Data Description

Citation:
Tunnicliffe, Verena; Davies, Kimberly T A; Butterfield, David A; Embley, Robert W; Rose, Jonathan M; Chadwick, William W Jr (2009): Seawater carbonate chemistry and Bathymodiolus brevior shell variables near Eifuku volcano, Japan, 2009. doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.758715
Reference(s):
Tunnicliffe, Verena; Davies, Kimberly T A; Butterfield, David A; Embley, Robert W; Rose, Jonathan M; Chadwick, William W Jr (2009): Survival of mussels in extremely acidic waters on a submarine volcano. Nature Geoscience, 2, 344-348, doi:10.1038/ngeo500 *
Abstract:
Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are causing ocean acidification, compromising the ability of some marine organisms to build and maintain support structures as the equilibrium state of inorganic carbon moves away from calcium carbonate. Few marine organisms tolerate conditions where ocean pH falls significantly below today's value of about 8.1 and aragonite and calcite saturation values below 1. Here we report dense clusters of the vent mussel B. brevior in natural conditions of pH values between 5.36 and 7.29 on northwest Eifuku volcano, Mariana arc, where liquid carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide emerge in a hydrothermal setting. We find that both shell thickness and daily growth increments in shells from northwest Eifuku are only about half those recorded from mussels living in water with pH>7.8. Low pH may therefore also be implicated in metabolic impairment. We identify four-decade-old mussels, but suggest that the mussels can survive for so long only if their protective shell covering remains intact: crabs that could expose the underlying calcium carbonate to dissolution are absent from this setting. The mussels' ability to precipitate shells in such low-pH conditions is remarkable. Nevertheless, the vulnerability of molluscs to predators is likely to increase in a future ocean with low pH.
Coverage:
Median Latitude: 23.110496 * Median Longitude: 162.328442 * South-bound Latitude: 20.050103 * West-bound Longitude: 144.035506 * North-bound Latitude: 25.801383 * East-bound Longitude: 177.167231
Minimum DEPTH, water: 1103.0 m * Maximum DEPTH, water: 2714.0 m
Parameter(s):
#NameShort NameUnitPrincipal InvestigatorMethodComment
1Site *SiteTunnicliffe, Verena *
2LATITUDE *LatitudeGeocode
3LONGITUDE *LongitudeGeocode
4Date *DateTunnicliffe, Verena *
5DEPTH, water *Depth watermGeocode
6Salinity *SalTunnicliffe, Verena *measured *
7Temperature, water *Temp°CTunnicliffe, Verena *measured *
8pH *pHTunnicliffe, Verena *measured *NBS scale
9Alkalinity, total *Alkmmol(eq)/lTunnicliffe, Verena *Alkalinity, potentiometric *
10Total alkalinity *TAµmol/kgTunnicliffe, Verena *calculated *
11Total carbon *TCµmol/kgTunnicliffe, Verena *calculated using CO2SYS *
12Calcite saturation state *SI CalTunnicliffe, Verena *calculated using CO2SYS *
13Aragonite saturation state *SI AragTunnicliffe, Verena *calculated using CO2SYS *
14Carbonate system computation flag *CSC flagTunnicliffe, Verena *calculated using seacarb by Anne-Marin Nisumaa *
15pH *pHTunnicliffe, Verena *calculated using seacarb by Anne-Marin Nisumaa *Total scale
16Carbon dioxide *CO2µmol/kgTunnicliffe, Verena *calculated using seacarb by Anne-Marin Nisumaa *
17Partial pressure of Carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air) *pCO2water_SST_wetµatmTunnicliffe, Verena *calculated using seacarb by Anne-Marin Nisumaa *
18Fugacity of Carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air) *fCO2water_SST_wetµatmTunnicliffe, Verena *calculated using seacarb by Anne-Marin Nisumaa *
19Bicarbonate ion concentration *HCO3-µmol/kgTunnicliffe, Verena *calculated using seacarb by Anne-Marin Nisumaa *
20Carbonate ion concentration *CO3**2-µmol/kgTunnicliffe, Verena *calculated using seacarb by Anne-Marin Nisumaa *
21Aragonite saturation state *SI AragTunnicliffe, Verena *calculated using seacarb by Anne-Marin Nisumaa *
22Calcite saturation state *SI CalTunnicliffe, Verena *calculated using seacarb by Anne-Marin Nisumaa *
23Hydrogen sulphide *H2Sµmol/lTunnicliffe, Verena *measured *
24Bathymodiolus brevior *B. brevior#Tunnicliffe, Verena *
25Bathymodiolus brevior, distance from umbo *B. brevior distance from umbocmTunnicliffe, Verena *measured *
26Bathymodiolus brevior, shell thickness *B. brevior shell thickµmTunnicliffe, Verena *Electron microprobe *
27Bathymodiolus brevior, shell thickness, standard deviation *B. brevior shell thick std dev±Tunnicliffe, Verena *
28Bathymodiolus brevior, distance from shell edge *B. brevior distance from shell edgecmTunnicliffe, Verena *measured *
29Bathymodiolus brevior, daily growth band, width *B. brevior daily growth band widthµmTunnicliffe, Verena *Electron microprobe *
30Bathymodiolus brevior, daily growth band, width, standard error *B. brevior daily growth band width std eTunnicliffe, Verena *
31Bathymodiolus brevior, shell, length *B. brevior LmmTunnicliffe, Verena *measured *
32Bathymodiolus brevior, shell, weight *B. brevior WgTunnicliffe, Verena *measured *
License:
CC-BY Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
Size:
780 data points

Download Data

Download dataset as tab-delimited text (use the following character encoding: )

View dataset as HTML