Anticipating ocean acidification’s economic consequences for commercial fisheries

By S. Cooley, S. Doney. 2009

369 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Ocean acidification, a consequence of rising anthropogenic CO2 emissions, is poised to change marine ecosystems profoundly by increasing dissolved CO2 and decreasing ocean pH, carbonate ion concentration, and calcium carbonate mineral saturation state worldwide. These conditions hinder growth of calcium carbonate shells and skeletons by many marine plants and animals. The first direct impact on humans may be through declining harvests and fishery revenues from shellfish, their predators, and coral reef habitats. In a case study of US commercial fishery revenues, we begin to constrain the economic effects of ocean acidification over the next 50 years using atmospheric CO2 trajectories and laboratory studies of its effects, focusing especially on mollusks. In 2007, the $3.8 billion US annual domestic ex-vessel commercial harvest ultimately contributed $34 billion to the US gross national product. Mollusks contributed 19%, or $748 million, of the ex-vessel revenues that year. Substantial revenue declines, job losses, and indirect economic costs may occur if ocean acidification broadly damages marine habitats, alters marine resource availability, and disrupts other ecosystem services. We review the implications for marine resource management and propose possible adaptation strategies designed to support fisheries and marine-resource-dependent communities, many of which already possess little economic resilience.

Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b12087e8eccef19613147832eb449a0b910606c6

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Citations in the corpus

Economic costs of ocean acidification: a look into the impacts on global shellfish production (2012, background): “At a regional level, our estimates for the USA, which are around 400 million USD without income rise, are significantly higher than the figures suggested by Cooley and Doney (2009) in the US context, who consider 75–187 million USD of loss in the annual revenue flow in that country.”
Interactive effects of acidification, hypoxia, and thermal stress on growth, respiration, and survival of four North Atlantic bivalves (2018, background): “Benthic filter feeders are also a critical food source for many organisms, including humans, supporting more than US$1 billion in annual fisheries landings in the USA alone (Cooley & Doney 2009, Ekstrom et al. 2015).”
Tolerance of juvenile Mytilus galloprovincialis to experimental seawater acidification (2012, background): “The potential of significant ecological and economic consequences arising from the effects of ocean acidification on bivalves and the need for further research on commercially important species has been explicitly recognized (Kleypas et al. 2006, Fabry et al. 2008, Cooley & Doney 2009).”
Acute survivorship of the deep-sea coral Lophelia pertusa from the Gulf of Mexico under acidification, warming, and deoxygenation (2014, background): “ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE published: 19 December 2014 doi: 10.3389/fmars.2014.00078 Acute survivorship of the deep-sea coral Lophelia pertusa from the Gulf of Mexico under acidification, warming, and deoxygenation”
Potential impacts of future ocean acidification on marine ecosystems and fisheries: current knowledge and recommendations for future research (2011, neutral): “Cooley and Doney (2009) examined the vulner-”
Nutrition and income from molluscs today imply vulnerability to ocean acidification tomorrow (2012, background): “Quantifying the economic value of services with direct ecosystem benefits and market values, such as mollusc harvests, is the most logical first step to begin assessing the socioeconomic consequences of ocean acidification-driven changes in calcifier populations (e.g., Cooley and Doney 2009).”
Effects of ocean acidification on hatch size and larval growth of walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) (2013, background): “There is a significant concern that ocean acidification could further diminish the productivity of some species (Cooley and Doney, 2009; Denman et al., 2011).”
Climate Change, Global Food Security, and the U.S. Food System (2015, background): “Higher acidity prevents the formation of calcium carbonate shells and skeletons in important fisheries species and their predators, leading to population declines with continued acidification (Cooley and Doney 2009).”
Effect of pH on Gene Expression and Thermal Tolerance of Early Life History Stages of Red Abalone (Haliotis rufescens) (2010, background): “In conclusion, although the effects of ocean acidification on all economically valuable species are not known, it is estimated that a 10–25% decrease in U.S. harvest of molluscs could result in a revenue loss of $75–187 million the following year (Cooley & Doney 2009).”
Effect of ocean acidification on the early life stages of the blue mussel Mytilus edulis (2010, background): “A negative impact of ocean acidification on the growth of these species would, therefore, not only have major consequences for coastal bio diversity and ecosystem functioning and services, but will also cause a significant economic loss (Gazeau et al., 2007; Cooley and Doney, 2009).”
Linking the biological impacts of ocean acidification on oysters to changes in ecosystem services: A review (2017, background): “…396 as coral reefs (Brander et al., 2012), locations of significant value (Bosello et al., 397 2015; Hilmi et al., 2014; Lacoue-Labarthe et al., 2016; Rodrigues et al., 2013), 398 or an economic sector (Cooley and Doney, 2009; Moore, 2011; Narita and 399 Rehdanz, 2016; Narita et al., 2012).”