Ocean Acidification is reshaping life and biogeochemical cycles. In our latest study, Niki Gruber and I reconstructed its progression in the global ocean interior over the industrial era, based on our previous estimates of anthropogenic carbon accumulation. doi.org/10.1126/scia... A 🧵about the 🌊... - ThreadSky

jens-d-mueller.bsky.social • 92 days ago

Ocean Acidification is reshaping life and biogeochemical cycles.
In our latest study, Niki Gruber and I reconstructed its progression in the global ocean interior over the industrial era, based on our previous estimates of anthropogenic carbon accumulation.
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ado3103

A 🧵about the 🌊...

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jens-d-mueller.bsky.social•92 days ago

[2/6] A striking feature of ocean interior acidification is its deep reach and the rapid acceleration over the past two decades. Across all depths, the acidification has progressed by 50% between 1994-2014.

jens-d-mueller.bsky.social•92 days ago

[3/6] Acidification rates of H⁺ and pH (but not CO₃²⁻ and Ω!) at depth can exceed surface rates. This happens when small amounts of anthropogenic carbon accumulate in naturally acidified waters with low buffer capacity, such as upwelling regions along eastern boundaries.

jens-d-mueller.bsky.social•92 days ago

[4/6] The decline of the saturation state of aragonite caused an almost complete disappearance of waters providing optimal conditions (Ω>4) for the growth of warm water corals. Likewise, the volume of supersatured waters (Ω>1) has declined by ~20% since preindustrial time.

jens-d-mueller.bsky.social•92 days ago

[5/6] The loss of supersatured waters results from the shoaling of the saturation horizon. For aragonite, this horizon has shoaled by more than 200m on a global average and particularly fast in the Southern Ocean. The consequences for biogeochemical cycles and marine biota are largely unknown.

jens-d-mueller.bsky.social•92 days ago

[6/6] Translating acidification trends into biological impacts is tricky, as the background state and organism sensitivity come into play. We dared to showcase this complexity for the region-specific shell dissolution of pteropods, key players in maintaining the ocean’s carbonate pump.

jens-d-mueller.bsky.social•92 days ago

We are deeply grateful for valuable feedback from reviewers and the scientific community, as well as for the funding from @ethzurich.bsky.social, @usyseth.bsky.social, and EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements no. 821003 (project 4C) and no. 821001 (SO-CHIC).

altagliabue.bsky.social•92 days ago

Congrats. How do the rates compare with those we estimated in the @ipcc.bsky.social SROCC report??

jens-d-mueller.bsky.social•87 days ago

A good reminder to revisit the report 🙈 Rates that are provided are not directly comparable, but overall messages are consistent. What is new here, is the documentation of progress over time reconstructed from observations.

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