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Nature
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Carbon dioxide addition to coral reef waters suppresses net community calcification

Naturevolume 555, pages516–519 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Coral reefs feed millions of people worldwide, provide coastal protection and generate billions of dollars annually in tourism revenue1. The underlying architecture of a reef is a biogenic carbonate structure that accretes over many years of active biomineralization by calcifying organisms, including corals and algae2. Ocean acidification poses a chronic threat to coral reefs by reducing the saturation state of the aragonite mineral of which coral skeletons are primarily composed, and lowering the concentration of carbonate ions required to maintain the carbonate reef. Reduced calcification, coupled with increased bioerosion and dissolution3, may drive reefs into a state of net loss this century4. Our ability to predict changes in ecosystem function and associated services ultimately hinges on our understanding of community- and ecosystem-scale responses. Past research has primarily focused on the responses of individual species rather than evaluating more complex, community-level responses. Here we use anin situ carbon dioxide enrichment experiment to quantify the net calcification response of a coral reef flat to acidification. We present an estimate of community-scale calcification sensitivity to ocean acidification that is, to our knowledge, the first to be based on a controlled experiment in the natural environment. This estimate provides evidence that near-future reductions in the aragonite saturation state will compromise the ecosystem function of coral reefs.

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Figure 1: Study site.
Figure 2: Mean change in Ωarag and NCC.
Figure 3: Change in Ωarag and NCC by day.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Dunbar for the use of his laboratory and D. Mucciarone for laboratory assistance; the Australian Institute of Marine Science for scientific and technical support; and the following people for their support in the field and/or laboratory: M. Byrne, T. Hill, L. Caldeira, R. Johnson, D. Ross and the staff of the One Tree Island Research Station. Expedition and staff support was provided by the Carnegie Institution for Science. Additional support for staff, but not expedition expenses, was provided by the California Academy of Sciences and the Fund for Innovative Climate and Energy Research. This work was permitted by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority under permit G14/36863.1.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Rebecca Albright, Yuichiro Takeshita, David A. Koweek, Yana Nebuchina & Ken Caldeira

  2. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, 94118, California, USA

    Rebecca Albright

  3. Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, 95039, California, USA

    Yuichiro Takeshita

  4. UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab, Bodega Bay, 94923, California, USA

    Aaron Ninokawa & Jordan Young

  5. School of Medical Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, 2006, New South Wales, Australia

    Kennedy Wolfe

  6. The Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences, The H. Steinitz Marine Biology Laboratory, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Coral Beach, Eilat, 8810300, Israel

    Tanya Rivlin

  7. The Fredy and Nadine Herrman Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel

    Tanya Rivlin

Authors
  1. Rebecca Albright
  2. Yuichiro Takeshita
  3. David A. Koweek
  4. Aaron Ninokawa
  5. Kennedy Wolfe
  6. Tanya Rivlin
  7. Yana Nebuchina
  8. Jordan Young
  9. Ken Caldeira

Contributions

R.A., Y.T. and K.C. conceived and designed the project, conducted pilot studies, and collected preliminary data. R.A., Y.T., D.A.K., A.N., K.W., T.R., Y.N., J.Y. and K.C. performed the experiments. R.A. and K.C. performed computational analyses. R.A. wrote the manuscript with input from Y.T., D.A.K. and K.C. All co-authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence toRebecca Albright.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

Reviewer InformationNature thanks H. Kayanne, J. Lough and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Publisher's note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Figure 1 Relationships between alkalinity and dye for experiment and control days.

