Abstract
The hypothesis that Arctic tidal pools provide environmental conditions suitable for calcifiers during summer, thereby potentially providing refugia for calcifiers in an acidifying Arctic Ocean, was tested on the basis of measurements conducted during two midsummers (2014 and 2016) in tidal pools colonised by a community composed of macroalgae and calcifiers in Disko Bay, Greenland (69° N). The tidal pools exhibited steep diurnal variations in temperature from a minimum of about 6 °C during the night to a maximum of almost 18 °C in the afternoon, while the temperature of the surrounding shore water was much lower, typically in the range 3 to 8 °C. O2 concentrations in the tidal pools were elevated relative to those in the adjacent open waters, by up to 11 mg O2 L−1, and exhibited heavy super-saturation (up to > 240%) during daytime emersion, reflecting intense and sustained photosynthetic rates of the tidal macroalgae. The intense photosynthetic activity of the seaweeds resulted in the drawdown of pCO2 concentrations in the pools during the day to levels down to average (±SE) values of 66 ± 18 ppm, and a minimum recorded value of 14.7 ppm, corresponding to pH levels as high as 8.69 ± 0.08, as compared to CO2 levels of 256 ± 4 and pH levels of 8.14 ± 0.01 in the water flooding the pools during high tide. The corresponding Ωarag reached 5.04 ± 0.49 in the pools as compared to 1.55 ± 0.02 in the coastal waters flooding the pools. Net calcification averaged 9.6 ± 5.6 μmol C kg−1 h−1 and was strongly and positively correlated with calculated net ecosystem production rates, which averaged 27.5 ± 8.6 μmol C kg−1 h−1. Arctic tidal pools promote intense metabolism, creating conditions suitable for calcification during the Arctic summer, and can, therefore, provide refugia from ocean acidification to vulnerable calcifiers as extended periods of continuous light during summer are conducive to suitable conditions twice a day. Meroplankton larvae are exposed to ocean acidification until they settle in vegetated tidal pools, where they benefit from the protection offered by the “macroalgae-carbonate saturation state” interaction favouring calcification rates.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bates, N.R., and J.T. Mathis. 2009. The Arctic Ocean marine carbon cycle: evaluation of air-sea CO2 exchanges, ocean acidification impacts and potential feedbacks. Biogeosciences 6 (11): 2433–2459. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-6-2433-2009.
Blicher, M.E., M.K. Sejr, and S. Rysgaard. 2009. High carbon demand of dominant macrozoobenthic species indicates their central role in ecosystem carbon flow in a sub-Arctic fjord. Marine Ecology Progress Series 383: 127–140. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps07978.
Dayton, P. 1975. Experimental evaluation of ecological dominance in a rocky intertidal algal community. Ecological Monographs 45 (2): 137–159. https://doi.org/10.2307/1942404.
Dickson, A.G., and F.J. Millero. 1987. A comparison of the equilibrium constants for the dissociation of carbonic acid in seawater media. Deep Sea Research 34 (10): 1733–1743. https://doi.org/10.1016/0198-0149(87)90021-5.
Duarte, C., I. Hendriks, T. Moore, Y. Olsen, A. Steckbauer, L. Ramajo, J. Carstensen, J. Trotter, and M. McCulloch. 2013. Is ocean acidification an open-ocean syndrome? Understanding anthropogenic impacts on seawater pH. Estuaries and Coasts 36 (2): 221–236. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-013-9594-3.
Dunton, K.H., and D.M. Schell. 1987. Dependence of consumers on macroalgal (Laminaria solidungula) carbon in an arctic kelp community: δ13C evidence. Marine Biology 93 (4): 615–625. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00392799.
Eilers, P.H.C., and J.C.H. Peeters. 1988. A model for the relationship between light intensity and the rate of photosynthesis in phytoplankton. Ecological Modelling 42 (3–4): 199–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3800(88)90057-9.
Fabry, V.J., J.B. McClintock, J.T. Mathis, and J.M. Grebmeier. 2009. Ocean acidification at high latitudes: the Bellweather. Oceanography 22 (4): 160–171. https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2009.105.
Ganning, B. 1971. Studies on chemical, physical and biological conditions in Swedish rockpool ecosystems. Ophelia 9 (1): 51–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/00785326.1971.10430090.
Hendriks, I.E., Y.S. Olsen, L. Ramajo, L. Basso, A. Steckbauer, T.S. Moore, J. Howard, and C.M. Duarte. 2014. Photosynthetic activity buffers ocean acidification in seagrass meadows. Biogeosciences 11 (2): 333–346. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-333-2014.
Hurd, C.L. 2015. Slow flow habitats as refugia for coastal calcifiers from ocean acidification. Journal of Phycology 51 (4): 599–605. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpy.12307.
Krause-Jensen, D. and Duarte, C.M. 2014. Expansion of vegetated coastal ecosystems in the future Arctic. Frontiers in Marine Science, 1:77. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2014.00077.
Krause-Jensen, D., C.M. Duarte, I.E. Hendriks, L. Meire, M.E. Blicher, N. Marbà, and M.K. Sejr. 2015. Macroalgae contribute to nested mosaics of pH variability in a subarctic fjord. Biogeosciences 12 (16): 4895–4911. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-4895-2015.
