According to a new article published in Nature Communications, a coastal coccolithophore species (Ochrosphaera neapolitana), which has a unique mechanism for producing coccoliths, can maintains constant pH at the calcification site, regardless of CO2-induced changes in pH of the surrounding seawater. The authors of this study cultured a coccolithophore species (Ochrosphaera neapolitana), the most prolific ocean calcifiers in the ocean, under three pCO2-controlled seawater pH conditions. The study found that this algae utilize carbon from a single internal dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) pool for both calcification and photosynthesis, and that a greater proportion of dissolved CO2 relative to HCO3− enters the internal DIC pool under acidified conditions.
Ocean to Climate 
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