Award: PLR-1041102

Ocean acidification (OA), driven by rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere, is one element of rapid change presently occurring in the Arctic.  It has been shown to compound natural variability in carbonate chemistry, producing conditions that could be harmful to biologically important processes. During this project, we carefully study the chemistry of Arctic Ocean waters to investigate how ocean acidification is impacting the Arctic. The results show that ocean acidification is happening faster in the Arctic than nearly anywhere else on the planet and these changes in water chemistry may have a profound and lasting effect on marine ecosystems and the human populations that rely on them.  Our data records indicate that potentially harmful waters are already present in the western Arctic Ocean during 80% of the year and we estimate that these persistent ocean acidification effects are a recent phenomenon that appeared between 1975 and 1985 due to the intrusion of human-emitted carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. These potentially harmful waters that originate over the continental shelves of the Western Arctic Ocean have been observed as far as the entrances to Amundsen Gulf and M’Clure Strait in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The formation and transport of corrosive waters may have widespread impact on the Arctic biogeochemical system reaching all the way to the North Atlantic.

Last Modified: 02/17/2017
Modified by: Jeremy T Mathis