2020 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Understanding the Impacts of Ocean Acidification: from Biodiversity to Ecosystem Functioning
| Project/Area Number |
17K17622
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| Research Institution | University of Tsukuba |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | Ocean Acidification / CO2 seeps / Community Succession / Community Development / Biodiversity / Ecosystem Functioning / Meta-barcoding |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The proposed research has now been successfully completed. This involved characterising how the biodiversity and ecosystem-functioning of communities will be altered by ocean acidification. The results indicate that increased CO2 causes an ecological shift in marine communities, leading to distinct communities throughout community succession (between the present-day and elevated-CO2 conditions). This pattern was consistent across bacteria, algae and fauna. Consequently, whereas the present-day communities were able to reach a complex highly diverse community, the elevated pCO2 communities demonstrated more simplified communities, requiring more time to reach their climax communities. Beyond 18 months, the net community production of both the present-day and elevated-CO2 communities were similar. However, the present-day communities demonstrated a far greater gross primary production and community respiration - indicating that future communities may not be able to provide the same ecosystem functions as present-day communities.
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