How does rising atmospheric CO2 affect marine organisms?

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Volume 18:  March 2015 Archive of CO2 Science Postings

Ocean Acidification (Effects on Marine Animals: Crustaceans) -- Summary (31 March 2015)
As the air's CO2 content rises in response to ever-increasing anthropogenic CO2 emissions, and as more and more carbon dioxide therefore dissolves in the surface waters of the world's oceans, theoretical reasoning suggests the pH values of the planet's oceanic waters should be gradually dropping. The IPCC and others postulate that this chain of events, commonly referred to as ocean acidification, will cause great harm -- and possibly death -- to marine life in the decades and centuries to come. However, as ever more pertinent evidence accumulates, a much more optimistic viewpoint is emerging. Such optimism is the focus of this summary examining the effects of ocean acidification on crustaceans...

No Growth Stimulation of Tropical Trees Due to Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment??? (31 March 2015)
How could a paper published in Nature Geoscience be so wrong???...

4000 Years of Climate Change Based on Taiwan Bog and Lake Data (30 March 2015)
The "big picture" depicts a millennial-scale oscillation of temperature that features the Roman Warm Period, the Dark Ages Cold Period, the Medieval Warm Period, the Little Ice Age and the Current Warm Period...

Marine Bacterial Communities in a Future CO2-Enriched World (30 March 2015)
These communities hold enough flexibility and evolutionary capacity to withstand predicted future changes from elevated CO2 and subsequent ocean acidification...

A Comparison of Modeled and Observed Sea Surface Temperatures (30 March 2015)
How well do today's most advanced climate models perform in this regard? ... and why is the result so significant?...

Benefits Bestowed Upon Eucalypt Clonal Plantlets by Elevated CO2 (30 March 2015)
Increased concentrations of atmospheric CO2 "favorably impacted eucalypt growth and reduced rust severity, while not influencing the production of essential oils," all of which are very favorable findings...

Water-Use and Growth of Trees in Italian and Chilean Mountains (26 March 2015)
Beech trees have benefited greatly from 20th century increases in carbon dioxie and temperature, which is just the opposite of what climate alarmists continue to claim should be happening in response to increases in these two parameters...

Plant Growth Database (26 March 2015)
Our latest result of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature is for Sunflower (Pal et al., 2014)...

Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa: Is It Driven by Climate Change? (25 March 2015)
Climate alarmists would have us believe that it is, primarily because they say it is. However, a recent search for such a connection suggests otherwise...

The Effect of Ocean Acidification on the Growth Rates of Diatoms (25 March 2015)
The results of a study examining the impacts of rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations on the growth rates of oceanic diatoms demonstrates that nature itself is fully capable of bringing to pass what the world's climate alarmists say they want to achieve through a host of global (and binding) regulatory actions ... but which - as hard as they may try - they never will even come close to achieving...

The Changing Vegetation of Northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (24 March 2015)
Despite all the negativity that climate alarmists spew forth about the catastrophic consequences of atmospheric CO2 enrichment, study after study continues to reveal a growing host of positive biospheric consequences, not the least of which is the ongoing and unstoppable "greening of the Earth," another fine example of which is provided by two South African scientists...

Temperature Trends in Pakistan's Middle and Lower Indus Basin (24 March 2015)
Although temperatures there have risen somewhat over the past four decades, they have done so in a most favorable way...

CMIP5 Modelling of Precipitation in Arid and Semiarid Regions (24 March 2015)
In the words of the authors themselves, "model simulations of precipitation seem to still have a long way to go"...

The Effects of Extreme Weather Events on Ectothermic Species (20 March 2015)
In a study that encompassed the whole of the Netherlands and was based on data acquired over the last 20 years, it was demonstrated that weather extremes did not have any detectable negative effects on four different groups of organisms...

Despite Wildfire, Australia's Carbon Sink Likely to Grow in the Future (20 March 2015)
The authors of this study conclude that "direct CO2 effects increase woody cover, water-use efficiency and productivity, such that carbon storage is increased by 8.5-14.8 Pg C [by 2100] compared to simulations in which CO2 is held constant at modern values"...

CMIP5 Ensemble Biases in the Southeast Tropical Atlantic (20 March 2015)
When climate model biases have biases of their own, things can get a little complicated (to say the least)...

Plant Growth Database (20 March 2015)
Our latest result of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature is for the Keruing Kerut tree (Tomimatsu et al., 2014)...

Warm Biases and Climate Change Amplification in CMIP5 Models (18 March 2015)
There seems to be no end to the different types of biases that exist in state-of-the-art climate models. Here are a couple more...

Cold-Season Storms and Extreme River Flooding in Belarus (17 March 2015)
Warming over and around Belarus since 1949 has led to a decrease of spring streamflow and a reduction in the number of extreme spring floods...

How Phytoplankton Adapt to Ocean Acidification and Warming (17 March 2015)
A new study of the globally-important phytoplankton species Emiliania huxleyi provides some significant insights that defy this pair of climate-alarmist-denominated threats to the inhabitants of the world's oceans...

Ocean Acidification (Effects on Marine Animals: Bivalves) -- Summary (16 March 2015)
As the air's CO2 content rises in response to ever-increasing anthropogenic CO2 emissions, and as more and more carbon dioxide therefore dissolves in the surface waters of the world's oceans, theoretical reasoning suggests the pH values of the planet's oceanic waters should be gradually dropping. The IPCC and others postulate that this chain of events, commonly referred to as ocean acidification, will cause great harm -- and possibly death -- to marine life in the decades and centuries to come. However, as ever more pertinent evidence accumulates, a much more optimistic viewpoint is emerging. Such optimism is the focus of this summary examining the effects of ocean acidification on bivalves...

Michael Kelly: Why My Own Royal Society Is Wrong On Climate Change (16 March 2015)
Five years ago, I was one of 43 Fellows of the Royal Society – the first and arguably still the most prestigious scientific organisation in the world – who wrote to our then-president about its approach to climate change. We warned that the Society was in danger of violating its founding principle, summed up in its famous motto ‘Nullius in verba’ – or ‘Don’t take another’s word for it; check it out for yourself’...

A 1951-2009 History of Conterminous U.S. Streamflow (14 March 2015)
Bad news for climate alarmists, there have been no significant deleterious increases or decreases in streamflow trends over this period that could be attributed to CO2-induced global or regional climate change...

Are Effects of Ocean Acidification on Corals Greatly Exaggerated? (14 March 2015)
A new study suggests that such may well be the case, finding that coral calcification out in the real world is not as sensitive to ωarag as is often assumed in ocean acidification studies...

Plant Growth Database (12 March 2015)
Our latest result of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature is for the Keruing Kerut tree (Tomimatsu et al., 2014)...

Modeling the Mid-Holocene Atmospheric Circulation of Europe (12 March 2015)
A data-model comparison finds "little agreement between the reconstructed anomalies and those from 14 GCMs that performed mid-Holocene experiments as part of the PMIP3/CMIP5 project, which show a much greater sensitivity to top-of-the-atmosphere changes in solar radiation"...

Plant Growth Database (12 March 2015)
Our latest result of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature is for Sunflower (Pal et al., 2014)...

Both Genetic and Non-Genetic Factors Shape Responses of Marine Life to Ocean Warming (11 March 2015)
And they do it in such a manner as to buffer short-term detrimental effects of global warming and to "buy time" for genetic adaptation to catch up, as it were, thereby significantly contributing to the evolutionary potential and real-world persistence of the planet's sea life...

The Costs of Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) in Kansas (10 March 2015)
New report authored by the Institute of Political Economy at Utah State University exposes the high economic costs of state mandates for energy production from renewables. Click on the above link to access a pdf of the report...

Once Upon a Time Coccolithophores Thrived in Acidifying Oceans (10 March 2015)
And if they've done so before, they can most likely do so again, as the atmosphere's CO2 concentration continues to rise...

The Future of Indian Mustard in a CO2-Enriched & Warmer World (10 March 2015)
Empirical findings indicate this major agricultural crop of China and India will be well suited to thrive in atmospheric conditions often predicted for the coming century...

The Increase of Seasonal Drought in the Greater Horn of Africa (9 March 2015)
Does real-world evidence point to atmospheric CO2 enrichment as the cause? Nope. Natural milti-decadal variability is the likely culprit...

Modelling Cloud Feedbacks in Today's General Circulation Models (9 March 2015)
How well do the models do in this regard? As per the findings of this study, the answer, apparently, is not well enough. After several generations of model "improvements" costing multiple hundreds of millions of dollars these theoretical constucts prove yet again that they are still not ready for primetime...

Ocean Acidification (Effects on Marine Plants: Phytoplankton, Bacteria) -- Summary (6 March 2015)
Cyanobacteria-also known as blue-green algae, blue-green bacteria or Cyanophyta (the smallest of which, less than two micrometers in diameter, are typically referred to as picocyanobacteria)-obtain their energy through the process of photosynthesis and are thus important primary producers in many areas of the world's oceans, as well as significant components of the marine nitrogen cycle. This summary briefly reviews the results of studies that indicate how they may be affected by ocean acidification in a CO2-enriched world of the future, several of which findings challenge alarming negative projections of the IPCC...

CO2-Enriched Air Reduces Effects of Heat Waves During Droughts (5 March 2015)
When environmental dangers are doubled, atmospheric CO2 enrichment becomes ever more important to the well-being of Earth's plants...

Plant Growth Database (5 March 2015)
Our latest result of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature is for Gerbera Daisy (Xu et al., 2014)...

Between-Generation Adjustments to Heat Stress in a Soil Arthropod (4 March 2015)
Might subsequent generations of organisms be able to successfully adjust to significant increases in environmental temperatures? The IPCC does not think so, but real world observations obtained in this study disagree...

2500 Years of Northern South China Sea Surface Temperatures (3 March 2015)
A team of three climate researchers describe what they learned from data they acquired from the shells of giant clams that inhabited the area, which data allowed them to determine the uniqueness - or not - of the region's current degree of what climate alarmists like to describe as "unprecedented warmth"...

Soil Phosphorus Availability Can Be Enhanced in CO2-Enriched Air (3 March 2015)
Phosphorus often limits plant productivity and other ecosystem processes in tropical and subtropical forests, so it is good news that this study found soil phosphorus availability is enhanced in CO2-enriched air...

Statement Regarding Allegations Concerning Dr. Willie Soon (3 March 2015)
Dr. Robert Carter addresses the credibility of recent attacks made on the integrity of scientist Dr. Willie Soon...

A 47-Year History of Meteorological Drought in Paraguay (2 March 2015)
Decadal counts of severe drought lasting either 12, 6, or 3 months in duration obtained from 20 meteorological stations have declined over the period of record...

The Medieval Warm Period in West Greenland's Disko Bugt Area (2 March 2015)
Sea surface temperatures were much warmer during the 200-year-long Medieval Warm Period, reaching more than 5°C warmer in the summer, than it is today. And what makes this remarkable is the fact that that warmth occurred during a period of time when the atmosphere's CO2 concentration was only a mere 285 ppm compared to the 40%-greater 400 ppm of today...