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Extensive dissolution of live pteropods in the Southern Ocean

Nature Geoscience volume 5, pages 881–885 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

The carbonate chemistry of the surface ocean is rapidly changing with ocean acidification, a result of human activities1. In the upper layers of the Southern Ocean, aragonite—a metastable form of calcium carbonate with rapid dissolution kinetics—may become undersaturated by 2050 (ref. 2). Aragonite undersaturation is likely to affect aragonite-shelled organisms, which can dominate surface water communities in polar regions3. Here we present analyses of specimens of the pteropod Limacina helicina antarctica that were extracted live from the Southern Ocean early in 2008. We sampled from the top 200 m of the water column, where aragonite saturation levels were around 1, as upwelled deep water is mixed with surface water containing anthropogenic CO2. Comparing the shell structure with samples from aragonite-supersaturated regions elsewhere under a scanning electron microscope, we found severe levels of shell dissolution in the undersaturated region alone. According to laboratory incubations of intact samples with a range of aragonite saturation levels, eight days of incubation in aragonite saturation levels of 0.94–1.12 produces equivalent levels of dissolution. As deep-water upwelling and CO2 absorption by surface waters is likely to increase as a result of human activities2,4, we conclude that upper ocean regions where aragonite-shelled organisms are affected by dissolution are likely to expand.

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Figure 1: Scotia Sea showing sampling station positions and frontal positions at time of sampling.
Figure 2: Vertical profiles of ΩA across the Scotia Sea (upper) and corresponding dissolution levels in live juvenile L. helicina antarctica (lower).
Figure 3
Figure 4: SEM images of juvenile L. helicina antarctica (from which the periostracum has been removed) showing different levels of dissolution.
Figure 5: Average (s.d.) proportion of different dissolution levels in live juvenile L. helicina antarctica from the natural environment and ship-board incubations.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the FAASIS (Fellowships in Antarctic Air-Sea-Ice Science), a Marie Curie Early Stage Training Network awarded to N.B. G.A.T., S.F. and P.W. carried out this work as part of the Ecosystems core-science programme at the British Antarctic Survey. G.A.T., P.W. and D.B. received further support during the analysis and synthesis stages from the pelagic consortium of the UK Ocean Acidification programme, funded by NERC, Defra and DECC (grant no. NE/H017267/1). D. McCorkle and A. Cohen of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution helped develop a shell preparation method and commented on previous drafts of the manuscript. Image analysis was carried out at the University of East Anglia with the assistance of R. Montagna. Sampling operations were supported by the officers and crew of the RRS James Clark Ross with net-sampling equipment support from P. Enderlein of the British Antarctic Survey. P. Bucktrout assisted with graphical presentations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK

    N. Bednaršek, G. A. Tarling, S. Fielding, H. J. Venables, P. Ward & E. J. Murphy

  2. School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK

    N. Bednaršek, D. C. E. Bakker & B. Lézé

  3. University of Nova Gorica, Vipavska 13, 5000 Nova Gorica, Slovenia

    N. Bednaršek

  4. Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, PO Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands

    E. M. Jones

  5. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA

    A. Kuzirian

  6. NOAA, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, Washington 98115, USA

    R. A. Feely

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  1. N. Bednaršek
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Contributions

G.A.T. and D.C.E.B. conceived the project; N.B. carried out the fieldwork, with the assistance of G.A.T., S.F. and P.W.; E.M.J. and H.J.V. provided supporting environmental data; A.K. helped develop a method of shell preparation for SEM analysis; B.L. developed an image analysis method; G.A.T., N.B. and D.C.E.B. co-wrote the manuscript, with theoretical overviews provided by R.A.F. and all remaining authors commenting.

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Correspondence to G. A. Tarling.

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Bednaršek, N., Tarling, G., Bakker, D. et al. Extensive dissolution of live pteropods in the Southern Ocean. Nature Geosci 5, 881–885 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1635

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