Review
Paleo-perspectives on ocean acidification

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2010.02.002Get rights and content

The anthropogenic rise in atmospheric CO2 is driving fundamental and unprecedented changes in the chemistry of the oceans. This has led to changes in the physiology of a wide variety of marine organisms and, consequently, the ecology of the ocean. This review explores recent advances in our understanding of ocean acidification with a particular emphasis on past changes to ocean chemistry and what they can tell us about present and future changes. We argue that ocean conditions are already more extreme than those experienced by marine organisms and ecosystems for millions of years, emphasising the urgent need to adopt policies that drastically reduce CO2 emissions.

Section snippets

Ocean acidification: the ‘evil twin’ of global warming

One of the major environmental challenges facing society is the impact of increased levels of atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases on the physical and biological systems on earth. These increased levels are mainly due to the combustion of fossil fuels and changes in land use and deforestation. So far, most research has focused on the impacts arising from global warming which has driven (and is continuing to drive) large fundamental changes in biological systems. However, the steady

Evidence of ocean acidification from instrumental time series

The instrumental measurement of pH in seawater has challenged scientists for decades [13]. Recent advances in indicator-based spectrophotometric techniques have allowed the detection of changes in pH arising from the anthropogenic release of CO2 [13], with a few time-series now of sufficient length and quality to record reductions in ocean pH. Examples are those of the North Atlantic Ocean near the Bermuda Islands [14], the subtropical North Pacific Ocean near Hawaii [15], and the northeast

The paleontological context of current and future changes

Current instrumental records of oceanic pH cover only a few decades. However, it is important to go further back in time if we are to fully understand ocean acidification and its impacts. This is essential to understand the context of the changes that we are facing; to unravel impacts and responses of marine biota to previous changes in pH; to test and validate, under past conditions, the physical and biogeochemical models that are used for making future projections; and to investigate if the

Evidence of impacts observed in the field

Field evidence of the impact of ocean acidification on marine organisms has been limited due to the complexity of the measurements of the parameters of the seawater CO2 system and the inherent multifactorial nature of the changes that are occurring as a result of rising levels of atmospheric CO2. Two recent studies have assessed the possible effects on foraminifera, and have observed a recent shell thinning that is probably attributable to ocean acidification. In the first study, shells

Conclusions

The accumulating knowledge of past changes in pH from instrumental time-series and paleo-proxies is providing important contextual information with which to understand the environmental magnitude of the current progressive acidification of the oceans. A decrease in ocean pH is already measurable across several instrumental time-series. Contemporaneous temporal and spatial variability exists in seawater pH. Over the last centuries, reconstructions of seawater pH in coral reefs have also shown a

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank J. Montoya for his suggestion and encouragement to write this review, which was seeded during the 2008 Annual Meeting of the British Ecological Society, and five anonymous reviewers for their critical reading and constructive comments. A. Ridgwell, B. Key, M. Steinacher, N. Bates, J. Dore, D. Etheridge and M. González-Dávila kindly provided data and A. Lana offered invaluable help with the handling of the large datasets needed to produce the map and figures of Box 4.

References (110)

  • J.M. Yu

    Seawater carbonate ion-δ13C systematics and application to glacial-interglacial North Atlantic ocean circulation

    Earth Planet. Sci Lett.

    (2008)
  • A. Ridgwell

    A Mid Mesozoic Revolution in the regulation of ocean chemistry

    Mar. Geol.

    (2005)
  • J. Mutterlose

    Calcareous nannofossils from the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum of the equatorial Atlantic (ODP Site 1260B): evidence for tropical warming

    Mar. Micropal.

    (2007)
  • P. Bown et al.

    Calcareous plankton evolution and the Paleocene/Eocene thermal maximum event: new evidence from Tanzania

    Mar. Micropal.

    (2009)
  • I. Raffi

    The response of calcareous nannofossil assemblages to the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum at the Walvis Ridge in the South Atlantic

    Mar. Micropal.

    (2009)
  • A.H. Knoll

    Paleophysiology and end-Permian mass extinction

    Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

    (2007)
  • B. van de Schootbrugge

    End-Triassic calcification crisis and blooms of organic-walled ‘disaster species’

    Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

    (2007)
  • D.J. Marshall

    Correlations between gastropod shell dissolution and water chemical properties in a tropical estuary

    Mar. Environ. Res.

