Deep-sea trophic cascade caused by acidification

By Dan Berrett An East Stroudsburg University professor has studied a delicate sea creature off Japan’s coast, and shed new light on how climate change is disrupting the ocean’s food chain. "This is the first clear link between an animal we know is threatened by ocean acidification and a variety of deep-sea species," said Jay Hunt, assistant professor of biology at ESU, describing his research. The work of his team was published late last year in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. Research was led by Dhugal Lindsay, an Australian marine biologist working in Japan with whom Hunt has partnered before. … Ocean water has been growing more acidic because of higher concentrations in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide produced by humans. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says acid levels in the Earth’s oceans are higher now than any time in the last 800,000 years, and possibly in the last 20 million years. "It’s real, it’s current, it’s happening," Hunt said. The oceans absorb about one-third of human-caused carbon emissions, according to NOAA. Acidic ocean water has already affected sea life, from hearty sea corals to the shells of open ocean snails called pteropods, which swim on the surface. The shells of these snails are made out of calcium carbonate, which is starting to dissolve from the acid. Hunt and his fellow researchers observed a startling cascade effect, noting that the young red paper lantern jellyfish roost in the shells of these snails. As the snails have started to wilt from acidic oceans, it has left young red paper lantern jellyfish vulnerable. "If that snail goes, the red lantern goes. If the red lantern goes, maybe the sea spider and shrimp will go. We just don’t know," Hunt said. "If we’re not careful, we may well hinder some network of species that does impact us." … Hunt and his fellow researchers wrote in the Journal that their findings suggest that the number of species now threatened by ocean acidification will go beyond current predictions. "The effects of ocean acidification will not stop at the surface waters or with animals with calcium carbonate shells or skeletons," they wrote, "but will spread from the surface to the depths of the oceans faster than was expected." …

What jellyfish can tell us about climate change