You have heard about global warming due to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide but did you know that it also affects oceans globally! Read on to learn more.
Ocean acidification has been known to cause problems for marine mollusks (like oysters and pteropods), because these animals have shells or hard parts that can weaken as acidity increases. There’s another mollusk though with eight arms and two tentacles that may have a larger bag of tricks with which to cope with acidity, but teasing […]
Nestled in seagrass and darting through Indo-Pacific, nearshore waters, two-toned pygmy squids are miniscule cephalopods that represent a much larger problem afflicting our ocean: ocean acidification’s impact on productivity.
Commercially important fisheries around the world are threatened by environmental changes. This post explores the effect of ocean acidification (OA) on the US Atlantic sea scallop. There is a fine balance between managing the scallop fishery and understanding the impacts from OA. As OA continues to threaten the fishery, there must be efficient management practices […]
Acidification, one of the highest-visibility impacts of human activity on the ocean, was thought to be confined to its upper layers. Chen and his colleagues show that’s no longer the case.
The regional impacts of ocean acidification are unclear. Researchers measured pH in the intertidal waters off the western coast of the United States. Read more to find out if the water pH was consistent along the coast and whether it is higher or lower than the global average pH of 8.1.
Elasmobranchs such as sharks and rays face physiological and behavioral changes due to ocean acidification and rising ocean temperatures. Read about how these changes influence how sharks hunt and their role in the marine ecosystem.
Check out the first installation of Sharkbites Saturday! The epaulette shark is a small egg-laying species native to Australia. In this study, scientists look at the effects that increased carbon dioxide from climate change may have on these interesting reef dwellers.
Chemistry is important for a lot of things, but can it change the behavior of animals? Read on to find out how changes in water chemistry alter the behavior of a venomous cone snail!
Scientists (myself included!) have been doing a lot of work on how marine animals respond to rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, but CO2 alone isn’t the only problem. This study looks at how having a parasite affects survival in marine snails exposed to high CO2 – do they survive longer in those conditions with or […]
We’ve heard a lot about ocean acidification and how it negatively impacts calcified organisms like corals or shellfish. But did you know that acidification also has wide-ranging impacts on other marine species? Researchers recently found lethal and sublethal effects of acidification on yellowfin tuna.
Coastal areas could fall silent in the next century as ocean acidification alters and affects the natural soundscapes of the oceans. Intrigued? Click here to read more!
Most studies that look at how animals respond to climate change look at species we like – oysters, corals, and whales are just a few examples. The authors of this review looked at something else – how are the species we hate going to respond to climate change, specifically ocean acidification? Read on to find […]
The vastness of the ocean can be deceptive–you’d think that only big things would have an impact on something the size of an ocean. That’s not always the case, though. Sometimes the smallest organisms can influence huge, global processes. But one such small organism is faced with harsher conditions these days and isn’t faring too […]
What happens to a shrimp’s shell when exposed to more acidic conditions? Read more to find out!
The ability of sea urchins to withstand ocean acidification comes at a hidden cost.
Can marine life adapt to ocean acidification? Well, first we need to understand if these favourable characteristics (survival under elevated CO2 conditions) are genetically determined and can be passed on to the offspring!
Researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden found that ocean acidification may cause hyperactivity in catfish sharks.
Fish are rebelling. What’s the cause?
How will increased atmospheric carbon dioxide affect your dinner? Larval dolphinfish (or, ‘mahi mahi’) are apparently very sensitive to increased ocean acidification, a product of rising atmospheric CO2. This is one of the first studies of the effects of ocean acidification on the early life stage of a pelagic fish species.