Optical assessment of impact and recovery of sedimentary pH profiles in ocean acidification and carbon capture and storage research

Available methods for measuring the impact of ocean acidification (OA) and leakage from carbon capture and storage (CCS) on marine sedimentary pH profiles are unsuitable for replicated experimental setups. To overcome this issue, a novel optical sensor application is presented, using off-the-shelf optode technology (MOPP). The application is validated using microprofiling, during a CCS leakage experiment, where the impact and recovery from a high CO2 plume was investigated in two types of natural marine sediment. MOPP offered user-friendliness, speed of data acquisition, robustness to sediment type, and large sediment depth range. This ensemble of characteristics overcomes many of the challenges found with other pH measuring methods, in OA and CCS research. The impact varied greatly between sediment types, depending on baseline pH variability and sediment permeability. Sedimentary pH profile recovery was quick, with profiles close to control conditions 24 h after the cessation of the leak. However, variability of pH within the finer sediment was still apparent 4 days into the recovery phase. Habitat characteristics need therefore to be considered, to truly disentangle high CO2 perturbation impacts on benthic systems. Impacts on natural communities depend not only on the pH gradient caused by perturbation, but also on other processes that outlive the perturbation, adding complexity to recovery.

[1]  B. Metz.  IPCC special report on carbon dioxide capture and storage , 2005 .

[2]  Adina Paytan,et al.  High-Frequency Dynamics of Ocean pH: A Multi-Ecosystem Comparison , 2011, PloS one.

[3]  M. Solan,et al.  Consequences of a simulated rapid ocean acidification event for benthic ecosystem processes and functions. , 2013, Marine pollution bulletin.

[4]  Nicolas Gruber,et al.  The Oceanic Sink for Anthropogenic CO2 , 2004, Science.

[5]  Y. Artioli,et al.  Modelling Dispersion of CO2 Plumes in Sea Water as an Aid to Monitoring and Understanding Ecological Impact , 2013 .

[6]  S. Monismith,et al.  The coral proto - free ocean carbon enrichment system (CP-FOCE): Engineering and development , 2010, OCEANS'10 IEEE SYDNEY.

[7]  D. Rhoads,et al.  An In Situ Multispectral Imaging System for Planar Optodes in Sediments: Examples of High-Resolution Seasonal Patterns of pH , 2011 .

[8]  Christian Huber,et al.  Dual Lifetime Referencing (DLR) — a New Scheme for Converting Fluorescence Intensity into a Frequency-Domain or Time-Domain Information , 2001 .

[9]  Mario N. Tamburri,et al.  The response of abyssal organisms to low pH conditions during a series of CO2-release experiments simulating deep-sea carbon sequestration , 2013 .

[10]  Martin Sayer,et al.  Impact and recovery of pH in marine sediments subject to a temporary carbon dioxide leak , 2015 .

[11]  D. de Beer,et al.  A fast‐responding CO2 microelectrode for profiling sediments, microbial mats, and biofilms , 1997 .

[12]  Dirk Weuster-Botz,et al.  Miniature bioreactors for automated high‐throughput bioprocess design (HTBD): reproducibility of parallel fed‐batch cultivations with Escherichia coli , 2005, Biotechnology and applied biochemistry.

[13]  C. Lambert,et al.  A whole‐core squeezer for interfacial pore‐water sampling1 , 1987 .

[14]  I Klimant,et al.  Fluorescent imaging of pH with optical sensors using time domain dual lifetime referencing. , 2001, Analytical chemistry.

[15]  I Klimant,et al.  Optical sensor for seawater salinity , 2000, Fresenius' journal of analytical chemistry.

[16]  W. Cai,et al.  pH polymeric membrane microelectrodes based on neutral carriers and their application in aquatic environments , 1999 .

[17]  M. Huettel,et al.  Porewater flow in permeable sediment , 2000 .

[18]  Yanzhen Fan,et al.  Two-dimensional pH distributions and dynamics in bioturbated marine sediments , 2006 .

[19]  Jason T. Holt,et al.  An initial assessment of the potential environmental impact of CO2 escape from marine carbon capture and storage systems , 2009 .

[20]  F. Millero.  The marine inorganic carbon cycle. , 2007, Chemical reviews.

