NOAA-led researchers discover ocean acidity is dissolving shells of tiny snails off the U.S. West Coast

[knocker]

 

A NOAA-led research team has found the first evidence that acidity of continental shelf waters off the West Coast is dissolving the shells of tiny free-swimming marine snails, called pteropods, which provide food for pink salmon, mackerel and herring, according to a new paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

 

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2014/20140430_oceanacidification.html

 

 

Climate change: Pacific Ocean acidity dissolving shells of key species

 

In a troubling new discovery, scientists studying ocean waters off California, Oregon and Washington have found the first evidence that increasing acidity in the ocean is dissolving the shells of a key species of tiny sea creature at the base of the food chain.

The animals, a type of free-floating marine snail known as pteropods, are an important food source for salmon, herring, mackerel and other fish in the Pacific Ocean. Those fish are eaten not only by millions of people every year, but also by a wide variety of other sea creatures, from whales to dolphins to sea lions.

 

http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_25664175/climate-change-pacific-ocean-acidity-dissolving-shells-key

[mike Meehan]

It is very worrying and ocean acidification is one of the lesser known effects of global warming since it is affecting pretty well the whole of the food chain right up to us when we get our fish and chips.

 

When these type of things have happened in the past, crustaceans have had more in the way of 1000's of years to adapt through evolution rather than just a few hundred years as is the case at the moment, which I fear will be too much for them to handle.