unit4.pdf

6/20/2019 UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATION – OCEAN320-...

https://blackboard.sdsu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_346773_1&content_id=_4825605_1&mode=reset 1/14

UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATIONH

UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATION

UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATION

UNIT4a

This image can be described in different contexts.    It was a tragedy in so many ways, an environmental disaster with extreme regional consequences.  The long term effects are still with us.   One longer lasting impact that relates to what we have learned earlier, that the Gulf of Mexico is a Blue Fin Tuna breeding area. Since mid and lower tropic levels were severally impacted by the oil spill and still remain stressed, a cascade of effects have impacted the feeding habits of these predatory species.   Blue Fin Tuna, (a trans-Atlantic species) obviously did not need that extra stress at a critical time when their numbers and sizes are dwindling.

wikipediia reference.....

"In 2013 it was reported that dolphins and other marine life continued to die in record numbers with infant dolphins dying at six times the normal rate. One study released in 2014 reported that tuna and amberjack that were exposed to oil from the spill developed deformities of the heart and other organs that would be expected to be fatal or at least life-shortening and another study found that cardiotoxicity might have been widespread in animal life exposed to the spill".

My SDSU CoursesYiwen Li 5Support

6/20/2019 UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATION – OCEAN320-...

https://blackboard.sdsu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_346773_1&content_id=_4825605_1&mode=reset 2/14

The energy that you see blowing out of the ground is highly pressurized gas. Gas and oil can often come out of the ground together. The potential for gas pressure was known.  Actions during completion of British Pertoleum's 18,000 foot well led a subcontractor to say that B.P.'s use of cement to seal the last casing "was against our best practices."  The contractor recommended redundant casing seals.  B.P. went forward with the cheapest option.  The seal would fail. A methane gas bubble formed deep underground in the lower well casing and as it broke through seals it rapidly expanded and the pressure increased as it rose higher (shallower) in the well pipe.  The well head was designed for a maximum pressure of 15,000 psi.  The resulting explosion, killed 11, the fire was put out when the rig sank a day later.  Over the next 87 days, 210,000,000 gallons of crude oil would spray from the well,  Drifting with currents it would cover 800,000 square miles.  

So here is another way to think about images of the flaming  4 billion dollar "Deepwater Horizon" rig which literally was testing the limits of engineering technology and science.   Because it is symbolic of the time in which we live.  It was only accomplished because there was a need and a profit to be made. We have gotten really good at this.   We (by "we" I mean companies and our society) have been able to accomplish incredible engineering feats in pursuit of the underground "black gold".  In some ways the deep water drilling technology of today is light years beyond the technology that sent humans to the moon.  We are expert at extracting long-stored hydrocarbons as fast and efficiently as we can.  We can drill multiple holes from one rig  We can direct each of those wells to different sources.   This is called directional drilling.

Some atoms extracted from reserves in deep sedimentary layers in the Gulf of Mexico have not seen the sunlight in nearly 200 million years.  The only way that they survived to be extracted as a fuel is the fact they they were geologically "trapped"  long after burial and even longer after the kerogen proteins of the plankton and other organics had broken down into oil and natural gas.  Somehow these naturally processed "fuels" had been "trapped" in the ground by geologic structures and sedimentary layers.  Most of the time this low-density oil or gas forming underground leaks upward and seeps out of cracks in to the ocean. In fact nearly half of all petroleum molecules that enter the ocean do so by these natural seeps.

6/20/2019 UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATION – OCEAN320-...

https://blackboard.sdsu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_346773_1&content_id=_4825605_1&mode=reset 3/14

In small quantities and rates of input these molecules are harmless and they are consumed by bacterial decomposition.  

These hydrocarbons started out as plankton carcases, and other organic remains, raining to the bottom of the sea a hundred plus million  years ago. The formation of these precursors to petroleum is an everyday occurrence.  Hydro-Carbons form all the time when water and carbon dioxide combine during photosynthesis.  IF the organic molecules form at high rates there can be an excess accumulating on the ocean floor. These organic molecules are often consumed by decomposition on the ocean floor.  If they form in vast amounts or are rapidly buried they can survive to become oil.   During the early rifting of Pangea, the Gulf of Mexico began it long life as a depositional basin.    Heavy and constant sedimentation helped to bury organic molecules before they had a chance to decompose.  Sedimentation has not ceased in that area for nearly 200 million years.  The Gulf basin obviously had high rates of productivity at certain times in the past.  If the proteins that fall to the ocean floor, are buried fast enough and NOT exposed to the elements of decomposition, which breaks the more complex carbohydrates into ionic and molecular nutrients, or unless they are consumed and recycled by the food chain, they will be incorporated into the sedimentary layers. AS they are buried deeper and deeper by the sand and mud they are heated up a little and naturally refined into petroleum and natural gas.  The ocean circulation, or lack thereof, along the ocean floor can play a big role in carbon preservation.  IF there is inadequate circulation in the deepest parts of a sedimentary basin, the decomposers, which respire oxygen,  won't be present and carbon rich source rocks can accumulate.  SO it is likely a result of all four of these variables:  1) High productivity in the Gulf of Mexico Waters, 2) Rapid sedimentation, 3) Reduced (or lack of) oxygen on the ocean floor, 4) Geological structures (salt domes and faults) or sedimentary layers (shale) to trap the oil (preserve it).

