Southern Ocean Pteropod Shell Dissolution Under Varying Aragonite Saturation

Live specimens of the pteropod Limacina helicina antarctica were extracted from the top 200 meters of the Southern Ocean in early 2008, where aragonite saturation levels were around 1. The dataset likely contains measurements of seawater carbonate chemistry and the proportion of different shell dissolution levels, comparing specimens from aragonite-undersaturated regions with those from supersaturated ones. According to the description, eight days of incubation in aragonite saturation levels of 0.94-1.12 produced equivalent levels of dissolution observed in the natural undersaturated region.

Use Cases

• Modeling the relationship between aragonite saturation state and shell dissolution rates based on carbonate chemistry data.
• Assessing the vulnerability of polar marine ecosystems to future ocean acidification scenarios based on observed dissolution levels.
• Calibrating laboratory incubation experiments with field observations of pteropod shell condition.
• Analyzing the spatial correlation between upwelling regions and early signs of biological carbonate dissolution.

Strengths

• Data is derived from live specimens collected directly from the Southern Ocean, providing real-world biological context.
• Includes comparisons between natural environment samples and controlled ship-board incubations.
• Analysis was performed using scanning electron microscopy, which can provide detailed structural information.

Limitations

• Row count and specific column definitions are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect temporal and geographic bias specific to the 2008 Southern Ocean sampling campaign.

Provenance

Source

Nina Bednaršek via paperswithcode

Collection Method

Samples were extracted live from the Southern Ocean and analyzed under a scanning electron microscope; additional data came from ship-board incubations.

Time Range

Early 2008

Geography

Southern Ocean, top 200m of the water column