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Limacina helicina shell dissolution as an indicator of declining habitat suitability owing to ocean acidification in the California Current Ecosystem

ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

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Title Limacina helicina shell dissolution as an indicator of declining habitat suitability owing to ocean acidification in the California Current Ecosystem
Names Bednaršek, N. (creator)
Feely, R. A. (creator)
Reum, J. C. P. (creator)
Peterson, B. (creator)
Menkel, J. (creator)
Alin, S. R. (creator)
Hales, B. (creator)
Date Issued 2014-06-22 (iso8601)
Note To the best of our knowledge, one or more authors of this paper were federal employees when contributing to this work. This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by the author(s) and published by the Royal Society. The published article can be found at: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/.
Abstract Few studies to date have demonstrated widespread biological impacts of ocean
acidification (OA) under conditions currently found in the natural environment.
From a combined survey of physical and chemical water properties
and biological sampling along the Washington–Oregon–California coast in
August 2011, we show that large portions of the shelf waters are corrosive
to pteropods in the natural environment. We show a strong positive correlation
between the proportion of pteropod individuals with severe shell dissolution
damage and the percentage of undersaturated water in the top 100 m with
respect to aragonite. We found 53% of onshore individuals and 24% of offshore
individuals on average to have severe dissolution damage. Relative to pre-industrial
CO₂ concentrations, the extent of undersaturated waters in the top
100 m of the water column has increased over sixfold along the California Current
Ecosystem (CCE). We estimate that the incidence of severe pteropod shell
dissolution owing to anthropogenic OA has doubled in near shore habitats
since pre-industrial conditions across this region and is on track to triple by
2050. These results demonstrate that habitat suitability for pteropods in the
coastal CCE is declining. The observed impacts represent a baseline for
future observations towards understanding broader scale OA effects.
Genre Article
Topic pteropods
Identifier Bednaršek, N., Feely, R. A., Reum, J. C. P., Peterson, B., Menkel, J., Alin, S. R., & Hales, B. (2014). Limacina helicina shell dissolution as an indicator of declining habitat suitability owing to ocean acidification in the California Current Ecosystem. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281(1785), 20140123. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.0123

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