Data Series 862
1U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg, Fla.
2University of South Florida, Department of Geology, Tampa, Fla.
3U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole, Mass.
4University of South Florida, College of Marine Science, St. Petersburg, Fla.
U.S. Department of the
Interior
U.S.
Geological Survey
St.
Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
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Carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is absorbed at the surface of the ocean by reacting with seawater to form a weak, naturally occurring acid called carbonic acid. As atmospheric carbon dioxide increases, the concentration of carbonic acid in seawater also increases, causing a decrease in ocean pH and carbonate mineral saturation states, a process known as ocean acidification. The oceans have absorbed approximately 525 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or about one-quarter to one-third of the anthropogenic carbon emissions released since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (Sabine and others, 2004). Global surveys of ocean chemistry have revealed that seawater pH has decreased by about 0.1 units (from a pH of 8.2 to 8.1) since the 1700s due to the absorption of carbon dioxide (Caldeira and Wickett, 2003; Orr and others, 2005; Raven and others, 2005). Modeling studies, based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) CO2 emission scenarios, predict that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels could reach more than 500 parts per million (ppm) by the middle of this century and 800 ppm by the year 2100, causing an additional decrease in surface water pH of 0.3 pH units. Ocean acidification is a global threat and is already having profound and deleterious effects on the geology, biology, chemistry, and socioeconomic resources of coastal and marine habitats (Raven and others, 2005; Ruttiman, 2006). The polar and sub-polar seas have been identified as the bellwethers for global ocean acidification.
Arctic Ocean
The Canada Basin in the Arctic Ocean (fig. 1) (1,524,664 km2 ) has a fairly constant temperature of 0 degrees Celsius (°C), and supports some of the most productive marine areas in the world. Its cold waters absorb carbon dioxide more rapidly than warmer seawater. An increase in temperature of approximately 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (°F), over the past 150 years, has increased the melting of Arctic ice. Until recently, the perennial ice cover has prohibited significant equilibration of CO2 with the atmosphere, creating a polar mixed layer that has lower partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) levels than those found in the atmosphere. Over the last three decades, the retreat of summertime sea ice cover has exposed shelf waters to the atmosphere and allowed additional absorption of atmospheric CO2. The combination of these processes accelerates the rate at which pH and carbonate mineral saturation state decrease (Bates and others, 2006). Collecting waters in the Canadian and Makarov Basins have been the focus of the ocean acidification team during recent Healy cruises (2010, 2011, and 2012). Recent data from 2010 and 2011 cruises (Robbins and others, 2013b and Robbins and others, 2013c) on the Healy have shown that 20% of the Canada Basin in the Arctic is undersaturated with respect to aragonite (Robbins and others, 2013a ; also see Olaffson and others, 2009; Yamamoto-Kawai and others, 2009; Chierici, and Fransson, 2009) when ice melt is at its largest extent. These data corroborate models that project that the entire Arctic Ocean will become undersaturated with respect to carbonate minerals in the next decade (Orr and others, 2005; Steinacher and others 2009a,b; Popova and others, 2014).
The Arctic Ocean is a key area in which expanded time series studies of coastal and open ocean seawater chemistry will provide critical information to scientists and decision-makers for monitoring the progress of ocean acidification and place it in context with other global climate change studies (Robbins and others, 2010; Robbins and others, 2013c, AMAP, 2013).
From August 25 to September 27, 2012, the United States Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) Healy was part of an Extended Continental Shelf Project to determine the limits of the extended continental shelf in the Arctic. On a non-interference basis, a USGS ocean acidification team participated in the cruise to collect baseline water data in the Arctic. The collection of data extended from coastal waters near Barrow, Alaska, to 83°32'N., -175°36'W., and southward back to coastal waters near Barrow and on to Dutch Harbor, Alaska. As a consequence, a number of hypotheses were tested and questions asked associated with ocean acidification, including:
During the cruise, underway continuous and discrete water samples were collected, and discrete water samples were collected at stations to document the carbonate chemistry of the Arctic waters and quantify the saturation state of seawater with respect to calcium carbonate. These data are critical for providing baseline information in areas where no data have existed prior and will also be used to test existing models and predict future trends.
During the cruise, Healy’s instrumentation continuously recorded temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence, and pCO2 of surface water. Collaborating with the University of South Florida (USF), the U.S. Geological Survey also used a flow-through Multiparameter Inorganic Carbon Analyzer (MICA) (Liu and others, 2006, Wang and others, 2007). The MICA collected continuous measurements every 2 minutes (min) of pCO2, pH, and total carbon (TCO2) in the seawater. Because of a computer failure, the MICA was operable only 3 days of this cruise. Discrete water samples were collected for ship-board measurement of pH and total alkalinity (TA). Water samples were also collected for TA, TCO2, nutrient, isotope, and elemental analyses to be analyzed at a land-side laboratory. Temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and fluorescence were collected during vertical casts of a Niskin rosette. Discrete depth-profile water samples for TA, TCO2, nutrient, isotopes, and elemental analyses were taken during the Niskin casts and analyzed land-side. Additionally, waters from the Niskin casts were filtered onboard to obtain micro-organismal and microbiological community data, plus particulate organic carbon and particulate inorganic carbon data, which are not reported here.
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