[21]  Jiuping Xu,et al.  Greenhouse Gas Control , 2014 .

[22]  R. Hesslein.  An in situ sampler for close interval pore water studies1 , 1976 .

[23]  Ingo Klimant,et al.  A simple and inexpensive high resolution color ratiometric planar optode imaging approach: application to oxygen and pH sensing. , 2011 .

[24]  J. Morel,et al.  Rhizosphere pH dynamics in trace-metal-contaminated soils, monitored with planar pH optodes , 2010, Plant and Soil.

[25]  Wei Wei,et al.  Small-scale modelling of the physiochemical impacts of CO2 leaked from sub-seabed reservoirs or pipelines within the North Sea and surrounding waters. , 2013, Marine pollution bulletin.

[26]  Michael Schlüter,et al.  Rhizon sampling of porewaters near the sediment‐water interface of aquatic systems , 2005 .

[27]  V. Huvenne,et al.  Tidal downwelling and implications for the carbon biogeochemistry of cold‐water corals in relation to future ocean acidification and warming , 2013, Global change biology.

[28]  Claudia R. Schröder,et al.  Time‐resolved pH imaging in marine sediments with a luminescent planar optode , 2006 .

[29]  W. Cai,et al.  pH and pCO2 microelectrode measurements and the diffusive behavior of carbon dioxide species in coastal marine sediments , 2000 .

[30]  M. Akai,et al.  Modeling near‐field dispersion from direct injection of carbon dioxide into the ocean , 2005 .

[31]  M. Austen,et al.  Impacts of ocean acidification and burrowing urchins on within-sediment pH profiles and subtidal nematode communities , 2008 .

[32]  Sam Holloway,et al.  Carbon dioxide capture and geological storage , 2007, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[33]  Yanzhen Fan,et al.  High-performance planar pH fluorosensor for two-dimensional pH measurements in marine sediment and water. , 2005, Environmental science & technology.

[34]  Klaus S. Lackner,et al.  A Guide to CO2 Sequestration , 2003, Science.

[35]  Jochen Büchs,et al.  Combination of On-line pH and Oxygen Transfer Rate Measurement in Shake Flasks by Fiber Optical Technique and Respiration Activity MOnitoring System (RAMOS) , 2007, Sensors.

[36]  J Büchs,et al.  Characterisation of operation conditions and online monitoring of physiological culture parameters in shaken 24-well microtiter plates , 2005, Bioprocess and biosystems engineering.

[37]  R. Rosenberg,et al.  Ecosystem engineering: the impact of bioturbation on biogeochemical processes in marine and freshwater benthic habitats , 2006, Aquatic Sciences.

[38]  Steven Chu,et al.  Carbon Capture and Sequestration , 2016 .

[39]  L. Lackner,et al.  A guide to CO_2 sequestration , 2003 .

[40]  B. Jørgensen,et al.  Microelectrodes: Their Use in Microbial Ecology , 1986 .

[41]  I. N. McCave.  The Benthic Boundary Layer , 2012, Advanced Series on Ocean Engineering.

[42]  W. Cai,et al.  The development of pH and pCO2 microelectrodes for studying the carbonate chemistry of pore waters near the sediment‐water interface , 1993 .

[43]  H. Kaieda,et al.  Detection and impacts of leakage from sub-seafloor deep geological carbon dioxide storage , 2014 .

[44]  J. Forester,et al.  Dynamic patterns and ecological impacts of declining ocean pH in a high-resolution multi-year dataset , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[45]  Carlos M Duarte,et al.  Impacts of ocean acidification on marine organisms: quantifying sensitivities and interaction with warming , 2013, Global change biology.

[46]  M. Krom,et al.  High-resolution pore-water sampling with a gel sampler , 1994 .

[47]  John Arthur Berge,et al.  Effects of CO2 induced seawater acidification on infaunal diversity and sediment nutrient fluxes , 2009 .

[48]  G. Lange,et al.  Extraction of pore water from marine sediments: A review of possible artifacts with pertinent examples from the North Atlantic , 1992 .

[49]  R. Jahnke.  Early diagenesis and recycling of biogenic debris at the seafloor, Santa Monica Basin, California , 1990 .