Resilience of Phytoplankton and Microzooplankton Communities under Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement in the Oligotrophic Ocean.

ABSTRACT: Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) is currently discussed as a potential negative emission technology to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide in seawater. Yet, its potential risks or cobenefits for marine ecosystems are still mostly unknown, thus hampering its evaluation for large-scale application. Here, we assessed the impacts OAE may have on plankton communities, focusing on phytoplankton and microzooplankton. In a mesocosm study in the oligotrophic subtropical North Atlantic, we investigated the response of a natural plankton community to CO₂-equilibrated OAE across a gradient from ambient alkalinity (2400 μmol kg^-1) to double (4800 μmol kg^-1). Abundance and biomass of phytoplankton and microzooplankton were insensitive to OAE across all size classes (p

SUBMITTER: Xin X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11603778 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature