Coccolithophore Growth and Calcification in an Acidified Ocean: Insights From Community Earth System Model Simulations Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems

Anthropogenic CO2emissions are inundating the upper ocean, acidifying the water, and altering the habitat for marine phytoplankton. These changes are thought to be particularly influential for calcifying phytoplankton, namely, coccolithophores. Coccolithophores are widespread and account for a substantial portion of open ocean calcification; changes in their abundance, distribution, or level of calcification could have far-reaching ecological and biogeochemical impacts. Here, we isolate the effects of increasing CO2on coccolithophores using an explicit coccolithophore phytoplankton functional type parameterization in the Community Earth System Model. Coccolithophore growth and calcification are