READ:

DEEP WATER HORIZON -5 PUBLIC OPINION FACTS ABOUT OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING (PEW Research Center)

6/20/2019 UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATION – OCEAN320-...

https://blackboard.sdsu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_346773_1&content_id=_4825605_1&mode=reset 4/14

How do hydrocarbons form? What factors can result in preservation and storage? Why is the Gulf of Mexico a prime target for hydrocarbon extraction? What are a couple of technological applications that have helped increase extraction rates? How does the public feel about offshore oil drilling? How do they feel about alternative energy? How did public opinion to offshore drilling change in regard to the disaster? What were some of the environmental impacts of the Deepwater Horizon disaster?

UNIT 4b-CARBON CYCLE: LETS TALK GIGATONS (Gigatons, = 2,000,000,000,000 pounds)

The average human exhales 2.3 pounds of CO2 per day, a full grown tree absorbs about 1 pound CO2 per week.

The average car produces 20 pounds of carbon dioxide per gallon (~1lb CO2 per mile)

The average car (driven 12,000 miles) adds about 6 tons (12000 lbs) per year

DEEP WATER- NEEDED DEEP POCKETS (USA TODAY)- How ever you add it up, this was an extremely costly disaster.

QUESTIONS:

IT is actually quite a marvel to achieve what humans have.  With extreme efficiency we can extract this deep oil and gas. Nowdays using the technique of directional drilling with multiple wells originating from a single platform. The rub is that the faster we extract it, the faster we burn it, the faster carbon rises in both the atmosphere and oceans. These higher rates of change exert extra stress on the system as a whole and on individual species as they try to adapt.  We also must adapt because sooner or later no matter how fast we burn the fossil fuels it will run out or become increasingly harder to come by.  At current rates of consumption,  coal could last a 1000 years, maybe  more.  Natural gas might get us through a couple hundred.  Most petroleum will be pumped out by the end of the 21st century given current consumption and knowledge of global reserves.  Another major source of carbon energy and higher carbon emissions is coal, which is a quasi-marine deposit, forming by the burial of vast vegetation in swamps. We need to slow down the trend, but it keeps increasing!

6/20/2019 UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATION – OCEAN320-...

https://blackboard.sdsu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_346773_1&content_id=_4825605_1&mode=reset 5/14

The average American is

responsible for producing 20 tons/yr (40,000 lbs)

It would take 8 acres of forest to absorb the carbon from one American (20 tons)

America has 2 acres of forest for every person

The average Human (non-American) adds 4 tons/yr (that absorbed by 1.6 acres of forest)

Human CO2 emissions are over 30 Gt per year. (1 Gt of carbon = 3.6 Gt of CO2

CARBON FOOTPRINTS

Blue = Average American

Red = Homeless American

Green = Average for the World

CARBON IN GIGATONS

6/20/2019 UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATION – OCEAN320-...

https://blackboard.sdsu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_346773_1&content_id=_4825605_1&mode=reset 6/14

IN the above image, where is the largest amount of carbon stored (white numbers)?

QUICK READ: Carbon Cycle Fluxes and Reservoirs

Where is most of Earth’s long-term carbon stored? The slow carbon cycle is like a thermostat. What process reduces atmospheric carbon and what process adds carbon? Where do the Calcium ions dissolved in the ocean come from? A natural flux of carbon into the atmosphere (added) comes from volcanoes every year, how does this natural rate compare to the amount that humans contribute? What two compounds are combined during photosynthesis to form carbohydrates? To form calcium carbonate, calcium ions combine with _______________ions? What rock stores most of the long term carbon, limestone or shale? How is the extra (human) carbon dioxide that is put into the atmosphere involved in the acidification of the oceans?

This diagram of the fast carbon cycle shows the movement of carbon between land, atmosphere, and oceans. Yellow numbers are natural fluxes, and red are human contributions in gigatons of carbon per year. White numbers indicate stored carbon.

QUESTIONS:

THE RISE IN EMISSIONS

6/20/2019 UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATION – OCEAN320-...

https://blackboard.sdsu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_346773_1&content_id=_4825605_1&mode=reset 7/14

Look carefully at the Keeling Curve. It is a straight line, if not how has its slope changed in 60 years? How much has atmospheric carbon increased in the 60 years? (the full record) Compare CO2 over other time frames, note the variation over 2 years, 200 years, 10,000 years, 800,000 years. What causes “annual” changes (rise and fall) in atmospheric CO2 levels?

