Assessing and Exploring the Efficacy of Sea Plants to Help Mitigate the Impacts of Ocean Acidification

Overview

In coastal waters, acidification is often exacerbated by anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) and acid wastes produced during biological respiration. However, less is known about buffering processes that counter coastal acidification in eutrophic and consequently, hypoxic water bodies. There have been proposals to throw limestone or olivine into the water, or chemically absorb CO2, but the energy needed to mine and distribute such minerals, and the unpredictable shift in food webs, have made these ploys unappealing on a global scale. This project explored a more sound, eco-friendly strategy to ameliorate ocean acidification—aquatic vegetation. Here, carbonate chemistry and sample processing were used to demonstrate the occurrence of a pH-buffering mechanism resulting from calcium carbonate production from the plants. This investigation examined four types of sea plants, bull kelp, giant kelp, seaweed, and seagrass. The four most current acidic environments (8.1+pH, 8.0+pH, 7.8+pH, and 7.6+pH) were simulated. The plants were submerged and sealed for ninety days, and their chlorophyll concentrations as well as the amount of carbon and calcium carbonate in the water were measured every seven days. The results found significant carbon removal for all the plant types, with an average removal of 96.8% ± 0.62% for giant kelp, 94.6% ± 0.49% for bull kelp, 92.8% ± 0.38% for seaweed, and 93.1% ± 0.42% for seagrass. These findings offer a previously overlooked mechanism in which restoring aquatic vegetation will likely enhance their combined buffering capacity, potentially providing further resiliency in the face of coastal ocean acidification.

Competition history

• JSHS 2022 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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