Ocean Acidification Refugia in Variable Environments

Authors

Lydia Kapsenberg, CSIC Institute of Marine Sciences - Barcelona, Spain
Tyler Cyronak, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow

ORCID

0000-0003-3556-7616

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Global Change Biology

ISSN

1354-1013

Publication Date

6-14-2019

Abstract

Climate change refugia in the terrestrial biosphere are areas where species are protected from global environmental change and arise from natural heterogeneity in landscapes and climate. Within the marine realm, ocean acidification, or the global decline in seawater pH, remains a pervasive threat to organisms and ecosystems. Natural variability in seawater carbon dioxide (CO₂) chemistry, however, presents an opportunity to identify ocean acidification refugia (OAR) for marine species. Here, we review the literature to examine the impacts of variable CO₂ chemistry on biological responses to ocean acidification and develop a framework of definitions and criteria that connects current OAR research to management goals. Under the concept of managing vulnerability, the most likely mechanisms by which OAR can mitigate ocean acidification impacts are by reducing exposure to harmful conditions or enhancing adaptive capacity. While local management options such as OAR show some promise, they present unique challenges and reducing global anthropogenic CO₂ emissions must remain a priority.

DOI

10.1111/gcb.14730

Comments

© 2019 The Authors Global Change Biology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

Additional Comments

European Commission Horizon 2020 Maria Sklodowska-Curie Action #: 747637

NSUWorks Citation

Lydia Kapsenberg and Tyler Cyronak. 2019. Ocean Acidification Refugia in Variable Environments .Global Change Biology . https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/1033.