Carbon dioxide corrosion found in Arctic

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has issued a report on an assessment of the chemistry of the waters of the Arctic outer continental shelf and of the sensitivity of this chemistry to climate change. The report has found widespread evidence of carbonate mineral corrosion as a consequence of carbon dioxide dissolved in the seawater.

The study, which encompassed the Beaufort, Chukchi and Bering seas, investigated and measured two climate-change related processes: the stock and movement of carbon that acts as an energy source for marine organisms, and ocean acidification resulting from the buildup of human-generated carbon dioxide in the oceans.

The study found that over the entire outer continental shelf the carbon energy source does not accumulate in the surface layer of the ocean, indicating the rapid use or removal of the material near the surface. In the Bering Sea the researchers found evidence indicating that the mechanism for consumption or transportation of the material varies between three distinct domains of the shelf.

The observations also showed widespread evidence that ocean acidification from dissolved carbon dioxide dramatically increases the intensity, extent and duration of conditions that corrode carbonate minerals. And while biological productivity in the surface layer reduces the corrosive effect, anthropogenic carbon dioxide is causing extremely severe corrosion on both the Bering and Chukchi shelves, the report says.

The study, conducted over several years, resulted from collaboration between BOEM, the Bering Sea Project and Fairweather LLC. The Bering Sea Project is funded by the National Science Foundation and the North Pacific Research Board.

- ALAN BAILEY