Surface ocean pH variations since 1689 CE and recent ocean acidification in the tropical South Pacific

Henry C. Wu (), Delphine Dissard, Eric Douville, Dominique Blamart, Louise Bordier, Aline Tribollet, Florence Le Cornec, Edwige Pons-Branchu, Arnaud Dapoigny and Claire E. Lazareth
Additional contact information
Henry C. Wu: IRD DR Ile-de-France
Delphine Dissard: IRD DR Ile-de-France
Eric Douville: Université Paris-Saclay
Dominique Blamart: Université Paris-Saclay
Louise Bordier: Université Paris-Saclay
Aline Tribollet: IRD DR Ile-de-France
Florence Le Cornec: IRD DR Ile-de-France
Edwige Pons-Branchu: Université Paris-Saclay
Arnaud Dapoigny: Université Paris-Saclay
Claire E. Lazareth: IRD DR Ile-de-France

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Increasing atmospheric CO2 from man-made climate change is reducing surface ocean pH. Due to limited instrumental measurements and historical pH records in the world’s oceans, seawater pH variability at the decadal and centennial scale remains largely unknown and requires documentation. Here we present evidence of striking secular trends of decreasing pH since the late nineteenth century with pronounced interannual to decadal–interdecadal pH variability in the South Pacific Ocean from 1689 to 2011 CE. High-amplitude oceanic pH changes, likely related to atmospheric CO2 uptake and seawater dissolved inorganic carbon fluctuations, reveal a coupled relationship to sea surface temperature variations and highlight the marked influence of El Niño/Southern Oscillation and Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation. We suggest changing surface winds strength and zonal advection processes as the main drivers responsible for regional pH variability up to 1881 CE, followed by the prominent role of anthropogenic CO2 in accelerating the process of ocean acidification.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04922-1 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-04922-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04922-1

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().