Compensation of ocean acidification effects in Arctic phytoplankton assemblages

The Arctic and subarctic shelf seas, which sustain large fisheries and contribute to global biogeochemical cycling, are particularly sensitive to ongoing ocean acidification (that is, decreasing seawater pH due to anthropogenic CO 2 emissions). Yet, little information is available on the effects of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature climate change 2018-06, Vol.8 (6), p.529-533
Main Authors: Hoppe, Clara Jule Marie, Wolf, Klara K. E., Schuback, Nina, Tortell, Philippe D., Rost, Björn
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/158/47
704/106/694/2739
704/158/2458
704/829/826
Acidification
Anthropogenic factors
Biodiversity
Biogeochemical cycles
Biogeochemistry
Capacity
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide emissions
Climate Change
Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts
Dominant species
Earth and Environmental Science
Environment
Environmental history
Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice
Fisheries
Light levels
Ocean acidification
Oceans
Phytoplankton
Plankton
Primary production
Seawater
Seawater pH
Shelf seas
Species composition
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Summary:The Arctic and subarctic shelf seas, which sustain large fisheries and contribute to global biogeochemical cycling, are particularly sensitive to ongoing ocean acidification (that is, decreasing seawater pH due to anthropogenic CO 2 emissions). Yet, little information is available on the effects of ocean acidification on natural phytoplankton assemblages, which are the main primary producers in high-latitude waters. Here we show that coastal Arctic and subarctic primary production is largely insensitive to ocean acidification over a large range of light and temperature levels in different experimental designs. Out of ten CO 2 -manipulation treatments, significant ocean acidification effects on primary productivity were observed only once (at temperatures below 2 °C), and shifts in the species composition occurred only three times (without correlation to specific experimental conditions). These results imply a high capacity to compensate for environmental variability, which can be understood in light of the environmental history, tolerance ranges and intraspecific diversity of the dominant phytoplankton species. The effects of projected ocean acidification on primary productivity of the Arctic and subarctic shelf seas are found to be minimal, with the phytoplankton communities showing a high capacity to compensate for environmental change.
ISSN:1758-678X
1758-6798
DOI:10.1038/s41558-018-0142-9