Impacts of ocean acidification on marine organisms: quantifying sensitivities and interaction with warming

By K. Kroeker, R. Kordas, R. Crim, I. Hendriks, L. Ramajo, G. Singh, Carlos M. Duarte, Jean-Pierre Gattuso. Global Change Biology, 2013

2,164 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Ocean acidification represents a threat to marine species worldwide, and forecasting the ecological impacts of acidification is a high priority for science, management, and policy. As research on the topic expands at an exponential rate, a comprehensive understanding of the variability in organisms' responses and corresponding levels of certainty is necessary to forecast the ecological effects. Here, we perform the most comprehensive meta‐analysis to date by synthesizing the results of 228 studies examining biological responses to ocean acidification. The results reveal decreased survival, calcification, growth, development and abundance in response to acidification when the broad range of marine organisms is pooled together. However, the magnitude of these responses varies among taxonomic groups, suggesting there is some predictable trait‐based variation in sensitivity, despite the investigation of approximately 100 new species in recent research. The results also reveal an enhanced sensitivity of mollusk larvae, but suggest that an enhanced sensitivity of early life history stages is not universal across all taxonomic groups. In addition, the variability in species' responses is enhanced when they are exposed to acidification in multi‐species assemblages, suggesting that it is important to consider indirect effects and exercise caution when forecasting abundance patterns from single‐species laboratory experiments. Furthermore, the results suggest that other factors, such as nutritional status or source population, could cause substantial variation in organisms' responses. Last, the results highlight a trend towards enhanced sensitivity to acidification when taxa are concurrently exposed to elevated seawater temperature.

Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e9a6214341798a2f6530933a808331d00ba19842

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Citations in the corpus

Interactive effects of elevated temperature and pCO2 on early-life-history stages of the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera (2014, background): “…interactive (synergistic or antagonistic) effects at many levels of biological organization and at multiple life-history stages (Hofmann et al., 2010; Boyd, 2011; Byrne, 2011; Bopp et al., 2013; Byrne et al., 2013; Kroeker et al., 2013; Padilla-Gamiño et al., 2013; Todgham and Stillman, 2013).”
Impacts of Global Warming and Elevated CO2 on Sensory Behavior in Predator-Prey Interactions: A Review and Synthesis (2019, background): “Despite substantial studies on physiological changes in response to climate change stressors (Pörtner and Farrell, 2008; Kroeker et al., 2013), it is not yet clear how often these indirect effects occur or their importance in the sensory transduction pathway.”
The effects of climate change on species composition, succession and phenology: a case study (2011, background): “…parameters have found that species physiology and reproductive phenology can be affected by changes in temperature, salinity or pH (e.g., growth, reproduction; Vázquez & Young, 2000; Helmuth et al., 2002; Stachowicz et al., 2002b; Fabry et al., 2008; Havenhand et al., 2008; Feder 2010).”
Reviews and Syntheses: Responses of coccolithophores to ocean acidification: a meta-analysis (2015, methodology): “…only a few experiments (Kroeker et al., 2010: 13 experiments; Hendriks et al., 2010: 2 experiments for calcification responses, 12 experiments for photosynthetic responses; Kroeker et al., 2013: 19 experiments) were considered and no distinction was made between different coccolithophore species.”
Biodegradability of poly(3-hydroxyalkanoate) and poly(ε-caprolactone) via biological carbon cycles in marine environments (2020, background): “2 [133] and the water temperature ranges from −2 to 35 °C [132], this enzyme may”
The Omega Myth: What Really Drives Lower Calcification Rates in an Acidifying Ocean (2016, background): “OA is expected to reduce the ability of marine organisms such as corals, coccolithophores, foraminifera, and molluscs to secrete calcium carbonate (CaCO3) skeletons, a process known as calcification (see Table 1) (Chan and Connolly, 2012; Kroeker et al., 2013).”
Bioerosion: the other ocean acidification problem: Towards a Broader Perspective on Ocean Acidification Research Part 2 A special issue of the ICES Journal of Marine Science (2017, background): “…effects on calcium carbonate producers or calcifiers such as coccolithophores, pteropods and coral reef organisms, which can display reduced growth and malfunctioning skeletogenesis (e.g. Orr et al., 2005; Guinotte and Fabry, 2008; Doney et al., 2009; Hofmann et al., 2010; Kroeker et al., 2013).”
Biological mechanisms supporting adaptation to ocean acidification in coastal ecosystems (2015, neutral): “Recent meta-analyses of experimental results show a large variability in responses, particularly when considering other existing stresses like temperature (Hendriks et al., 2010; Hendriks and Duarte, 2010; Kroeker et al., 2013).”
Mesocosm Experiments as a Tool for Ecological Climate-Change Research (2013, methodology): “This 92 Rebecca I.A. Stewart et al. requires careful monitoring and is prone to mishaps, so long-term (>5 months) experiments are rare (Kroeker et al., 2013), precluding experiments that span entire life histories or at evolutionary scales, except for the shortest-lived organisms.”
A multi-decade record of high-quality fCO2 data in version 3 of the Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT) (2016, background): “These changes in ocean chemistry are expected to affect key physiological processes of marine organisms, such as calcification, growth, development and survival (Kroeker et al., 2013).”