Articles | Volume 15, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-671-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-671-2024
Review
 | 
03 Jun 2024
Review |  | 03 Jun 2024

Are physiological and ecosystem-level tipping points caused by ocean acidification? A critical evaluation

Christopher E. Cornwall, Steeve Comeau, and Ben P. Harvey

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Assessment of warm-water coral reef tipping point thresholds
Paul Pearce-Kelly, Andrew H. Altier, John F. Bruno, Christopher E. Cornwall, Melanie McField, Aarón Israel Muñiz-Castillo, Juan Rocha, Renee O. Setter, Charles Sheppard, Rosa Maria Roman-Cuesta, and Chris Yesson
Earth Syst. Dynam. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-2023-35,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-2023-35, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESD
Short summary

Cited articles

Agostini, S., Harvey, B. P., Wada, S., Kon, K., Milazzo, M., Inaba, K., and Hall-Spencer, J. M.: Ocean acidification drives community shifts towards simplified non-calcified habitats in a subtropical-temperate transition zone, Sci. Rep., 8, 11354, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-29251-7, 2018. 
Albright, R., Takeshita, Y., Koweek, D. A., Ninokawa, A., Wolfe, K., Rivlin, T., Nebuchina, Y., Young, J., and Caldeira, K.: Carbon dioxide addition to coral reef waters suppresses net community calcification, Nature, 555, 516–519, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature25968, 2018. 
Allemand, D., Ferrier-Pagés, C., Furla, P., Houlbréque, F., Puverel, S., Reynaud, S., Tambutte, E., Tambutte, S., and Zoccola, D.: Biomineralisation in reef-building corals: from molecular mechanisms to environmental control, C.R. Palevol., 3, 453–467, 2004. 
Allen, R. J., Summerfield, T. C., Harvey, B. P., Agostini, S., Rastrick, S. P., Hall-Spencer, J. M., and Hoffmann, L. J.: Species turnover underpins the effect of elevated CO2 on biofilm communities through early succession, Climate Change Ecology, 2, 100017, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecochg.2021.100017, 2021. 
Short summary
Ocean acidification will cause profound shifts in many marine ecosystems by impairing the ability of calcareous taxa to grow and by influencing the photophysiology of many others. Physiological tipping points will likely be reached in the next 20 years. Small changes in organism physiology result in larger ecological tipping points being crossed. Ecosystems will shift from having higher abundances of calcifying taxa and towards increased abundances of non-calcareous species under elevated CO2.
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