Ocean Acidification: Research aims

All of the predictions described here are based on short-term interference experiments carried out to date on selected groups of animals. Possible compensatory and adaptational mechanisms used by the marine organisms have not yet been considered. Reliable predictions require long-term experiments and an understanding of the underlying mechanisms and the potential of organisms to adapt to changed environmental conditions. Little research has thus far investigated the links between ocean acidification and other environmental factors such as ocean warming. In order to gain a better understanding of all these effects, the junior research group will be combining molecular biological, biochemical and cell physiological methods with CO₂ interference experiments from cellular to ecosystem levels. Furthermore, new techniques will be developed for research into biomineralization, ion regulation and micro-evolutionary adaptations. Flattening off of the depth profile for carbonate saturation will result in half of the existing cold-water coral reefs recorded to date being exposed to conditions under which aragonite, the main building block for their calcium carbonate skeletons, dissolves. However, corals only account for a minor portion of global marine calcium carbonate production. Around three quarters is produced by planktonic organisms. Unicellular algae, the coccolithophorids, export enormous quantities of calcium carbonate into the deep sea, resulting in massive calcium carbonate accumulations on the sea floor. The White Cliffs of Dover or the chalk cliffs of Rügen are evidence of such depositions in the past. Experiments have demonstrated that the frail calcium carbonate plates in coccolithophorids become progressively thinner with increasing CO₂ concentrations, finally resulting in drastic deformations in their calcium carbonate structure.