Impact and recovery of pH in marine sediments subject to a temporary carbon dioxide leak

Rapid response of the active microbial community to CO 2 exposure from a controlled sub-seabed CO 2 leak in Ardmucknish Bay (Oban, Scotland)

“…The increase in the Bacteroidetes groups Cytophaga and Flavobacteria during the initial on D35 could also be related to the increased activity of cyanobacteria and micro-algae. Members of the Bacteroidetes have been found in high abundance within phytoplankton blooms (Fandino et al, 2005;Alonso-Sáez et al, 2007;Gómez-Pereira et al, 2010;Teeling et al, 2012) and also in coarse grain sediments receiving heat-killed cyanobacterial cells (Gihring et al, 2009), where they are thought to be specialist degraders of high molecular weight organic material produced by dying or decaying phytoplankton or microphytobenthos (Teeling et al, 2012;Williams et al, 2013). The impacts of CO 2 exposure on sediment biogeochemistry are complex, and the microbial communities may be responding to a multiple factors.…”

Developments since 2005 in understanding potential environmental impacts of CO2 leakage from geological storage

“…Reductions in pH of up to 1.0pH units were seen in parts of the sediment and the overlying water column, with larger reductions associated with specific bubble plumes (Taylor et al 2015b;Shitashima et al, 2015). There was considerable heterogeneity in chemical changes to both the water column and sediments with significant implications for detection, quantification and impact.…”

Impact of sub-seabed CO 2 leakage on macrobenthic community structure and diversity

“…In the current study, where pH did not drop below this level in any of the zones, it was difficult to identify a specific threshold at which impacts were observed, as no designated "treatment" level could be determined. Although a comprehensive suite of carbonate chemistry measurements were taken in and around the leakage site (see Lichtschlag et al, 2014;Atamanchuk et al, 2014;Taylor et al, 2014b), natural processes such as carbonate buffering and sediment permeability, can reduce impacts on carbon chemistry and thereby under. However, based on the current study, it would be safe to assume that in an area of active CO 2 leakage, significant negative impact on macro-infaunal communities could be expected.…”