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Changes in pH at the exterior surface of plankton with ocean acidification

Nature Climate Change volume 2, pages 510–513 (2012)Cite this article

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A Corrigendum to this article was published on 27 September 2012

This article has been updated

Abstract

Anthropogenically released CO2 is dissolving in the ocean, causing a decrease in bulk-seawater pH (ocean acidification). Projections indicate that the pH will drop 0.3 units from its present value by 2100 (ref. 1). However, it is unclear how the growth of plankton is likely to respond. Using simulations we demonstrate how pH and carbonate chemistry at the exterior surface of marine organisms deviates increasingly from those of the bulk sea water as organism metabolic activity and size increases. These deviations will increase in the future as the buffering capacity of sea water decreases with decreased pH and as metabolic activity increases with raised seawater temperatures. We show that many marine plankton will experience pH conditions completely outside their recent historical range. However, ocean acidification is likely to have differing impacts on plankton physiology as taxon-specific differences in organism size, metabolic activity and growth rates during blooms result in very different microenvironments around the organism. This is an important consideration for future studies in ocean acidification as the carbonate chemistry experienced by most planktonic organisms will probably be considerably different from that measured in bulk-seawater samples. An understanding of these deviations will assist interpretation of the impacts of ocean acidification on plankton of different size and metabolic activity.

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Figure 1: Steady-state relationships.
Figure 2: Dynamic relationships.

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Change history

  • 07 September 2012

    In the version of this Letter originally published, the unit on the right-hand y axis of Figure 2a and Supplementary Figures S3b, S5b, S7b, S9b and S11b should have read gC m−3. This error has now been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the Letter.

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Acknowledgements

This work was primarily financially supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) NE/F003455/1 to K.J.F., J.C.B. and D.R.C., employing H.F., and to K.J.F. by NERC NE/H01750X/1. C.B. and G.L.W. were financially supported by NERC Oceans 2025. C.B. was financially supported by NERC NE/E0183191/1, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council 226/P15068 and the European Project on Ocean Acidification, EC 211384.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Research, Swansea University, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK

    Kevin J. Flynn & Heiner Fabian

  2. Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, Plymouth PL1 3DH, UK

    Jerry C. Blackford, Darren R. Clark & Glen L. Wheeler

  3. Plant Functional Biology and Climate Change Cluster, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2007, PO Box 123 Broadway, Australia

    Mark E. Baird

  4. Division of Plant Sciences, University of Dundee at the James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee DD2 5DA, UK

    John A. Raven

  5. School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia

    John Beardall

  6. Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth PL1 2PB, UK

    Colin Brownlee & Glen L. Wheeler

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Contributions

The model was formulated by K.J.F, M.E.B. and J.C.B.; it was coded and run by K.J.F. All authors contributed to design of simulation experiments, analysis and interpretation of the model output and to writing the paper.

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Correspondence to Kevin J. Flynn.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Flynn, K., Blackford, J., Baird, M. et al. Changes in pH at the exterior surface of plankton with ocean acidification. Nature Clim Change 2, 510–513 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1489

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