Dr. Yi-Wei Liu and her international research team first apply boron isotopes, stable carbon and oxygen isotopes, and particulate inorganic carbon and particulate organic carbon content to investigate the impact from ocean acidification to coccolithophore species Ochrosphaera neapolitana. Their results suggest that this species will maintain a constant pH at the calcification site, regardless of CO2-induced changes in pH of the surrounding seawater. The algae utilize carbon from a single internal dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) pool for both calcification and photosynthesis, and that a greater proportion of dissolved CO2 relative to HCO3− enters the internal DIC pool under acidified conditions. These two observations may explain how O. neapolitana continues calcifying and photosynthesizing at a constant rate under different atmospheric-pCO2 conditions. The research also help us better understand the mechanisms behind the highly varied calcification and growth responses from marine calcifying organisms to ocean acidification. Doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04463-7.
