DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.28861832.v2
title: Findlay et al. Ocean acidification planetary boundary datasets

description: <b>The datasets here are for the outputs of the paper published in Global Change Biology, Findlay et al. (2025)</b><b>Paper abstract: </b>Ocean acidification has been identified in the Planetary Boundary Framework as a planetary process approaching a boundary that could lead to unacceptable environmental change. Using revised estimates of pre-industrial aragonite saturation state, state-of-the-art data-model products, including uncertainties, and assessing impact on ecological indicators, we improve upon the ocean acidification planetary boundary assessment and demonstrate that by 2020, the average global ocean conditions had already crossed into the uncertainty range of the ocean acidification boundary. This analysis was further extended to the subsurface ocean, revealing that up to 60% of the global subsurface ocean (down to 200 m) had crossed that boundary, compared to over 40% of the global surface ocean. These changes result in significant declines in suitable habitats for important calcifying species, including 43% reduction in habitat for tropical and subtropical coral reefs, up to 61% for polar pteropods, and 13% for coastal bivalves. By including these additional considerations, we suggest a revised boundary of 10% reduction from pre-industrial conditions more adequately prevents risk to marine ecosystems and their services; a benchmark which was surpassed by year 2000 across the entire surface ocean.<b>Datasets:</b><b><i>Findlay_OAPB_areaweighted_means_and_SD</i></b>: This dataset is the area-weighted mean and standard deviations of Ω<sub>Arag</sub> across model grid cells within each region of interest at each depth layer (0 m, 25 m, 50 m, 100 m, and 200 m). Regions are: global, polar (Arctic defined by the area north of 65°N and Southern Ocean defined by the area south of 45°S), tropical (between 40°S to 40°N), coast (within 300 km from shore) and the California Current Ecosystem (CCE, defined by the geographic box of 47.5°N to 21.5°N, 108.5°W to 132.3°W).<b><i>Findlayetal_Table1_and_Table2</i></b> contains data from the paper that is displayed in table1 and 2. Table 1 is the % change in aragonite for the global and regional analysis of the boundaries - mean and SD. Table 2 is the % passed the thresholds for the biological indicators.<b><i>Findlayetal_OAPB_map_20%boundary</i></b> contains data used to create the map in Figure 1c of the paper.<b><i>Figure_S1_data</i></b> contains data used to create maps of the percentage reduction in aragonite saturation state between the pre-industrial year 1750 and year 2020 at four different depth layers, displayed in supplementary figure S1.<b><i>Figure_S2_data </i></b>contains data used to create maps of the change in surface ocean aragonite saturation state (Ω<sub>Arag</sub>) between pre-industrial conditions in year 1750 and year 2020, 2050 and 2100 under three CO<sub>2</sub> emissions scenarios: low emissions SSP126, mid-emissions SSP245, and high emissions SSP370, displayed in supplementary figure S2.<b><i>Coral_data_fig3 </i></b>file contains data used to create the maps in figure 3 of the % change for coral (threshold 3.5).<b><i>Pteropod_bivalve_data_suppfigs</i></b> file contains data used to create the maps and % change for pteropods (threshold 1.2 and 1.5) and for bivalves (threshold 1.8).<b><i>Coral_OSETHZ_extracted</i></b> file contains lat-long matched environmental data from OceanSODA-ETHZ for corals and the summary statistics (relates to histograms in supplementary figure S7).<b><i>Bivalve_OSETHZ_extracted</i></b> file contains lat-long matched environmental data from OceanSODA-ETHZ for <i>M. gigas </i>and <i>M. Californianicus </i>and their summary statistics (relates to histograms in supplementary figure S7).<b><i>Pteropod_OSETHZ_extracted</i></b> file contains lat-long matched environmental data from OceanSODA-ETHZ for <i>M. gigas </i>and <i>M. Californianicus </i>and their summary statistics (relates to histograms in supplementary figure S7).