Early in this curve the rate of increase was 1ppm/yr. at the end (recently) it is 3.5ppm.yr (its rising faster and faster)

How much more CO2 is in the ocean compared to the atmosphere? How does the extra anthropogenic CO2 change the ocean chemistry and reduce biological carbon absorption? What is a carbon "biological pump"? give an example. Why is the Southern Ocean such an important global "carbon sink"? How have humans changed the carbon cycle system? How does human related carbon release compare in rate to the natural carbon flux from the Earth to the atmosphere?

THE KEELING CURVE (SCRIPPS)-----Interactive

QUESTIONS:

READ: The Carbon Cycle: Science Learning Hub (NZ Gov) (click on various parts to learn more!)

QUESTIONS:

6/20/2019 UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATION – OCEAN320-...

https://blackboard.sdsu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_346773_1&content_id=_4825605_1&mode=reset 8/14

READ: The Imbalance

(McCaulay Research Institute, Copenhagen 2009 UNEP United Nations Environment Programme)

As global carbon emissions increase the ecosystem carbon "___________" declines? What are ecosystem goods and services? EXAMPLE? What are ways that oceans ecosystems take up extra carbon? How can the Ecosystems Approach achieve multiple goals of climate stabilization, support adaptation to inevitable climate change impacts and maintain essential ecosystem goods and services?

What is the secret ingredient present in "Wetlands" that actually stores the carbon? How does rising sea level change the equation?

QUESTIONS:

We will talk more specifically about the importance of coastal "Mangrove Forests" as carbon sinks IN UNIT-6........ but for now please read this recent research news.

READ: CARBON STORAGE in WETALNDS and MARSHES (BBC news, based on a study published March 2019 in Nature Journal)

UNIT 4c TRENDS

6/20/2019 UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATION – OCEAN320-...

https://blackboard.sdsu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_346773_1&content_id=_4825605_1&mode=reset 9/14

Play the animation of global emissions Note bubbles that slowly blow up, notice that some deflate, name one that increases, name one that decreases? Compare Mexico and the United States, what do you notice? Where does the most noticeable expansion per capita occur on Earth?

Carbon Emissions Scenarios- Thousands of model forecasts

INVESTIGATE: Interactive Map of Global Carbon Emissions---Powered by Google PUBLIC DATA

QUESTIONS:

https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=cjsdgb406s3np_&ctype=m&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=s&met_s=emissions&fdim_s=emission_type:co2&scale_s=lin&ind_s=false&dimp_c=country:region&idim=country:185:36:143:77:184&ifdim=country&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false&xMax=119.18477625000003&xMin=-116.36209874999997&yMax=-36.235183705467016&yMin=65.48118476345574&mapType=t&icfg=z4fano7krp1dr4_%253A9%253Acountry%26%26128:-76:-22:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%26143:5:-24:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%2677:-50:3:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%2685:40:11:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%2636:-55:-25:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%26185:32:-23:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%26184:-137:-30:&iconSize=0.9#!ctype=m&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=s&met_s=emissions&fdim_s=sector:ws&scale_s=lin&ind_s=false&dimp_c=country:region&ifdim=country&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false
https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=cjsdgb406s3np_&ctype=m&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=s&met_s=emissions&fdim_s=emission_type:co2&scale_s=lin&ind_s=false&dimp_c=country:region&idim=country:185:36:143:77:184&ifdim=country&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false&xMax=119.18477625000003&xMin=-116.36209874999997&yMax=-36.235183705467016&yMin=65.48118476345574&mapType=t&icfg=z4fano7krp1dr4_%253A9%253Acountry%26%26128:-76:-22:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%26143:5:-24:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%2677:-50:3:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%2685:40:11:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%2636:-55:-25:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%26185:32:-23:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%26184:-137:-30:&iconSize=0.9#!ctype=m&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=s&met_s=emissions&fdim_s=sector:ws&scale_s=lin&ind_s=false&dimp_c=country:region&ifdim=country&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false
https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=cjsdgb406s3np_&ctype=m&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=s&met_s=emissions&fdim_s=emission_type:co2&scale_s=lin&ind_s=false&dimp_c=country:region&idim=country:185:36:143:77:184&ifdim=country&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false&xMax=119.18477625000003&xMin=-116.36209874999997&yMax=-36.235183705467016&yMin=65.48118476345574&mapType=t&icfg=z4fano7krp1dr4_%253A9%253Acountry%26%26128:-76:-22:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%26143:5:-24:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%2677:-50:3:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%2685:40:11:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%2636:-55:-25:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%26185:32:-23:%7Ccjsdgb406s3np_%253A14%253Acountry%26%26184:-137:-30:&iconSize=0.9#!ctype=m&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=s&met_s=emissions&fdim_s=sector:ws&scale_s=lin&ind_s=false&dimp_c=country:region&ifdim=country&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false

