This study investigated the possible effects of ocean acidification on the calcareous skeleton of a Mediterranena bryozoan by transplanting live and dead colonies into an area of natural volcanic carbon dioxide vents in the Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy. Colonies remained alive at the below-normal and acidic pH sites during the 45-day ...
In the early life stages of a coralline alga, mortality and growth abnormalities increased with small changes in pH. However, rate of growth remained similar, potentially by re-directing energy from other life processes. (Laboratory study)
When scientists collected pteropods living in the Southern Ocean, where high levels of CO2 caused low availability of calcium carbonate in the water for building shells, they found that the pteropods' shells had severely dissolved. In the laboratory, pteropods incubated under similar CO2 conditions had equivalent levels of dissolution. ...
Juvenile oysters living in acidified seawater had higher mortality rates and less growth of shell and soft-body tissues. They also had higher metabolic rates, likely because of the higher energy cost of maintaining their body chemistry. The high-CO2 conditions also reduced the hardness and fracture toughness of the shells. (Laboratory ...
Blue mussels in pH 7.1 seawater for 44 days had reduced shell growth, and those in pH 6.8 virtually stopped growing. In less acidified water—pH 7.4 or 7.6—shell growth was not significantly reduced.
The calcium carbonate skeleton of a coralline red alga was estimated to become highly vulnerable to dissolving at an aragonite saturation state between 1.1 and 0.9, which is projected to occur in some parts of the Arctic between 2030 and 2050 if carbon emissions follow "business as usual" scenarios. (Laboratory ...
The release of dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP) by marine algae has major impacts on the global sulphur cycle and may influence local climate through the formation of dimethylsulphide (DMS). However, the effect of global change on DMSP/DMS (DMS(P)) production by algae is not well understood. This study examined the effect of low pH ...
Survival of pteropods in Puget Sound, Washington, may not be greatly affected by present ocean pH levels and those projected for the near future, although their shells may be more prone to dissolving. (Laboratory study)
Calcification rate of pteropods dropped 28 percent at pH levels projected for 2100. This result supports the concern for the future of pteropods in a high-CO2 world, as well as of those species dependent upon them as a food resource. (Laboratory study)
When larvae of Mediterranean pteropods were cultured in pH 7.82 water, they had malformations and less shell growth. At pH 7.51, the larvae did not make shells but survived and showed normal development. In a natural setting, the smaller shells or lack of shells would have both ecological and biogeochemical ...
