Project: Ocean Acidification: Century Scale Impacts to Ecosystem Structure and Function of Aleutian Kelp Forests

Extracted from the NSF award abstract:

Marine calcifying organisms are most at risk to rapid ocean acidification (OA) in cold-water ecosystems. The investigators propose to determine if a globally unique and widespread calcareous alga in Alaska's Aleutian archipelago, Clathromorphum nereostratum, is threatened with extinction due to the combined effects of OA and food web alterations. C. nereostratum is a slow growing coralline alga that can live to at least 2000 years. It accretes massive 'bioherms' that dominate the regions' rocky substrate both under kelp forests and deforested sea urchin barrens. It develops growth bands (similar to tree rings) in its calcareous skeleton, which effectively record its annual calcification rate over centuries. Pilot data suggest the skeletal density of C. nereostratum began to decline precipitously in the 1990's in some parts of the Aleutian archipelago. The investigators now propose to use high-resolution microscopy and microCT imaging to examine how the growth and skeletal density of C. nereostratum has changed in the past 300 years (i.e., since the industrial revolution) across the western Aleutians. They will compare their records of algal skeletal densities and their variation through time with reconstructions of past climate to infer causes of change. In addition, the investigators will examine whether the alga's defense against grazing by sea urchins is compromised by ongoing ocean acidification. The investigators will survey the extent of C. nereostratum bioerosion occurring at 10 sites spanning the western Aleutians, both inside and outside of kelp forests. At each site they will compare these patterns to observed and monitored ecosystem trophic structure and recent C. nereostratum calcification rates. Field observations will be combined with laboratory experiments to determine if it is a decline in the alga's skeletal density (due to recent OA and warming), an increase in grazing intensity (due to recent trophic-level dysfunction), or their interactive effects that are likely responsible for bioerosion patterns inside vs. outside of forests. By sampling C. nereostratum inside and outside of forests, they will determine if kelp forests locally increase pH via photosynthesis, and thus buffer the effects of OA on coralline calcification. The combination of field observations with laboratory controlled experiments, manipulating CO2 and temperature, will help elucidate drivers of calcification and project how these species interactions will likely change in the near future. The project will provide the first in situ example of how ongoing ocean acidification is affecting the physiology of long-lived, carbonate producing organisms in the subarctic North Pacific. It will also be one of the first studies to document whether OA, ocean warming, and food web changes to ecological processes are interacting in complex ways to reshape the outcome of species interactions in nature.