The pH of ocean waters has decreased by about 0.1 since preindustrial times. Each tenth of a pH point represents a tenfold change in acidity. Living corals begin to die off in acidic waters, and the calcium carbonate shells of mollusks, including some commercial shellfish, become weak, resulting in higher rates of mortality. Thirsty for […]
By Eric Scigliano18 August 2011 In the summer of 2007, something strange and troubling happened at the Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery on Netarts Bay in Oregon, which raises oyster larvae for shellfish growers from Mexico to Canada. The hatchery’s “seed,” as the oyster larvae are called, began dying by the millions, for no apparent reason. […]
By Shelby Lin Erdman, CNN; CNN’s Ninette Sosa and Barbara Hall contributed to this reportJuly 18, 2011 (CNN) – Massive global greenhouse gas pollution is changing the chemistry of the world’s oceans so much that scientists now predict it could severely damage shellfish populations and the nations that depend on the harvests if significant action […]
ScienceDaily (July 14, 2011) — Ocean acidification, a consequence of climate change, could weaken the shells of California mussels and diminish their body mass, with serious implications for coastal ecosystems, UC Davis researchers will report July 15 in the Journal of Experimental Biology. California mussels (Mytilus californianus) live in beds along the western coast of […]
ABSTRACT: Culturing experiments, simulating a projected future rise in atmospheric CO2 concentrations, were performed with the benthic foraminifer Ammonia aomoriensis from Flensburg Fjord, southwestern Baltic Sea. The experiments simulated a future rise in atmospheric CO2. We exposed living specimens to five seawater pCO2 levels ranging from 618 µatm (pH 7.9) to 3130 µatm (pH 7.2) […]
By Chris Morris, Times & Transcript Staff2 July 2011 Derek Hatfield has always known about the loneliness of the long-distance sailor, but he’s never felt as alone as he does these days when racing over the vast, empty expanses of our dying oceans. Hatfield recently completed his second successful race around the world, sprinting to […]
LONDON, UK, June 21, 2011 (ENS) – The oceans are at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history, a panel of international marine experts warns in a report released today [pdf]. A deadly trio of factors – warming, acidification and lack of oxygen – is creating the […]
By Tracy McVeigh, The Observer12 June 2011 Global warming has long been blamed for the huge rise in the world’s jellyfish population. But new research suggests that they, in turn, may be worsening the problem by producing more carbon than the oceans can cope with. Research led by Rob Condon of the Virginia Institute of […]
Contact: Andrea Elyse Messer, 814-865-9481, http://live.psu.edu6 June 2011 University Park, Pennsylvania – The rate of release of carbon into the atmosphere today is nearly 10 times as fast as during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), 55.9 million years ago, the best analog we have for current global warming, according to an international team of geologists. […]
Increasing levels of ocean acidity could spell doom for British Columbia’s already beleaguered northern abalone, according to the first study to provide direct experimental evidence that changing sea water chemistry is negatively affecting an endangered species. The northern abalone–prized as a gourmet delicacy–has a range that extents along the North American west coast from Baja […]
