery gusts as we make our way out onto a spill of rocks that juts
seaward from the shore just north of Boiler Bay on the Oregon coast. Low
tide is just beginning; at times it looks as if we'll be swamped by
waves. It's October 30 and in the late afternoon gloaming, my eyes take
a few minutes to adjust so I can begin to differentiate mussels from
rock and to spot the clutch of seals watching our progress.

To the scientists who make up the Ocean Margin Ecosystem Group for
Acidification Studies, this spot is known as the Fogarty Creek
Intertidal Long-Term Ecological Research Site. The obvious drama of this
place comes from the waves and wind and charismatic whiskered marine
mammals. But I'm here to witness a different kind of drama with Oregon
State University graduate student Jeremy Rose, who specializes in marine
ecology and is part of a team of scientists investigating the effects of
ocean acidification on the small organisms that inhabit the rocky
tide-pool landscape beneath our feet.

Over the past 250 or so years, the acidity of the world's oceans has
increased 30 percent.

While it can't be seen in a glance, what's happening to the marine
environment on the Pacific Northwest coast as a result of the growing
concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere is indeed
dramatic. Since the mid-18th century, human activity---mainly fossil
fuel burning---has increased the atmospheric concentration of CO2 by
about 40 percent. Because oceans absorb about a quarter of the CO2
released into the atmosphere each year, as more CO2 enters the
atmosphere, more ends up in the ocean. "Think of carbon as a global
pollutant that affects the ocean everywhere it touches the sky,"
explains Stanford University marine science professor and Hopkins Marine
Station director Steve Palumbi.

As CO2 dissolves in seawater, chemical reactions produce an acid. Over
the past 250 or so years, the acidity of the world's oceans has
increased 30 percent. Scientists believe oceans have not experienced the
current level of acidity in about 2 million years. Not only that, but
according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration senior
scientist Richard Feely, conditions are changing faster than anything
seen in geologic history. If today's global CO2 emission trends
continue, scientists estimate that by the end of this century, oceans
will be more acidic than they have been for more than 20 million years.
Carbon dioxide given off by vehicles, power plants and other human
sources spells trouble for many marine organisms. The gas combines with
seawater to form carbonic acid, which reduces availability of the
carbonate ions they need to build shells and other structures.
Acidification also appears to disrupt physiological processes.
Illustration by Sarah Youngquist.

Carbon dioxide given off by vehicles, power plants and other human
sources spells trouble for many marine organisms. The gas combines with
seawater to form carbonic acid, which reduces availability of the
carbonate ions they need to build shells and other structures.
Acidification also appears to disrupt physiological processes.
Illustration by Sarah Youngquist.

And that's a problem. The rise in dissolved CO2 and concurrent drop in
pH (lower pH indicates higher acidity), changes ocean chemistry in a way
that robs marine organisms, such as mollusks and corals, of the
carbonate ions they need to build shells and skeletons. At the same
time, the increasing acidity can erode the structures they've already
built, and appears capable of disrupting their bodies in other ways that
make it hard for them to thrive. This is bad news not only for the
organisms themselves, but also for people who rely on them for food and
jobs, and perhaps even more profoundly, for the stability of the
ecosystems with which they---and we---are intertwined.

Investigating Impacts

The chemistry behind ocean acidification is well understood. What
scientists are working on now is trying to understand what is happening
within marine organisms and their coastal communities as the ocean's pH
drops at the same time marine environments experience other stressors
such as warming temperatures, pollution and overfishing.

Among their big questions: Can marine species adapt to this rapid
change, and if so, how? Or as Morgan Kelly, a postdoctoral researcher
studying ocean acidification impacts at the University of California,
Santa Barbara, puts it, "Will evolution come to the rescue?"

To begin to answer this question, scientists are exploring how---down to
the subcellular level---marine species are responding biologically to
acidification. They are also examining how individual species' responses
may affect marine ecosystems. An adverse impact to one species, or
conditions that overwhelmingly favor another, can create imbalances in
the marine food web and lead to survival problems for a whole suite of
species. And on an even larger scale, scientists are investigating what
such changes may mean for fisheries and the people who depend on them,
and how marine policy and conservation might respond.

