The Molecular Basis for Understanding the Impacts of Ocean Warming

Abstract

A grand challenge for ocean chemists in the years ahead lies in the need to tackle the chemical consequences of ocean warming with the same rigor and intensity that has been brought to bear on the physical chemistry of ocean acidification. For over 50 years ocean chemistry has been dominated by the study of pH‐dependent processes, but to address the biogeochemical impacts of ocean warming, we will need to rapidly advance the discipline of ocean chemical physics where temperature is the master variable and the basic unit is the Joule. Just as it would be impossible to understand the ocean CO2 system without awareness of the essential pH‐dependent CO2‐HCO3‐CO3 equilibria, so too is it impossible to describe ocean chemical physics without knowledge of the bimolecular structure of water. Water, and water in sea water, is composed of a complex of dominant hydrogen bonded forms, and the singlet molecular H2O species, in temperature‐controlled equilibrium and the ratio of these forms, can now be precisely determined. The physical properties of sea water are traditionally described by fitting an ad hoc collection of coefficients to experimental data. They are more accurately described as temperature and pressure perturbations of the underlying molecular equilibrium state. Ocean oxygen consumption rates are accurately described as an Arrhenius function, and not as an exponential function of depth as has been the tradition for over 50 years. We do not now have good correlation between ocean models and observed warming and oxygen declines, and full anoxia with the emergence of hydrogen sulfide over large regions of the ocean is possible. The parallel ocean invasions of heat and fossil fuel CO2 must be combined to estimate their full impact.

Significant Changes in Microbial Communities Associated With Reef Corals in the Southern South China Sea During the 2015/2016 Global‐Scale Coral Bleaching Event

“…• Table S1 • Table S2 • Table S3 • Table S4 • Table S5 diminished carbonate ion concentration, coral reef bleaching driven by ocean warming, invasion of environmental microbial pathogens, and ocean oxygen losses (Brewer, 2019;Vezzulli et al, 2016). In recent decades, abnormal temperatures have frequently been occurring due to global warming, severely threatening the health and survival of coral reefs and creatures living in it.…”

“…The directly observed accumulation of heat in the ocean (Abraham et al, 2013;Cheng et al, 2017) and anthropogenic carbon dioxide accumulation (DeVries, 2014;Gruber et al, 2019;Khatiwala et al, 2013) have a significant impact on the ocean, such as ocean warming. First, ocean warming will increase the rates of ocean oxygen consumption, impacting marine life (Brewer, 2019). Moreover, ocean oxygen consumption rates could increase by 29% for every 2°C warming, and by 47% for 3°C warming (Brewer, 2019), driving ocean net oxygen losses.…”

“…First, ocean warming will increase the rates of ocean oxygen consumption, impacting marine life (Brewer, 2019). Moreover, ocean oxygen consumption rates could increase by 29% for every 2°C warming, and by 47% for 3°C warming (Brewer, 2019), driving ocean net oxygen losses. Loss of oxygen solubility from ocean warming will directly affect the gas transfer of organisms' respiratory membrane (Hofmann et al, 2013), which results in organisms with high aerobic demand (e.g., fishes) migrated or suffered (Poertner & Knust, 2007).…”

Climate Change and the Sea: A Major Disruption in Steady State and the Master Variables

“…However, the mass transfer of oxygen downward is also limited by stronger ocean thermal stratification, and together with increased microbial respiration due to increased temperature and nutrient enrichment, they account for an additional 85% of the loss of oxygen in deep ocean water . Brewer makes a strong point that the rising temperature of the sea has provided the driving force for increased microbial respiration (Arrhenius relationship), contributing to declining oxygen and that thermal change in the ocean is responsible for many deleterious ecological shifts like poleward fish migration …”

“…42 Brewer makes a strong point that the rising temperature of the sea has provided the driving force for increased microbial respiration (Arrhenius relationship), contributing to declining oxygen and that thermal change in the ocean is responsible for many deleterious ecological shifts like poleward fish migration. 43 Figure 9 shows shaded areas of the ocean where oxygen is depleted by red dots delineating coastal hypoxia around the world. 44 The open ocean concentrations of dissolved oxygen dip as low as 0.07−1.9 mg/L.…”