Abstract

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations have risen steadily and have induced a decrease of the averaged surface ocean pH by 0.1 units, corresponding to an increase in ocean acidity of about 30 %. In addition to ocean warming, ocean acidification poses a tremendous challenge to some marine organisms, especially calcifiers. The need for long-term oceanic observations of pH and temperature is a key element to assess the vulnerability of marine communities and ecosystems to these pressures. Nearshore productive environments, where a large majority of shellfish farming activities are conducted, are known to present pH levels as well as amplitudes of daily and seasonal variations that are much larger than those observed in the open ocean. Yet, to date, there are very few coastal observation sites where these parameters are measured simultaneously and at high frequency.

To bridge this gap, an observation network was initiated in 2021 in the framework of the CocoriCO₂ project. Six sites were selected along the French Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines based on their importance in terms of shellfish production and the presence of high- and low-frequency monitoring activities. At each site, autonomous pH sensors were deployed, both inside and outside shellfish production areas, next to high-frequency CTD (conductivity–temperature–depth) probes operated through two operating monitoring networks. pH sensors were set to an acquisition rate of 15 min, and discrete seawater samples were collected biweekly in order to control the quality of pH data (laboratory spectrophotometric measurements) as well as to measure total alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon concentrations for full characterization of the carbonate system. While this network has been up and running for more than 2 years, the acquired dataset has already revealed important differences in terms of pH variations between monitored sites related to the influence of diverse processes (freshwater inputs, tides, temperature, biological processes). Data are available at https://doi.org/10.17882/96982 (Petton et al., 2023a).

 

Figure 1

Location of the high-frequency monitoring sites (blue dots) from the CocoriCO2 network. The pink and green dots indicate SOMLIT and REPHY low-frequency stations, respectively, from which nutrient data were acquired.

 

Conclusion and present status of the network

The network initiated in 2021 along the French coast area has provided essential data for the assessment of carbonate chemistry dynamics at various temporal scales and in contrasted coastal sites (shellfish farms located close to the shore vs. sites with no shellfish farming more subjected to oceanic conditions). The large number of sites and geographical coverage of the network has already allowed us to evaluate the influence of diverse physical, chemical, and biological processes (freshwater inputs, tides, temperature, biological processes), which we briefly presented in the present paper. The acquired dataset will undoubtedly be of great interest to the public and scientific communities in the future as our choice to base our network on existing monitoring activities not only allowed for providing reliable data at a very high acquisition rate and at a lower financial cost, but also allows for the possibility to rely on existing low-frequency datasets (chlorophyll, nutrients, organic matter concentrations, etc.) for assessing the interplay between biology and the chemical environment. However, autonomous time-series acquisition close to shellfish farming involves a number of challenges mostly related to intense biofouling pressure. It explained most invalidated data even when employing fortnightly manual cleaning protocols, which will require in the future the development of active and efficient antifouling solutions that are currently in development (localized chlorination, adapted wiper) in the framework of our project. Furthermore, the SeaFET technology is relatively novel when compared to more conventional temperature or conductivity sensors. We encountered disparities within the whole set of probes acquired with specific electrodes malfunctioning within just a few months of deployment, despite the manufacturer Sea-Bird indicating a minimum of 1-year service life. Adding complexity, a further issue emerged from June 2022 onwards: the SeaFET maintenance service has been suspended due to a lack of the DuraFET component. While the service will apparently resume by late 2023, this disruption has already resulted in temporal gaps within the time-series data. Additionally, evaluation of new sensors is underway with the objective of obtaining the reliability and accuracy of the already collected data.

 

Reference

Petton, S., Pernet, F., Le Roy, V., Huber, M., Martin, S., Macé, É., Bozec, Y., Loisel, S., Rimmelin-Maury, P., Grossteffan, É., Repecaud, M., Quemener, L., Retho, M., Manac’h, S., Papin, M., Pineau, P., Lacoue-Labarthe, T., Deborde, J., Costes, L., Polsenaere, P., Rigouin, L., Benhamou, J., Gouriou, L., Lequeux, J., Labourdette, N., Savoye, N., Messiaen, G., Foucault, E., Ouisse, V., Richard, M., Lagarde, F., Voron, F., Kempf, V., Mas, S., Giannecchini, L., Vidussi, F., Mostajir, B., Leredde, Y., Alliouane, S., Gattuso, J.-P., and Gazeau, F.: French coastal network for carbonate system monitoring: the CocoriCO₂ dataset, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1667–1688

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1667-2024, 2024.