Laboratory experiments are part of the picture. But because ocean
conditions are so complex and difficult to replicate, scientists are
also conducting research in places like Fogarty Creek. The OMEGAS
project, which includes study sites along the northern California and
Oregon coast, is tracking ocean pH with offshore sensors while
monitoring what's happening biologically at these sites to intertidal
species as seawater becomes more acidic. As UC Santa Barbara professor
Gretchen Hofmann explained at the 2012 Ocean in a High CO2 World meeting
held in Monterey, Calif., in September, scientists are investigating the
"fine tuning of populations to their local environment" in locations now
experiencing the most dramatically lowered pH.

Purple Urchin

As Rose and I walk out on the rocks, at first I see only boulders and
water. But as I crouch to get a better look, an intricate world comes
into focus. Yards of pearly black mussels are punctuated by patches of
pale whorled pointy shells of gooseneck barnacles. Beneath the surface
of the water, trapped in small pools as the tide recedes, are clusters
of anemones that look like upside-down branchless coral. I spot a few
fat pink sea stars and several distinct types of algae. Among these are
long, bright-green rubbery streamers, short dull olive bristly algae and
delicate lacy salmon-colored coralline algae, named for the calcareous
skeleton that looks like bones of an exceptionally tiny bird. Deeper
underwater, nestled among the anemones, are the creatures we have come
to see: Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, the purple sea urchin.

Purple sea urchins are of interest to marine biologists studying ocean
acidification for numerous reasons. These creatures live up and down the
Pacific Coast where pH is changing markedly. Their habitat is one that
naturally varies greatly with the ebb and flow of tides. It is also a
highly structured community of species in which the sea urchins play an
important role, as a food source for sea otters, in controlling algae
and as a component of a healthy ecosystem. They're also a well-studied
species---so well studied that their entire genome has been sequenced,
enabling scientists to investigate genetic impacts of ocean
acidification. This information is essential to understanding the
species' future and how their fate may affect other ecological community
members.

Because the pH recorded on the Oregon coast is much lower than that in
California (thanks to ocean circulation, seasonal winds and upwelling),
how the northerly purple sea urchins are responding to ocean
acidification will help scientists understand what may happen to this
whole community of species as ocean pH drops further, explains Kelly. It
appears that seawater pH affects how hard the urchins must work to
maintain the biochemical balance within their cells. That some seem to
be "doing okay" under lower pH doesn't mean that all is well, says
Kelly. It means they're doing something to compensate.

If urchins fail to thrive, it would likely have an adverse affect on
their entire community of mussels, sea stars, anemones, fish and marine
mammals.

Tyler Evans, Kelly's colleague at UC Santa Barbara, is an environmental
physiologist and postdoctoral fellow investigating how higher dissolved
CO2 and lower pH affect sea urchins' genes. By looking at the individual
genes, he hopes to see exactly which are being altered by the changes in
seawater chemistry and how ocean acidification is affecting the genes'
ability to make proteins---among the most basic building blocks of life.
Thus far, Evans explains, they've identified important changes in how
sea urchins' cells transport calcium and sodium. A balance of these is
vital to urchins, both for maintaining healthy cell function and for
shell building. If sea urchins have to work harder to maintain this
balance, it could affect their development or ability to reproduce. If
urchins fail to thrive, it would likely have an adverse affect on their
entire community of mussels, sea stars, anemones, fish and marine mammals.

"The behavioral and energy changes needed to maintain yourself as a
species are really complicated," explains National Center for
Atmospheric Research scientist Joanie Kleypas, a pioneering ocean
acidification researcher. Not only that, notes Stanford's Palumbi, the
costs of coping with changes such ocean acidification may take more than
one generation to become apparent.

Similar effects have been observed for species other than the purple sea
urchin. In lab experiments, green sea urchin larvae exposed to low pH
have grown more slowly and developed physiological abnormalities.
Mussels exposed experimentally to low pH appeared to have increased
metabolic rates, reduced reproduction and some immune system
suppression---all clear indications that acidified conditions are
adversely affecting these animals' physiological functions.

