Carbon dioxide assimilation rate, gas and ion composition in samples, and bacterial production of organic matter within and above the Broken Spur and TAG hydrothermal fields, Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Rate of CO2 assimilation was determined above the Broken Spur and TAG active hydrothermal fields for three main ecosystems: (1) hydrothermal vents; (2) 300 m near-bottom layer of plume water; and (3) bottom sediments. In water samples from warm (40-45°C) vents assimilation rates were maximal and reached 2.82-3.76 µg C/l/day. In plume waters CO2 assimilation rates ranged from 0.38 to 0.65 µg C/l/day. In bottom sediments CO2 assimilation rates varied from 0.8 to 28.0 µg C/l/day, rising up to 56 mg C/kg/day near shrimp swarms. In the most active plume zone of the long-living TAG field bacterial production of organic matter (OM) from carbonic is up to 170 mg C/m**2/day); production of autotrophic process of bacterial chemosynthesis reaches about 90% (156 mg C/m**2/day). Thus, chemosynthetic production of OM in September-October is almost equal to that of photosynthetic production in the oceanic region. Bacterial production of OM above the Broken Spur hydrothermal field is one order lower and reaches only 20 mg C/m**2/day.

Seawater carbonate chemistry and calcification rate of eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica, 2011

Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduce pH of marine waters due to the absorption of atmospheric CO2 and formation of carbonic acid. Estuarine waters are more susceptible to acidification because they are subject to multiple acid sources and are less buffered than marine waters. Consequently, estuarine shell forming species may experience acidification sooner than marine species although the tolerance of estuarine calcifiers to pH changes is poorly understood. We analyzed 23 years of Chesapeake Bay water quality monitoring data and found that daytime average pH significantly decreased across polyhaline waters although pH has not significantly changed across mesohaline waters. In some tributaries that once supported large oyster populations, pH is increasing. Current average conditions within some tributaries however correspond to values that we found in laboratory studies to reduce oyster biocalcification rates or resulted in net shell dissolution. Calcification rates of juvenile eastern oysters, Crassostrea virginica, were measured in laboratory studies in a three-way factorial design with 3 pH levels, two salinities, and two temperatures. Biocalcification declined significantly with a reduction of ~0.5 pH units and higher temperature and salinity mitigated the decrease in biocalcification.

Seawater carbonate chemistry and Emiliania huxleyi mass and size, 2011

About one-third of the carbon dioxide (CO2) released into the atmosphere as a result of human activity has been absorbed by the oceans, where it partitions into the constituent ions of carbonic acid. This leads to ocean acidification, one of the major threats to marine ecosystems and particularly to calcifying organisms such as corals, foraminifera and coccolithophores. Coccolithophores are abundant phytoplankton that are responsible for a large part of modern oceanic carbonate production. Culture experiments investigating the physiological response of coccolithophore calcification to increased CO2 have yielded contradictory results between and even within species. Here we quantified the calcite mass of dominant coccolithophores in the present ocean and over the past forty thousand years, and found a marked pattern of decreasing calcification with increasing partial pressure of CO2 and concomitant decreasing concentrations of CO3. Our analyses revealed that differentially calcified species and morphotypes are distributed in the ocean according to carbonate chemistry. A substantial impact on the marine carbon cycle might be expected upon extrapolation of this correlation to predicted ocean acidification in the future. However, our discovery of a heavily calcified Emiliania huxleyi morphotype in modern waters with low pH highlights the complexity of assemblage-level responses to environmental forcing factors.