Ocean Sciences

How did one of the major ecological problems remain largely overlooked in a field of science that is proud of its multidisciplinarity? This paper reflects on how a blindspot was formed between geopolitical spheres of political ambitions and consequently research agendas, resulting in the inadequate response to a threat that has been referred to as 'climate change's evil twin'. Ocean acidification's complexity lies in the fact that it has land-based sources and ocean-based effects, yet no framework -legal or otherwise- exists to address this. This publication proposes solutions to bridge the gap in order to save the oceansphere from severe crisis.

The isotopic composition of boron (δ 11 B) in marine carbonates is well established as a proxy for past ocean pH, however, its robust application to palaeo-environments relies on the generation of species-specific calibrations. Existing calibrations utilising the deep-sea coral (DSC) Desmophyllum dianthus highlight the potential application of this pervasive species to pH reconstructions of intermediate depth waters. Nevertheless, considerable uncertainty remains regarding the estimation of seawater pH from these bulk skeletal δ 11 B measurements, likely resulting from microstructural heterogeneities in δ 11 B of D. dianthus. To circumvent this problem, thus improving the reliability of the D. dianthus δ 11 B-pH calibration, we present a new δ 11 B calibration of micro-sampled fibrous aragonite from this species. Modern coral specimens recovered from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Southern Oceans, micro-sampled using microdrilling, micromilling, and laser cutting extraction, were analysed for trace element (B/Ca, Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca, and U/Ca) and boron isotopic composition. We find the best calibration against the δ 11 B of borate in local ambient seawater (a function of pH and taken from hydrographic data sets; pH range 7.57 to 8.05) utilises δ 11 B measurements of fibres with likely slow growth rates and minimal contamination from adjacent microstructures (identified by low Mg/Ca) for each coral specimen. This new calibration exhibits a stronger, and better-defined dependence on ambient seawater pH compared to bulk coral δ 11 B; δ 11 B fibre = (0.93 ± 0.17) × δ 11 B borate + (12.02 ± 2.63). We suggest that the majority of the variability in measured δ 11 B between replicate bands of fibrous arago-nite from a D. dianthus specimen can be explained by small incorporation of non-fibrous aragonite and surface impurities during microsampling and growth rate effects. This study confirms the utility of D. dianthus as an archive of precise palaeo-pH (±0.07 pH units), provided that suitable sampling strategies are applied. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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