The hypothetical weakening in the thickness of the shells, which affects their ability to survive and their resistance to predators, as well as the alteration of the chemical balance necessary to secrete the byssus filaments with which they are attached to the substrate where they live, which can cause them to detach more easily with the consequent loss of biomass, are two of the most evident effects of ocean acidification on the balance in the calcium carbonate system or, in other words, on the ability of organisms to form their shells correctly, or to remain attached to the substrate both in the natural environment and in culture. “Acidification is a consequence of the increase in carbon dioxide in the ocean, generated in turn as a response to our anthropogenic activities and although the ocean has helped us a lot, and continues to do so, ‘sequestering’ huge amounts of carbon dioxide that we add to the atmosphere, it does so at a price, which is to gradually increase its acidity or, what is the same, decrease its pH”, explains Ramiro A. Varela, researcher at the Physical Oceanography Group of the University of Vigo, who participates in the project Acidification in the estuaries and Iberian oceanic platform: observation, monitoring and modeling, coordinated by research professor Fiz F. Pérez of the Institute of Marine Research of Vigo (CSIC), an institution to which Jose Manuel Fernández Babarro also belongs as head of the sub-project Acidification in the estuaries and Iberian oceanic platform: biology and chemical speciation.
The project, which responds to the acronym A.RIOS, in homage to the Galician scientist Aída Fernández Rios who decisively promoted the study of acidification in the marine environment, is financed with just over 330,000 euros (of which 127,000 correspond to the sub-project of the University of Vigo) by the Mineco’s Retos da Sociedade 2016 program and has the fundamental objective of carrying out for the first time the study, monitoring and modeling of acidification in a coastal environment: the Rías Baixas and more specifically those of Vigo and Arousa. To this end, measurement systems will be established on a time scale, combined with oceanographic campaigns and the impact that acidification can cause on the ecosystem of this region will be analyzed, dedicating particular attention to the case of the mussel, due to the important economic implications that this mollusk has in this area.
Very precise measurement systems for studying the coastal environment
Ramiro A. Varela, who, together with fellow researchers José González, Rosa Reboreda and Gabriel Rosón, represents the University of Vigo in this project, highlights that this work includes a global analysis of the effects of acidification in a coastal environment, “where unlike in oceanic systems, evidence of increased acidity and its effects on the ecosystem is much more dispersed or in some cases non-existent”. The research, which introduces for the first time a framework in which very precise measurement systems are used, of the order of thousandths in pH, and of a high time scale with measurements every half hour or less, also intends to create a tool that allows assistance in the management of this issue in the future.`
O proxecto, que non é continuación doutro anterior, “aínda que emprega a experiencia obtida con proxectos anteriores por todos os grupos involucrado”, explica Varela, utilizará unha metodoloxía diversa na que se complementarán as campañas oceanográficas clásicas, a instalación de novos sensores nunha zona próxima á costa como é a Estación de Ciencias Mariñas de Toralla e no centro da Ría de Vigo, mediante fondeos. Estes sistemas de medición completaranse co modelado númérico/bioxeoquímico e un cúmulo de experimentos en laboratorio e en bateas.
Source: DUVI