Krause-Jensen, D., N. Marba, M. Sanz-Martin, I. Hendriks, J. Thyrring, J. Carstensen, M.K. Sejr, and C.M. Duarte. 2016. Long photoperiods sustain high pH in Arctic kelp forests. Science Advances 2 (12): e1501938. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1501938.
Kroeker, K.J., R.L. Kordas, R. Crim, I.E. Hendriks, L. Ramajos, G.S. Singh, C.M. Duarte, and J.-P. Gattuso. 2013. Impacts of ocean acidification on marine organisms: quantifying sensitivities and interaction with warming. Global Change Biology 19 (6): 1884–1896. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12179.
Kwiatkowski, L., Gaylord, B., Hill, T., Hosfelt, J., Kroeker, K.J., Nebuchina, Y., Ninokawa, A., Russell, A.D., Rivest, E.B., Sesboüé, M. and Caldeira, K. 2016. Nighttime dissolution in a temperate coastal ocean ecosystem increases under acidification. Scientific Reports 6, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep22984 .
Mehrbach, C., C.H. Culberson, J.E. Hawley, and R.M. Pytkowicz. 1973. Measurement of the apparent dissociation constants of carbonic acid in seawater at atmospheric pressure. Limnology and Oceanography 18 (6): 897–907. https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.1973.18.6.0897.
Paine, R.T. 1974. Intertidal community structure. Oecologia 15 (2): 93–120. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00345739.
Parker, L.M., P.M. Ross, W.A. O’Connor, H.O. Pörtner, E. Scanes, and J.M. Wright. 2013. Predicting the response of molluscs to the impact of ocean acidification. Biology 2 (2): 651–692. https://doi.org/10.3390/biology2020651.
Pierrot, D., E. Lewis, D.W.R. Wallace. 2006. MS Excel program developed for CO2 system calculations. ORNL/CDIAC-105a. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Ramajo, L., E. Pérez-León, I.E. Hendriks, N. Marbà, D. Krause-Jensen, M.K. Sejr, M.E. Blicher, N.E. Lagos, Y.S. Olsen, and C.M. Duarte. 2016. Food supply confers calcifiers resistance to ocean acidification. Scientific Reports 6 (1): 19374. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep19374.
Renaud, P.E., T.S. Løkken, L.L. Jørgensen, J. Berge, and B.J. Johnson. 2015. Macroalgal detritus and food-web subsidies along an Arctic fjord depth-gradient. Frontiers in Marine Science 2: 31.
Richter, A., S. Rysgaard, R. Dietrich, J. Mortensen, and D. Petersen. 2011. Coastal tides in West Greenland derived from tide gauge records. Ocean Dynamics 61 (1): 39–49. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-010-0341-z.
Steinacher, M., F. Joos, T.L. Frölicher, G.K. Plattner, and S.C. Doney. 2009. Imminent ocean acidification in the Arctic projected with the NCAR global coupled carbon cycle-climate model. Biogeosciences 6 (4): 515–533. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-6-515-2009.
Stübner, E.I., J.E. Søreide, M. Reigstad, M. Marquardt, and K. Blachowiak-Samolyk. 2016. Year-round meroplankton dynamics in high-Arctic Svalbard. Journal of Plankton Research 38 (3): 522–536. https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/fbv124.
Truchot, J.P., and A. Duhamel-Jouve. 1980. Oxygen and carbon dioxide in the marine intertidal environment: diurnal and tidal changes in rockpools. Respiration Physiology 39 (3): 241–254. https://doi.org/10.1016/0034-5687(80)90056-0.
Wahl, M., S. Schneider Covachã, V. Saderne, C. Hiebenthal, J.D. Müller, C. Pansch, and Y. Sawall. 2017. Macroalgae may mitigate ocean acidification effects on mussel calcification by increasing pH and its fluctuations. Limnology and Oceanography. https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.10608.
Waldbusser, G.G., and J.E. Salisbury. 2014. Ocean acidification in the coastal zone from an organism’s perspective: multiple system parameters, frequency domains, and habitats. Annual Review of Marine Science 6 (1): 221–247. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-121211-172238.
Wootton, J.T., C.A. Pfister, and J.D. Forester. 2008. Dynamic patterns and ecological impacts of declining ocean pH in a high-resolution multi-year dataset. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105 (48): 18848–18853.
Acknowledgements
This work is a contribution to the Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring program (www.G-E-M.dk). We thank K. Linding Gerlich (Aarhus University, Denmark) for the help in the laboratory and K. Akaaraq and O. Stecher (Arctic Station, Disko Island, University of Copenhagen, Denmark) for their help in the field.
Funding
The study was funded by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency within the Danish Cooperation for Environment in the Arctic.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by Masahiro Nakaoka
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(DOCX 73 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Duarte, C.M., Krause-Jensen, D. Greenland Tidal Pools as Hot Spots for Ecosystem Metabolism and Calcification. Estuaries and Coasts 41, 1314–1321 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-018-0368-9
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-018-0368-9