(April, 2016)  A reduction in the amount of oxygen dissolved in the oceans due to climate change is already discernible in some parts of the world and should be evident across large regions of the oceans between 2030 and 2040, according to a new study.

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Abstract.

"Repeat measurements of dissolved nitrous oxide (N₂O) along two transects of the western continental shelf of India in 2012 revealed high concentrations of 45 ± 32 nM (off Kochi) and 73 ± 63 nM (off Mangalore) during the summer monsoon (SM). N₂O concentrations increased nonlinearly during the peak of the SM upwelling, when low O₂ (<25 µM) conditions prevailed in the water column. Off Kochi, N₂O levels fell gradually from the fall intermonsoon (20 ± 8 nM) to the winter monsoon (8.8 ± 2 nM) and remained low (9.2 ± 5.2 nM) through the spring intermonsoon season. The N₂O supersaturation off Kochi (574 ± 720%) was presumably due to its high yield during sediment denitrification, whereas the higher N₂O supersaturation observed off Mangalore (1046 ± 885%) was due to its production during denitrification in both the anoxic water column and the underlying sediments. Such distinctive biogeochemical behavior between these two shelf segments is at first augmented by the natural origin of intense upwelling at Mangalore relative to Kochi wherein suboxic to anoxic oxygen minimum zone waters spread from offshore to the shelf of Mangalore, over which the runoff and terrestrial nutrients supply acts in unison.[...]"

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New study reveals negative impact of climate change, human activity, acidification and deoxygenation on ocean and its creatures

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Abstract.

"The deep sea encompasses the largest ecosystems on Earth. Although poorly known, deep seafloor ecosystems provide services that are vitally important to the entire ocean and biosphere. Rising atmospheric greenhouse gases are bringing about significant changes in the environmental properties of the ocean realm in terms of water column oxygenation, temperature, pH and food supply, with concomitant impacts on deep-sea ecosystems. [...]" 

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Abstract.

"In the Arabian Sea, South Asian monsoon (SAM)-induced high surface water productivity coupled with poor ventilation of intermediate water results in strong denitrification within the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ). Despite the significance of denitrification in the Arabian Sea, we have no long-term record of its evolution spanning the past several million years. Here, we present the first record of denitrification evolution since Late Miocene (~10.2 Ma) in the Eastern Arabian Sea, where the SAM generates moderate surface water productivity, based on the samples retrieved during the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 355. [...]"

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Oxygen levels in oceans have fallen 2% in 50 years due to climate change, affecting marine habitat and large fish such as tuna and sharks

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"Summary

For the past several hundred million years, oxygen concentrations in Earth's atmosphere have been comparatively high (1, 2). Yet, the oceans seem never to have been far from anoxia (oxygen depletion) and have occasionally suffered major oceanic anoxic events (OAEs), recognized in the rock record through accumulations of dark, organic-rich shales (3). OAEs seem to be promoted by warm climates, and some have been associated with major environmental crises and global-scale disturbances in the carbon cycle. New insights into the causes of OAEs are now emerging (4, 5). Furthermore, ocean oxygen concentrations are declining in the modern ocean (6). A full-scale OAE would take thousands of years to develop, but some of today's processes are reminiscent of those thought to have promoted OAEs in the distant past." 

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Abstract. 

"Understanding responses of benthic ecosystems to cumulative impacts of natural stressors, long-term ocean change and increasing resource exploitation is an emerging area of interest for marine ecologists and environmental managers. Few, if any, studies have quantitatively addressed cumulative effects in the deep sea. We report here on a study from the continental slope off Vancouver Island (Canada) in the northeast Pacific Ocean, where the Oxygen Minimum Zone impinges on seabed habitats that are subjected to widespread bottom trawling, primarily by the fishery for thornyhead (Sebastolobus ssp.). We examined how the benthic megafauna in this area was influenced by varying levels of dissolved oxygen and trawling activity, along a depth gradient that was also likely to shape community composition. [...] "

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Abstract.

"Ocean models predict a decline in the dissolved oxygen inventory of the global ocean of one to seven per cent by the year 2100, caused by a combination of a warming-induced decline in oxygen solubility and reduced ventilation of the deep ocean. It is thought that such a decline in the oceanic oxygen content could affect ocean nutrient cycles and the marine habitat, with potentially detrimental consequences for fisheries and coastal economies. [...]"

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"A large research synthesis, published in one of the world’s most influential scientific journals, has detected a decline in the amount of dissolved oxygen in oceans around the world — a long-predicted result of climate change that could have severe consequences for marine organisms if it continues."

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Abstract.

