Change in pH is recorded in the surface waters. If the source of the surface water acidification is deep sea volcanoes, then there would have been a noted change in the benthic community from the deep ocean up towards the surface waters where we now measure the dropping pH. Such is not the case.
You know, sometimes it helps if you understand what is actually happening before you just spam some crap you found on the net.
I found many references to benthic changes in water coloumns associated with volcanic venting. Apparently it is a commonly found condition. How come you didn't know this. CO2 is definitely added to the oceans by this volcanic mechanisn, Al Gore and you don't know this however.
Volcanic carbon dioxide vents show ecosystem effects of ocean acidification
[PDF] Global gas flux from mud volcanoes: a significant source of fossil methane in the atmosphere and the ocean
Letter
Nature 454, 96-99 (3 July 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature07051; Received 13 March 2008; Accepted 1 May 2008; Published online 8 June 2008
Volcanic carbon dioxide vents show ecosystem effects of ocean acidification
Jason M. Hall-Spencer
1, Riccardo Rodolfo-Metalpa
1, Sophie Martin
2, Emma Ransome
1, Maoz Fine
3,
4, Suzanne M. Turner
5, Sonia J. Rowley
1, Dario Tedesco
6,
7 & Maria-Cristina Buia
8
- Marine Institute, Marine Biology and Ecology Research Centre, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK
- CNRS-Université de Paris 6, Villefranche-sur-Mer 06234, France
- Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
- The Interuniversity Institute for Marine Science, Eilat 88103, Israel
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
- Department of Environmental Sciences, 2nd University of Naples, Caserta 81100, Italy
- Istituto di Geologia Ambientale e Geoingegneria, CNR, Rome 00138, Italy
- Laboratorio di Ecologia del Benthos, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Naples 80077, Italy
Correspondence to: Jason M. Hall-Spencer
1 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to J.M.H.-S. (Email:
jhall-spencer@plymouth.ac.uk).
Top of pageThe atmospheric partial pressure of carbon dioxide (
p CO2) will almost certainly be double that of pre-industrial levels by 2100 and will be considerably higher than at any time during the past few million years
1. The oceans are a principal sink for anthropogenic CO2 where it is estimated to have caused a 30% increase in the concentration of H+ in ocean surface waters since the early 1900s and may lead to a drop in seawater pH of up to 0.5 units by 2100 (refs
2,
3). Our understanding of how increased ocean acidity may affect marine ecosystems is at present very limited as almost all studies have been
in vitro, short-term, rapid perturbation experiments on isolated elements of the ecosystem
4, 5. Here we show the effects of acidification on benthic ecosystems at shallow coastal sites where volcanic CO2 vents lower the pH of the water column. Along gradients of normal pH (8.1–8.2) to lowered pH (mean 7.8–7.9, minimum 7.4–7.5), typical rocky shore communities with abundant calcareous organisms shifted to communities lacking scleractinian corals with significant reductions in sea urchin and coralline algal abundance. To our knowledge, this is the first ecosystem-scale validation of predictions that these important groups of organisms are susceptible to elevated amounts of
p CO2. Sea-grass production was highest in an area at mean pH 7.6 (1,827
atm
p CO2) where coralline algal biomass was significantly reduced and gastropod shells were dissolving due to periods of carbonate sub-saturation. The species populating the vent sites comprise a suite of organisms that are resilient to naturally high concentrations of
p CO2 and indicate that ocean acidification may benefit highly invasive non-native algal species. Our results provide the first
in situ insights into how shallow water marine communities might change when susceptible organisms are removed owing to ocean acidification.
s
-d
)n. pl. sub·si·dies
