T137 Past and Present Global Biotic Crises: From Microbes to Megafauna

Monday, 26 September 2016
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Mile High Ballroom 3C

ANTHROPOCENE TRIPLE STRESS: IMPACT OF EXPERIMENTALLY INDUCED OCEAN ACIDIFICATION, DEOXYGENATION, AND WARMING ON BENTHIC FORAMINIFERAL COMMUNITY COMPOSITION AND GROWTH

Paper number: T137-12
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 4:10 PM – 4:25 PM

Authors

Abstract

Since the beginning of industrialization, carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations have increased in the atmosphere, causing an increase in oceanic pCO2 that drives a decrease in oceanic pH, a process called ocean acidification (OA). Higher CO2 concentrations have been linked to rising global temperatures, which can result in more stratified surface waters, reducing the exchange between surface and deep waters and leading to an expansion of oxygen-depleted zones (so called hypoxia or deoxygenation). Many studies have assessed the impact of these stressors individually or as pairs; fewer studies have assessed the impact of all three. We conducted a long-term experiment (>10 months) with different treatments of pCO2, O2, and temperature to determine the sole or combined impact of these stressors on the abundance and survival of a continental-shelf benthic foraminiferal community. Inoculation materials were collected from a ~75-m deep site south of Woods Hole, MA. The agglutinated Bathysiphon cf. B. minuta grew in each pseudoreplicate of each treatment. Calcareous species had more restricted occurrences, some being most common in oxygen-depleted treatments. Multidimensional scaling analysis (Primer) indicates that of the three factors, pCO2 was least influential and that the triple stressor treatment (warm, hypoxic, high pCO2) differed from all other treatments, suggesting a compounded impact from multiple stressors. Additional results on assemblage composition and growth will be presented. Supported by NSF OCE-1219948 and the Investment in Science Fund at WHOI.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 48, No. 7

doi: 10.1130/abs/2016AM-281509

© Copyright 2016 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.