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Carbon-sequestering ocean plants may cope with climate changes over the long run
http://news.sfsu.edu/carbon-sequestering-ocean-plants-may-cope-climate-changes-over-long-run[font face=Serif][font size=5]Carbon-sequestering ocean plants may cope with climate changes over the long run[/font]
[font size=3]SAN FRANCISCO -- A year-long experiment on tiny ocean organisms called coccolithophores suggests that the single-celled algae may still be able to grow their calcified shells even as oceans grow warmer and more acidic in Earth’s near future.
The study stands in contrast to earlier studies suggesting that coccolithophores would fail to build strong shells in acidic waters. The world’s oceans are expected to become more acidic as human activities pump increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere.
But after the researchers raised one strain of the Emiliania huxleyi coccolithorphore for over 700 generations, which took about 12 months, under high temperature and acidified conditions that are expected for the oceans 100 years from now, the organisms had no trouble producing their plated shells.
“At least in this experiment with one coccolithophore strain, when we combined higher levels of CO[font size="1"]2[/font] with higher temperatures, they actually did better in terms of calcification.” said Jonathon Stillman, associate professor of biology at San Francisco State University, who along with Ed Carpenter, professor of biology, and Tomoko Komada, associate professor of chemistry, led a team of researchers at the University’s Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies. The research was performed by postdoctoral scientist Ina Benner, masters students Rachel Diner and Dian Li and postdoctoral scientist Stephane Lefebvre.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0049[font size=3]SAN FRANCISCO -- A year-long experiment on tiny ocean organisms called coccolithophores suggests that the single-celled algae may still be able to grow their calcified shells even as oceans grow warmer and more acidic in Earth’s near future.
The study stands in contrast to earlier studies suggesting that coccolithophores would fail to build strong shells in acidic waters. The world’s oceans are expected to become more acidic as human activities pump increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere.
But after the researchers raised one strain of the Emiliania huxleyi coccolithorphore for over 700 generations, which took about 12 months, under high temperature and acidified conditions that are expected for the oceans 100 years from now, the organisms had no trouble producing their plated shells.
“At least in this experiment with one coccolithophore strain, when we combined higher levels of CO[font size="1"]2[/font] with higher temperatures, they actually did better in terms of calcification.” said Jonathon Stillman, associate professor of biology at San Francisco State University, who along with Ed Carpenter, professor of biology, and Tomoko Komada, associate professor of chemistry, led a team of researchers at the University’s Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies. The research was performed by postdoctoral scientist Ina Benner, masters students Rachel Diner and Dian Li and postdoctoral scientist Stephane Lefebvre.
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