The effects of ocean acidification on coastal marine noncalcareous phytoplankton

Joshua Bergeron
Undergraduate, Department of Marine Science, The University of Southern Mississippi

ABSTRACT Phytoplankton production serves an essential ecological function for all aquatic life and any changes to surface water pH could have profound consequences to this production. It has been suggested that anthropogenic CO2 could lead to a surface water pH level as low as7.8 by the end of the century. This study was conducted to evaluate the realized growth rate of coastal noncalcareous marine phytoplankton at varying levels of ocean acidification under ideal growth conditions. A natural population of coastal phytoplankton was filtered to remove grazers and separated into 24 equivalent 200 mL samples of f/2 medium enriched natural seawater. Four target pH levels from 6.5 to 8.5 were reached through the addition of an HCl and NaHCO3 solution based on a titration curve of the seawater sample. Cell counts were taken every two days and a pre- and post- chlorophyll analysis was done after 12 days of growth in an incubator set to a 14/10 light to dark cycle. My results revealed that noncalcareous coastal marine phytoplankton are indeed sensitive to lowered pH. However, the extreme changes in pH necessary to demonstrate this sensitivity suggests that the changes in ocean pH predicted in consequence of anthropogenic ocean acidification are not substantial enough to affect their growth rate significantly. This is possibly due to natural coastal environments that promote tolerance to veritable pH. Further research should involve a closed system experiment that controls the atmospheric concentrations of CO2 necessary to cause changes in surface water pH.