6/20/2019 UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATION – OCEAN320-...

https://blackboard.sdsu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_346773_1&content_id=_4825605_1&mode=reset 10/14

CARBON AND GLOBAL WARMING

Based on the historical track and the 2014 estimate, on which path are we traveling? How much sea level rise does 2 degrees C pretty much guarantee? What are some of the human costs of inevitable climate change? How many people think that climate change will never affect them personally? How far back does the theoretical knowledge about CO2/greenhouse gas warming go? Could you list some early hypotheses? How will warming likely effect food supplies? When might we reach a critical tipping point for reaching ZERO emissions? Why is the IPCC now making a big deal of 1.5 degrees instead of 2 degrees C? (from the following recent reference

READ: The 2 degree Threshold--PBS (published BEFORE the landmark Paris agreement) QUESTIONS:

RECENT NEWS

IPCC 2018 GLOABL WARMING OF 1.5 DEGREES (Reference not required)

Diagram Summary, note the approaching 1.5 degree threshold and the projected trend given 3 future human responses.

NO behavioral change means we blow through the 1.5 degree level when severe global change is unstoppable

6/20/2019 UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATION – OCEAN320-...

https://blackboard.sdsu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_346773_1&content_id=_4825605_1&mode=reset 11/14

When did the Scleractinian coral families diversify and proliferate? What are the 3 times of Extensive reef building in the Mesozoic? What are the times of Extensive reef development in the Cenozoic? What organisms built the early Paleozoic reef-like structures? What were the two main orders of Paleozoic corals? Across what geologic time boundary does the biggest change in Corals occur?

UNIT 4d CORAL PAST, PRESENT

LIGHT READ: Coral Evolution (Read the first 3 sections, Evolutionary history, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic)

and Coral Reefs ( Read the first 3 sections, Introduction, Paleozoic, Mesozoic)

QUESTIONS:

6/20/2019 UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATION – OCEAN320-...

https://blackboard.sdsu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_346773_1&content_id=_4825605_1&mode=reset 12/14

What likely triggered this latest bleaching? How are ocean temperatures related to other problems that corals have besides just warming?

Coral Tutorial

What are some characteristics of coral? Where can they grow? What are zooxanthella? What do they do for coral? What does coral do for them? What is a stony coral? Do all corals live in the sunlit zone? Make sure to read through and NOTE the anthropogenic threats to coral?

How does coral diversity relate to fish diversity? Where is this diversity the highest? How many people live near or on the reefs?

How do these Researchers get coral to grow rapidly? What do they note as the threats to coral?

READ: CORAL IN THE NEWS San Diego Union Tribune, 2016

Bleaching kills third of coral in Great Barrier Reef's north

QUESTIONS:

>>>IMPORTANT BACKGROUND: Understand basic coral biology and their important symbiotic relationship with single celled, primitive plant cells called zooxanthella.

READ: NOAA Service Education

QUESTIONS:

READ: About the "CORAL TRIANGLE"

QUESTIONS:

WATCH: PBS NEWHOUR SPECIAL SEGMENT

Lets grow coral

QUESTIONS:

6/20/2019 UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATION – OCEAN320-...

https://blackboard.sdsu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_346773_1&content_id=_4825605_1&mode=reset 13/14

REQUIRED LECTURE by Andrew Dickson, UCSD (bio/cv) WATCH: Acidic Oceans: Why Should We Care? - Perspectives on Ocean Science

READ ALONG: PDF LECTURE SUPPLEMENT (large file)

UNIT 4e OCEAN ACIDIFICATION IMPORTANT FOUNDATIONAL LEARNING

NOAA/Ocean Acidification (short Read)

>>>>>>>WATCH and TAKE NOTES>>>>>>>

6/20/2019 UNIT 4-CARBON, WARMING, CORAL, ACIDIFICATION – OCEAN320-...

https://blackboard.sdsu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_346773_1&content_id=_4825605_1&mode=reset 14/14

What does decrease in the calcification rate mean? What is a califer? How does decreasing calcification rate relate to pH? As pH decreases bicarbonate ion concentration ____________? As pH decreases hydrogen ion concentration ____________? Where in the ocean is the extra carbon dioxide located mostly? When did the significant rise in atmospheric and marine carbon dioxide begin? What ocean organisms are most effected by acidification based on our current knowledge? What is Aragonite? How does lowering the saturation level effect most calcifers? Why does acidification present a difficult challenge for stoney corals? What photosynthetic benthic life form might benefit from extra CO2? What type of phytoplankton would be least impacted by acidification?

QUESTIONS: