Except for the Providence River and side embayments like Greenwich Bay, Narragansett Bay can no longer be considered eutrophic. In summer 2012 managed nitrogen treatment in Narragansett Bay achieved a goal of reducing effluent dissolved inorganic nitrogen inputs by over 50%. Narragansett Bay represents a small northeast US estuary that ...

The effects of ocean acidification on living marine resources present serious challenges for managers of these resources. An understanding of the ecosystem consequences of ocean acidification is required to assess tradeoffs among ecosystem components (e.g. fishery yield, protected species conservation, sensitive habitat) and adaptations to this perturbation. We used a ...

This four-page brochure provides an introduction to ocean and coastal acidification, its effects on marine life, why the Northeast is especially vulnerable, research priorities for the region, and what people can do to fight coastal acidification. The information in the brochure is adapted from NECAN's 2015 Oceanography article. 

Three direct effects of increasing ocean acidification on marine plankton have been recognized: enhanced phytoplankton growth rate, changing elemental composition of primary produced organic matter, and reduced biogenic calcification.

Small phytoplankton (pico-, nano- and microphytoplankton) play an important role in uptake of carbon dioxide on the Scotian Shelf.

This study analyzed changes in phytoplankton and zooplankton on the Newfoundland and Scotian shelves from 1962 to 2003 in relation to changes in oceanography. Three categories of phytoplankton (color, diatoms, dinoflagellates) increased in abundance in the 1990s, and these increases generally persisted into 2001–2003. This is believed to be a ...

Diversification of the marine biosphere is intimately linked to the evolution of the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nutrients, and primary productivity. Analysis of the ratio of carbon-to-phosphorus buried in sedimentary rocks during the past 3 billion years indicates that both food quantity and, critically, food quality increased through time as ...

Two dominant marine calcifying phytoplankton species, the coccolithophorids Emiliania huxleyi and Gephyrocapsa oceanica, produced less calcite under ocean acidification conditions. They also had more deformities and higher rates of incomplete development. The findings suggest that ocean acidification could slow down the production of calcium carbonate in the ocean. (Laboratory study) ...

Ocean acidification conditions reduced the amount of dissolved iron taken up by diatoms and coccolithophores. Iron is a limiting nutrient in large oceanic regions, and the ongoing acidification of seawater is likely to increase the iron stress of phytoplankton populations in some areas of the ocean. (Laboratory study)

A species of phytoplankton changed how it used carbon and energy when it was exposed to higher CO2 levels. The effects differed depending on whether the CO2 level change happened over 15-16 generations versus 33-57 generations. (Laboratory study)