Effects of ocean acidification of winter dense waters in the Northern Adriatic Sea (NAdDW) on the calcium saturation states

Ocean Acidification affects the Northern Adriatic Sea, as recently tested by means of a preliminary comparison between past and new data sets, spanning over the last 25 years (Luchetta et al., 2010). The winter CO2 fluxes in the Gulf of Trieste have been computed(Whaninkhof,1992) from the carbonate system properties of the time series at PALOMA station. They are equivalent to 11.6, 11.1 and 11.9mmolm-2 d-1(FebruaryandMarch2008;January2009) fluxes into seawater.These values point out that the amount of CO2 adsorbed during single events of Bora can be able to change significantly the carbon chemistry of the Whole water column (25mthick), determining pH decreases of 0.006 ,0.005and 0.011pHT units, respectively. In the end, the computed calcium carbonate saturation states in NAdDW affected by acidification, are presented as an example of its impact.