    (2008)
  • H. Kurihara

    Long-term effects of predicted future seawater CO2 conditions on the survival and growth of the marine shrimp Palaemon pacificus

    J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol.

    (2008)
  • C.L. Sabine

    The oceanic sink for anthropogenic CO2

    Science

    (2004)
  • J.A. Raven

    Ocean Acidification due to Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

    (2005)
  • Kleypas, J. et al. (2006) Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Coral Reefs and other Marine Calcifiers: a Guide for Future...
  • Kleypas J.A., Langdon C. (2006) Coral reefs and changing seawater carbonate chemistry, In Coral Reefs and Climate...
  • O. Hoegh-Guldberg

    Coral reefs under rapid climate change and ocean acidification

    Science

    (2007)
  • V.J. Fabry

    Impacts of ocean acidification on marine fauna and ecosystem processes

    ICES J. Mar. Sci.

    (2008)
  • J.M. Guinotte et al.

    Ocean acidification and its potential effects on marine ecosystems

    Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci.

    (2008)
  • S.C. Doney

    Ocean Acidification: The other CO2 problem

    Ann. Rev. Mar. Sci.

    (2009)
  • R.E. Zeebe

    Carbon emissions and acidification

    Science

    (2008)
  • M. Steinacher

    Imminent ocean acidification in the Arctic projected with the NCAR global coupled carbon cycle-climate model

    Biogeosciences

    (2009)
  • J.C. Orr

    Anthropogenic ocean acidification over the twenty-first century and its impact on calcifying organisms

    Nature

    (2005)
  • B.I. McNeil et al.

    Southern Ocean acidification: A tipping point at 450-ppm atmospheric CO2

    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.

    (2008)
  • P.G. Brewer

    A changing ocean seen with clarity

    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.

    (2009)
  • N.R. Bates

    Interannual variability of the oceanic CO2 sink in the subtropical gyre of the North Atlantic Ocean over the last 2 decades

    J. Geophys. Res.

    (2007)
  • J.E. Dore

    Physical and biogeochemical modulation of ocean acidification in the central North Pacific

    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.

    (2009)
  • M. Gonzalez-Davila

    Interannual variability of the upper ocean carbon cycle in the northeast Atlantic Ocean

    Geophys. Res. Lett.

    (2007)
  • J.M. Santana-Casiano

    The interannual variability of oceanic CO2 parameters in the northeast Atlantic subtropical gyre at the ESTOC site

    Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles

    (2007)
  • J.T. Wootton

    Dynamic patterns and ecological impacts of declining ocean pH in a high-resolution multi-year dataset

    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.

    (2008)
  • J. Olafsson

    Rate of Iceland Sea acidification from time series measurements

    Biogeosciences

    (2009)
  • N. Bensoussan et al.

    Community primary production and calcification in a NW Mediterranean ecosystem dominated by calcareous macroalgae

    Mar. Ecol. Progr. Sci.

    (2007)
  • K.K. Yates et al.

    CO32 concentration and pCO2 thresholds for calcification and dissolution on the Molokai reef flat, Hawaii

    Biogeosciences

    (2006)
  • J. Salisbury

    Coastal acidification by rivers: A threat to shellfish?

    EOS Trans. AGU

    (2008)
  • R.A. Feely

    Evidence for upwelling of corrosive “acidified” water onto the continental shelf

    Science

    (2008)
  • R.E. Zeebe et al.

    CO2 in Seawater: Equilibrium, Kinetics, Isotopes

    (2001)
  • J. Aggarwal

    How well do non-traditional stable isotope results compare between different laboratories: results from the interlaboratory comparison of boron isotope measurements

    J. Anal. At. Spectrom.

    (2009)
  • P.N. Pearson et al.

    Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 60 milion years

    Nature

    (2000)
  • C. Pelejero

    Preindustrial to modern interdecadal variability in coral reef pH

    Science

    (2005)
  • C. Pelejero

    Response to comment on “Preindustrial to modern interdecadal variability in coral reef pH”

    Science

    (2006)
  • D. Lüthi

    High-resolution carbon dioxide concentration record 650,000-800,000 years before present

    Nature

    (2008)
  • B. Hönisch

    Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration across the Mid-Pleistocene Transition

    Science

    (2009)
  • A.K. Tripati

    Coupling of CO2 and ice sheet stability over major climate transitions of the last 20 million years

    Science

    (2009)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text