a–f, Relationships between alkalinity and dye for a representative experiment day (n = 20 independent experiments, 29 September 2016 shown here) and control day (n = 10 independent experiments, 30 October 2016 shown here).a,b, Dye concentrations;c,d, alkalinities;e,f, alkalinity anomalies versus dye concentrations. Linear regressions were fit to alkalinity–dye data using least-squares residuals.d, On control days, the observed (measured) alkalinities closely agree with predicted values for each station. Comparing the upstream and downstream alkalinity–dye ratios provides an estimate of the effect of CO2 enrichment on NCC, as described in the Methods.e, On experiment days (n = 20 independent experiments), if CO2 suppresses NCC, the drawdown in alkalinity is smaller in areas with more CO2 (and more dye) than in areas with less CO2 (and less dye). This effect yields a positive correlation between dye and alkalinity (that is, a positive alkalinity–dye slope) that increases as the water mass moves across the reef—in other words, the alkalinity–dye slope at the downstream transect is greater than that of the upstream transect.f, On control days (n = 10 independent experiments), when dye but no CO2 was added, alkalinity and dye were not correlated, and the mean alkalinity–dye slopes for the upstream and downstream transects did not differ from zero.

Extended Data Figure 2 Time series of pH inside the header tank during the 60-min pumping period.

Solid lines represent control days, and dashed lines represent experiment days.

Extended Data Figure 3 Results of the multivariate regression analysis.

a,b, Unique offsets by station (xs) for the upstream and downstream transects (mean ± s.e.m.,n = 10).c,d, Magnitude of offsets by day (yd) for upstream and downstream transects.e,f, Alkalinity–dye ratios by day (rd), for upstream and downstream transects.g,h, Mean background alkalinities by day (âd) for upstream and downstream transects. Inc–h, bars represent central values as calculated by the multivariate regression described in the ‘Mathematical explanation’ section of the Methods, and error bars represent s.e.m. (forc,e andh,n = 11; ford,f andh,n = 15).

Extended Data Figure 4 Mean Ωarag and NCC rates for experiment and control days.

Background and in-plume Ωarag and NCC values (mean ± s.e.m.) for experiment (n = 20 independent experiments) and control (n = 10 independent experiments) days. Error bars reflect underlying natural variability (that is, day-to-day, hour-to-hour), because Ωarag and NCC varied based on time of day and light availability.

Extended Data Figure 5 Relationship between the change in NCC and background NCC across all experiment days.

Linear regression using least-squares residuals (n = 20 independent experiments).

Extended Data Figure 6 Change in NCC by day.

Change in NCC inside of the plume compared to background conditions (mean ± s.e.m.) for experiment (n = 20 independent experiments) and control (n = 10 independent experiments) days. On all 20 experiment days, we detected a statistically significant reduction in calcification within the plume (pairedt-tests). On control days, in-plume NCC was higher than background NCC on five days, and lower than background NCC on five days.

Extended Data Figure 7 Physical and chemical conditions of the study site.

Time series of environmental data from SeapHOx and SAMI sensors. Instruments logged at 10-min intervals over the duration of the study. Gaps in the data correspond to when the instruments were removed from the reef for maintenance.a, PAR;b, temperature;c, pressure;d, salinity;e, dissolved oxygen;f, pH.

Extended Data Table 1 Dates, times, predicted heights of low tide and mean PAR for all days
Extended Data Table 2 Mean ± s.e.m. values for salinity, NH4+ and NO2− + NO3− during and control days

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains the Computer Code. (PDF 754 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

Raw data for chemical and physical parameters across all days and station locations (measured and calculated). Details regarding measurements and associated errors are provided in the Methods. (XLSX 139 kb)

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Albright, R., Takeshita, Y., Koweek, D.et al. Carbon dioxide addition to coral reef waters suppresses net community calcification.Nature555, 516–519 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature25968

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Editorial Summary

Acid oceans threaten coral reefs

Ocean acidification impairs coral calcification and poses a substantial threat to tropical coral reef ecosystems. Rebecca Albright and colleagues exposed a natural coral reef community in the southern Great Barrier Reef to levels of ocean acidification that are expected to occur later this century unless deep carbon emissions cuts are made, and monitored calcification. Net community calcification was reduced by 34% in the acidified reef. The findings suggest that acidification of the ocean will compromise coral reef function in the near future.

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