Natural Laboratories

To investigate the ecological impacts of acidification over the long
term, scientists are also studying what are effectively natural
laboratories for high CO2---places where the gas bubbles up through
vents in the ocean floor. One such site is in the Mediterranean, where
UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab postdoctoral researcher Kristy Kroeker and
colleagues are studying how these conditions affect the ecology of the
local reef community.

Reef communities are typically very biologically diverse, with numerous
species that each play important roles in the community's physical
structure and food web, explains Kroeker. But under high CO2 conditions,
certain algae begin to dominate while the coralline algae that depend on
calcium carbonate fare less well, changing what the community provides
in the way of food and shelter. Kroeker and her colleagues are
investigating how seemingly small changes in these food and structure
roles will play out on an ecosystem scale and how this compares to
acidification-related changes at sites like Fogarty Creek.

As Kleypas explains, such studies will help us understand if "a
community is going to change a lot or not" under ocean acidification and
how any changes that do occur might affect the community's ecological
resilience. Changes to a community's anchor or keystone species---one
that plays a crucial role in an ecosystem's function---she explains, are
the most likely to affect the whole food web.

By learning which species are most vulnerable to acidification and which
are better able to adapt, scientists can target conservation measures
aimed at protecting those species, explains Kelly. This could involve
curtailing other pollutants or development that's adversely impacting
vulnerable species and habitat, including by identifying potential
reserves. Such actions can't remove excess CO2 already in the system,
but they can help build resilience. This could be particularly helpful
where important fisheries may be affected, says Kelly. But, cautions
Evans, "we really don't know yet what it takes to survive in a low pH
ocean, and we need that information to set conservation priorities."

Get a Grip

Yet these are but short-term strategies as the world tries to get a grip
on the carbon emissions that are ultimately responsible for ocean
acidification.

"First and foremost," says NOAA outgoing administrator Jane Lubchenco,
"we need to demand that our elected representatives take seriously the
need to reduce carbon emissions, and that's true at a national level but
also at the local level."

The process of ocean acidification, like the other manifestations of
climate change prompted by excessive atmospheric CO2, now cannot be
reversed entirely. But with swift and dramatic action, the rate of
change might be slowed. And to help lessen acidification's impacts,
scientists suggest addressing not only carbon emissions but other
environmental stressors that can exacerbate these effects as well. We
"also need to reduce other sources of pollution," including excess
nutrients from both urban and rural sources, Lubchenco says.

This is exactly the strategy Washington state's Blue Ribbon Panel on
Ocean Acidification recommended in a report released in November. The
report formed the basis of an executive order signed by Washington
governor Chris Gregoire the same day. The first such policy aimed at
tackling ocean acidification, both the report and the executive order
(designed to implement the report's recommendations), combine strategies
to reduce CO2 emissions and other pollution that exacerbates
acidification, along with $3.3 million in funding for research and
implementation. The recommendations are also be part of legislation
Washington state senator and blue ribbon panel member Kevin Ranker
recently introduced---and that he says he hopes will be copied by other
coastal states.

"We have a lot of work to do," says Lubchenco, noting that most people
in the U.S. have not yet heard of ocean acidification. "But," she says,
"if they like eating oysters or salmon or enjoy watching whales or scuba
diving in coral reefs, they should be paying attention---because it's a
serious threat."

"The basic policy message," says Palumbi, is that carbon emissions are
"a global pollutant, and we have to fix this problem." While a shellfish
hatchery may be able to control the chemistry of water in its tanks or
choose a different species to farm, the same can't be done in the
world's wild oceans.

In the meantime, as effects of ocean acidification play out, scientists
and policy makers continue the quest to understand how individual
species and marine communities will fare and how this information can be
used to protect them before even more dramatic changes occur. "When it
comes to ocean acidification," says Lubchenco, "we're all still explorers."

http://ensia.com/features/what-does-ocean-acidification-mean-for-sea-life/


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