Ocean Acidification Indicators for the Global Surface Ocean

Ocean Acidification Indicators

CISESS scientist Li-Qing Jiang and colleagues published a landmark study on the evolution of 10 ocean acidification (OA ) indicators in the global surface ocean from 1750 to 2100. The article was published on 23 March 2023 in the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems.

The study presents a new model-data fusion product based on 14 Earth System Models (ESMs) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6), along with three recent observational ocean carbon data products. The 10 OA indicators include fugacity of carbon dioxide, pH on total scale (see figure below as an example), total hydrogen ion content, free hydrogen ion content, carbonate ion content, aragonite saturation state, calcite saturation state, Revelle Factor, total dissolved inorganic carbon content, and total alkalinity content. The developed climatologies and atlases will serve as a baseline for future changes.

Jiang_2023b

Figure:Surface ocean total hydrogen ion content ([H⁺]_total, inter-model median) in the decades around (a) 1850, (b) 2010, (c) 2100 (SSP1-2.6), (d) 2100 (SSP2-4.5), (e) 2100 (SSP3-7.0), and (f) 2100 (SSP5-8.5). SSP is short for Shared Socioeconomic Pathway.

This research is a major step forward in the projections of OA indicators in the global ocean. The projections will support OA research at regional and global scales and provide essential information to guide OA mitigation and adaptation efforts for various sectors, including fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, and marine resources.

Citation: Jiang, Li-Qing; John Dunne, Brendan R. Carter, Jerry F. Tjiputra, Jens Terhaar, Jonathan D. Sharp, Are Olsen, Simone Alin, Dorothee C. E. Bakker, Richard A. Feely, Jean-Pierre Gattuso, Patrick Hogan, Tatiana Ilyina, Nico Lange, Siv K. Lauvset, Ernie R. Lewis, Tomas Lovato, Julien Palmieri, Yeray Santana-Falcón, Jörg Schwinger, Roland Séférian, Gary Strand, Neil Swart, Toste Tanhua, Hiroyuki Tsujino, Rik Wanninkhof, Michio Watanabe, Akitomo Yamamoto, and Tilo Ziehn, 2023: Global Surface Ocean Acidification Indicators From 1750 to 2100, J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., 15(3), e2022MS003563, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022MS003563.

On a related note, a coastal OA indicator product was also released recently, i.e., North American Coastal Ocean Acidification Indicators Climatologies. It covers seven OA indicators at 14 standardized depth levels from surface to 500 meters depth. This is a significant development, as it marks the first time that OA conditions in the US coastal waters have been reported. To learn more, check out the accompanying Web Story, the data product, and the visualization tool: Atlas of North American Coastal Ocean Acidification Indicators.

Author: Kate Cooney

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