The study, published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change, uses a number of Earth System Models to explore how the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide and the resulting ocean acidification will affect the Southern Ocean over the next century.
"The ocean acts as a gigantic sponge to absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This process consumes carbonate ions, which are required by key organisms to build and maintain their calcium carbonate shells. If the carbonate ion concentration drops below a threshold -- we call it undersaturation -- these organisms must spend more energy to fight dissolution in these adverse chemical conditions," explains Claudine Hauri, lead author of the study and a chemical oceanographer at both the International Artic Research Center (IARC) at UAF and the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) at UHM.
One of the most threatened marine organisms is the pteropod, a tiny sea snail that serves as a staple for plankton, fish, whales, and seabirds.
Not only is the concentration of carbonate ions projected to fall to dangerously low levels due to ocean acidification, but these conditions will become the new norm across large areas of the Southern Ocean.
"Our analysis shows that in large parts of the Southern Ocean, the duration of such undersaturation events will increase abruptly from one month to more than six months, in less than 20 years upon their onset, and could reach nearly year-long durations by the end of the century," notes co-lead author Tobias Friedrich, climate scientist at IPRC.
Read more at Rapidly Acidifying Waters Pose Major Threat for Southern Ocean Ecosystem
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