Is Ocean Acidification an Open-Ocean Syndrome? Understanding Anthropogenic Impacts on Seawater pH
Open accessAbstract
Ocean acidification due to anthropogenic CO 2 emissions is a dominant driver of long-term changes in pH in the open ocean, raising concern for the future of calcifying organisms, many of which are present in coastal habitats. However, changes in pH in coastal ecosystems result from a multitude of drivers, including impacts from watershed processes, nutrient inputs, and changes in ecosystem structure and metabolism. Interaction between ocean acidification due to anthropogenic CO 2 emissions and the dynamic regional to local drivers of coastal ecosystems have resulted in complex regulation of pH in coastal waters. Changes in the watershed can, for example, lead to changes in alkalinity and CO 2 fluxes that, together with metabolic processes and oceanic dynamics, yield high-magnitude decadal changes of up to 0.5 units in coastal pH. Metabolism results in strong diel to seasonal fluctuations in pH, with characteristic ranges of 0.3 pH units, with metabolically intense habitats exceeding this range on a daily basis. The intense variability and multiple, complex controls on pH implies that the concept of ocean acidification due to anthropogenic CO 2 emissions cannot be transposed to coastal ecosystems directly. Furthermore, in coastal ecosystems, the detection of trends towards acidification is not trivial and the attribution of these changes to anthropogenic CO 2 emissions is even more problematic. Coastal ecosystems may show acidification or basification, depending on the balance between the invasion of coastal waters by anthropogenic CO 2 , watershed export of alkalinity, organic matter and CO 2 , and changes in the balance between primary production, respiration and calcification rates in response to changes in nutrient inputs and losses of ecosystem components. Hence, we contend that ocean acidification from anthropogenic CO 2 is largely an open-ocean syndrome and that a concept of anthropogenic impacts on marine pH, which is applicable across the entire ocean, from coastal to open-ocean environments, provides a superior framework to consider the multiple components of the anthropogenic perturbation of marine pH trajectories. The concept of anthropogenic impacts on seawater pH acknowledges that a regional focus is necessary to predict future trajectories in the pH of coastal waters and points at opportunities to manage these trajectories locally to conserve coastal organisms vulnerable to ocean acidification.
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Coastal waters can also experience substantial pH variability.
“as coastal waters can also experience substantial pH variability33”
From In situ changes of tropical crustose coralline algae along carbon dioxide gradients (2015) · cites this paper as [33]
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- Authors
- Duarte, C. M., Hendriks, I. E., Moore, T. S., Olsen, Y. S., Steckbauer, A., Ramajo, L., Carstensen, J., Trotter, J. A., & McCulloch, M.
- Affiliations
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
- Aarhus University (DK)
- The University of Western Australia (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Duarte, Carlos M.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Estuaries and Coasts
- Published
- 2013-03
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 221-236
- ISSN
- 1559-2723 (ISSN-L)
- 1559-2731
- OpenAlex
- W2038561967
- Cited by
- 725
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 29 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 45 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 59 · 2021: 76 · 2020: 69 · 2019: 76 · 2018: 63 · 2017: 51 · 2016: 42 · 2015: 68 · 2014: 47 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 40.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- other-oa
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Estuaries and Coasts (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (submittedVersion)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- European Commission (254297, 265103)
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
- Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad
- FP7 People: Marie-Curie Actions
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Ocean Acidification Effects and Responses
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine and coastal ecosystems
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Nephrology › Renal function and acid-base balance
- Keywords
- ocean acidification, seawater pH, coastal ecosystems, anthropogenic CO2 emissions, watershed processes, alkalinity, CO2 flux, calcifying organisms, nutrient inputs, basification, pH trends
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