Journal
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
Volume 3, Issue 10, Pages 1438-1444Publisher
NATURE RESEARCH
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-019-0988-x
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Australian Research Council (ARC) [LE0989608]
- ARC Linkage grant [LP0775303]
- ARC Centre of Excellence grant [CE0561435]
- Queensland Government Smart State Premier's Fellowship
- Schmidt Marine Technology Partners grant [G-1605-55984, G-1802-57451]
- National Science Foundation [OCE-0729236, ATM-0941760]
- Pacific Blue Foundation
- Australian Research Council [LE0989608, LP0775303] Funding Source: Australian Research Council
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Climate change is causing major changes to marine ecosystems globally, with ocean acidification of particular concern for coral reefs. Using a 200 d in situ carbon dioxide enrichment study on Heron Island, Australia, we simulated future ocean acidification conditions, and found reduced pH led to a drastic decline in net calcification of living corals to no net growth, and accelerated disintegration of dead corals. Net calcification declined more severely than in previous studies due to exposure to the natural community of bioeroding organisms in this in situ study and to a longer experimental duration. Our data suggest that reef flat corals reach net dissolution at an aragonite saturation state (Omega(AR)) of 2.3 (95% confidence interval: 1.8-2.8) with 100% living coral cover and at Omega(AR)> 3.5 with 30% living coral cover. This model suggests that areas of the reef with relatively low coral mortality, where living coral cover is high, are likely to be resistant to carbon dioxide-induced reef dissolution.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available