Source:  CO2 Science

by Craig and Sherwood Idso

Special Issue
This week we announce the release of our newest major report, Carbon Dioxide and Earth’s Future: Pursuing the Prudent Path. Based on the voluminous periodic reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the ongoing rise in the atmosphere’s CO2 concentration has come to be viewed as a monumental danger — not only to human society, but to the world of nature as well. But are the horrific “doomsday scenarios” promulgated by the climate alarmists as set-in-stone as the public is led to believe? Do we really know all of the complex and interacting processes that should be included in the models upon which these scenarios are based? And can we properly reduce those processes into manageable computer code so as to produce reliable forecasts 50 or 100 years into the future? At present, the only way to properly answer these questions is to compare climate model projections with real-world observations. Theory is one thing, but empirical reality is quite another. The former may or may not be correct, but the latter is always right. As such, the only truly objective method to evaluate climate model projections is by comparing them with real-world data. (more…)

Source:  CO2 Science

Subject Index Summary
Ocean Acidification (Effects on Marine Animals: Shellfish): Will the shells of shellfish dissolve away in a high-CO2 world of the future?

Journal Reviews
Some Facts About Corals and Calcification: … and how they may be impacted by the ongoing rise in the air’s CO2 concentration. (more…)

Source:  CO2 Science

Foraminifera are amoeboid protists with reticulating pseudopods, i.e., fine strands of cytoplasm that subdivide into branches that merge to form a dynamic network. They are typically less than one mm in size (but can be much larger), and they produce an elaborate calcium carbonate shell called a test, which may have one or more chambers. As for their impact on the undersea marine environment, these widespread calcifying protozoa, acording to Schiebel (2002), are responsible for 32-80% of the global deep-ocean flux of calcite. Therefore, it is important to determine the degree to which various forams — as they are often called — may or may not be harmed by likely future increases in what has come to be known as ocean acidification. (more…)

Source: CO2 Science

Coccolithophores are single-celled algae and protists that contain chlorophyll, conduct photosynthesis, and possess special plates or scales known as coccoliths that they produce by the process of calcification. They are found in large numbers throughout the surface euphotic zones of the world’s oceans; and we here review the results of several studies that indicate how they may fare in a CO2-enriched world of the future that is characterized by significantly altered oceanic carbonate chemistry.

Working with two previously untested coccolithophores, Calcidiscus leptoporus and Coccolithus pelagicus, which they describe as “two of the most productive marine calcifying species,” Langer et al. (2006) conducted batch-culture experiments in which they observed (1) a “deterioration of coccolith production above as well as below present-day CO2 concentrations in C. leptoporus [italics added],” and (2) a “lack of a CO2 sensitivity of calcification in C. pelagicus” over an atmospheric CO2 concentration range of 98-915 ppm, both of which observations, in their words, “refute the notion of a linear relationship of calcification with the carbonate ion concentration and carbonate saturation state.” (more…)

Source:  CO2 Science

Editorial
Fighting Climate Change is “for the Birds”: Read on for further explanation.

Subject Index Summary
Roman Warm Period (North America): It is manifest in proxy evidences of warmer temperatures and altered hydrologic activity throughout the continent.

Journal Reviews
Effects of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment on Cuttlefish Eggs and Embryo Development: What are the effects? … and why are they significant?

A 35-Year History of Caribbean Coral Reefs: How has their percent coral cover varied over the past four decades? (more…)

Source: CO2 Science

by Craig Idso

• Rodolfo-Metalpa, R., Martin, S., Ferrier-Pages, C. and Gattuso, J.-P. 2010. Response of the temperate coral Cladocora caespitosa to mid- and long-term exposure to pCO₂ and temperature levels projected for the year 2100 AD. Biogeosciences 7: 289-300.

Rodolfo-Metalpa et al. (2010) write that “anthropogenic CO₂ emitted to the atmosphere is absorbed by the oceans leading to decreases in pH, CO₃^2- concentration, and the related CaCO₃ saturation state (O) of seawater,” and that “as a result, coral calcification is expected to decline dramatically in the future, raising widespread concerns about the future of our oceans in a high-CO₂ world (e.g. Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2007).”

Investigating the effects of this projected decline, Rodolfo-Metalpa et al. collected three live colonies of Cladocora caespitosa in the Bay of Villefranche (Ligurian Sea, France) at about 25 meters depth in July 2006 plus three other colonies in February 2007. They divided the colonies into fragments and carefully removed single polyps that they attached to PVC plates and randomly assigned to aquariums that were continuously supplied with unfiltered seawater and maintained at ambient or elevated water temperature (T or T + 3°C) in equilibrium with air of ambient or elevated CO₂ concentration (400 or 700 ppm), subjecting them to “(1) mid-term perturbations (1 month) in summer and winter conditions of irradiance and temperature, and (2) a long-term perturbation (1 year), mimicking the seasonal changes in temperature and irradiance.” (more…)

Source:  CO2 Science

by Craig Idso

In a special issue of Oceanography published in December of 2009, Feely et al. review what we supposedly know about the current pH status of the world’s oceans, as well as what they say we can likely expect by the end of the current century.

Getting right to the crux of the matter, the three researchers write in their abstract that “estimates based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change business-as-usual emission scenarios suggest that atmospheric CO2 levels could approach 800 ppm near the end of the century,” and that “corresponding biogeochemical models for the ocean indicate that surface water pH will drop from a pre-industrial value of about 8.2 to about 7.8 in the IPCC A2 scenario by the end of this century.” And, of course, they warn that, as a result, “the skeletal growth rates of calcium-secreting organisms will be reduced,” ending with the obligatory statement that “if anthropogenic CO2 emissions are not dramatically reduced in the coming decades, there is the potential for direct and profound impacts on our living marine ecosystems.”

Figure 1. Past and projected trends of fossil-fuel carbon utilization and the atmosphere’s CO2 concentration. Adapted from Tans (2009).

Well that’s Feely et al.’s story; but in the very same issue of Oceanography — in the article that appears just before their paper, in fact — NOAA’s Pieter Tans presents a much different take on the subject. (more…)