Appropriate pC[O.sub.2] treatments in ocean acidification experiments

Experiments in which organisms are reared in treatments simulating current and future pC[O.sub.2] concentrations are critical for ocean acidification (OA) research. The majority of OA exposure experiments use average atmospheric pC[O.sub.2] levels as a baseline treatment. We conducted an ecoregion-s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMarine biology Vol. 160; no. 8; p. 1807
Main Authors McElhany, Paul, Busch, D. Shallin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Springer 01.08.2013
Subjects
Carbon dioxide
Chemical oceanography
Environmental aspects
Ocean acidification
United States
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Summary:Experiments in which organisms are reared in treatments simulating current and future pC[O.sub.2] concentrations are critical for ocean acidification (OA) research. The majority of OA exposure experiments use average atmospheric pC[O.sub.2] levels as a baseline treatment. We conducted an ecoregion-scale analysis of global carbon chemistry datasets. For many locales, atmospheric pC[O.sub.2] levels are not an appropriate characterization of marine carbon chemistry. We argue that atmospheric pC[O.sub.2] should be disregarded when setting baseline treatment conditions and experimental design should rely on measurements of carbon chemistry in a study subject's habitat. As carbon chemistry conditions vary with space and time, we suggest using a range of pC[O.sub.2] values as a control rather than a single value. We illustrate this issue with data on the habitat of Euphausia pacifica, which currently lives in waters with a pC[O.sub.2] around 900 µatm, a concentration much higher than the current global atmospheric mean.
ISSN:0025-3162
1432-1793
DOI:10.1007/s00227-012-2052-0