Skeletons and ocean chemistry: the long view
- Creators
- Knoll, Andrew H.
- Fischer, Woodward W.
- Others:
- Gattuso, Jean-Pierre
- Hansson, Lina
Abstract
In present-day seas, animals, algae, and protozoa are threatened by ocean acidification, amplified in many regions by seawater warming and hypoxia (Doney et al. 2009). Many species may be affected adversely by 21st-century environmental change, but a decade of research suggests that the hypercalcifying animals responsible for reef accretion may be especially vulnerable to an acidity-driven decrease in the saturation state (Ω; see Box 1.1) of surface seawater with respect to calcite and aragonite. The geological record reveals that natural changes in the marine carbonate system have affected the evolution and abundance of calcifying organisms throughout the Phanerozoic Eon (542 million years (Myr) ago to the present). This being the case, we can use our understanding of the dynamic behaviour of the carbon cycle and the stratigraphic comings and goings of reef-building organisms to inform us about what, if any, lessons can be drawn from the long-term past and applied to our near-term future.
Additional Information
© 2011 Oxford University Press. We thank H. Pörtner, J. Erez, and J. Barry for useful discussions of biomineralization and physiological responses to ocean acidification, and J.-P. Gattuso and R. Zeebe for helpful reviews of our chapter. We also thank W. Kiessling for providing the diversity and abundance data illustrated in Fig. 4.1. Research was supported in part by the NASA Astrobiology Institute (AHK) and the Agouron Institute (WWF).Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 35449
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20121114-082627899
- NASA
- Agouron Institute
- Created
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2012-11-14Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2020-03-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field