Bottom-water oxygen supply is a key factor governing the biogeochemistry and community composition of marine sediments. Whether it also determines carbon burial rates remains controversial. We investigated the effect of varying oxygen concentrations (170 to 0 μM O₂) on microbial remineralization of organic matter in seafloor sediments and on community diversity of the northwestern Crimean shelf break. This study shows that 50% more organic matter is preserved in surface sediments exposed to hypoxia compared to oxic bottom waters. Hypoxic conditions inhibit bioturbation and decreased remineralization rates even within short periods of a few days. These conditions led to the accumulation of threefold more phytodetritus pigments within 40 years compared to the oxic zone. Bacterial community structure also differed between oxic, hypoxic, and anoxic zones. Functional groups relevant in the degradation of particulate organic matter, such as Flavobacteriia, Gammaproteobacteria, and Deltaproteobacteria, changed with decreasing oxygenation, and the microbial community of the hypoxic zone took longer to degrade similar amounts of deposited reactive matter. We conclude that hypoxic bottom-water conditions—even on short time scales—substantially increase the preservation potential of organic matter because of the negative effects on benthic fauna and particle mixing and by favoring anaerobic processes, including sulfurization of matter.

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Periodic oscillations of bottom-water oxygen concentrations can alter benthic communities and carbon storage for decades, reveals a new study published in Science Advances. This is particularly relevant as low oxygen conditions are on the rise in the world's oceans.

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Low bottom-water oxygen leads to more organic matter ending up on the seafloor

Periodic oscillations of bottom-water oxygen concentrations can alter benthic communities and carbon storage for decades, reveals a new study published in Science Advances. This is particularly relevant as low oxygen conditions are on the rise in the world’s oceans.

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Abstract.

The end-Permian mass extinction represents the most severe biotic crisis for the last 540 million years, and the marine ecosystem recovery from this extinction was protracted, spanning the entirety of the Early Triassic and possibly longer. Numerous studies from the low-latitude Paleotethys and high-latitude Boreal oceans have examined the possible link between ocean chemistry changes and the end-Permian mass extinction. However, redox chemistry changes in the Panthalassic Ocean, comprising ∼85–90% of the global ocean area, remain under debate. Here, we report multiple S-isotopic data of pyrite from Upper Permian–Lower Triassic deep-sea sediments of the Panthalassic Ocean, now present in outcrops of western Canada and Japan.  [...]

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Abstract. 

Diverse planktonic microorganisms play a crucial role in mediating methane flux from the ocean to the atmosphere. The distribution and composition of the marine methanotroph community is determined partly by oxygen availability. The low oxygen conditions of oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) may select for methanotrophs that oxidize methane using inorganic nitrogen compounds (e.g., nitrate, nitrite) in place of oxygen. However, environmental evidence for methane-nitrogen linkages in OMZs remains sparse, as does our knowledge of the genomic content and metabolic capacity of organisms catalyzing OMZ methane oxidation. Here, binning of metagenome sequences from a coastal anoxic OMZ recovered the first near complete (95%) draft genome representing the methanotroph clade OPU3. Phylogenetic reconstruction of concatenated single copy marker genes confirmed the OPU3-like bacterium as a divergent member of the type Ia methanotrophs, with an estimated genome size half that of other sequenced taxa in this group. The proportional abundance of this bacterium peaked at 4% of the total microbial community at the top of the anoxic zone in areas of nitrite and nitrate availability but low methane concentrations. Genes mediating dissimilatory nitrate and nitrite reduction were identified in the OPU3 genome, and transcribed in conjunction with key enzymes catalyzing methane oxidation to formaldehyde and the ribulose monophosphate (RuMP) pathway for formaldehyde assimilation, suggesting partial denitrification linked to methane oxidation. Together, these data provide the first field-based evidence for methanotrophic partial denitrification by the OPU3 cluster under anoxic conditions, supporting a role for OMZs as key sites in pelagic methane turnover.

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Abstract.

A third or more of the fixed nitrogen lost from the oceans as N2 is removed by anaerobic microbial processes in open ocean oxygen minimum zones. These zones have expanded over the past decades, and further anthropogenically induced expansion could accelerate nitrogen loss. However, in the Bay of Bengal there has been no indication of nitrogen loss, although oxygen levels are below the detection level of conventional methods (1 to 2 μM). Here we quantify the abundance of microbial genes associated with N2 production, measure nitrogen transformations in incubations of sampled seawater with isotopically labelled nitrogen compounds and analyse geochemical signatures of these processes in the water column. We find that the Bay of Bengal supports denitrifier and anammox microbial populations, mediating low, but significant N loss.

Source: Nature Geoscience
Authors: L. A. Bristow et al.
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2847

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The low oxygen conditions slow shrimp growth, leading to fewer and more expensive large shrimp.

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"Long treated as a bottomless resource pit, over-exploitation of the ocean, pollution and rising sea levels are having a catastrophic impact on life in the bay."

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