• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
SPECIAL REPORT: ‘Defuse the Climate Time Bomb’ with Net-Zero by 2040, Guterres Urges G20 March 20, 2023
Devastating Impacts, Affordable Climate Solutions Drive IPCC’s Urgent Call for Action March 20, 2023
Window for 1.5°C ‘Rapidly Closing’, IPCC Warns March 20, 2023
Swift Action, Inclusive Resilience Vital in Face of Overlapping Climate Hazards March 20, 2023
Shift from Fossils to Renewables is Quickest, Cheapest Path to Cut Emissions, IPCC Report Shows March 20, 2023
Next
Prev

More acidic seas devour marine food web

March 13, 2019
Reading time: 3 minutes
Primary Author: Tim Radford

 

As more acidic seas spread across the globe, conditions for survival start to change. That could close vast volumes of ocean for vital forms of life.

LONDON, 13 March, 2019 – By the close of the century, parts of the Southern Ocean could become impoverished as more acidic seas displace abundant marine food resources. Tiny sea snails that form the basis of the food supply for one of the world’s richest ecosystems could disappear because the depth at which they can form their shells will have shifted.

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
Subscribe

Right now, in Antarctic waters, creatures known as pteropods can exploit the calcium carbonate dissolved in the oceans down to a depth of 1000 metres to grow their shells.

But as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels soar, as a consequence of profligate use of fossil fuels by humankind, the chemistry of the oceans will shift towards the acidic.

The ratios of two kinds of carbonate – calcite and aragonite – will alter. And by 2100, there won’t be enough aragonite.

“A pocket of corrosive water will sit just below the surface, making life difficult for these communities of primarily surface-dwelling organisms”

Right now, pteropods flourish in the top 300 metres of the ocean. By 2100, the survival zone for the pteropods will end at a depth of 83 metres.

And, scientists warn in the journal Nature Climate Change, this could “change food web dynamics and have cascading effects on global ocean ecosystems.” In other words, the larger fish and marine mammals that feed on the smaller creatures that in turn depend on a basic diet of pteropods will have nothing to eat.

And that can only be bad news for global fisheries.

All shelled marine creatures – the tiny coccolithophores that die and leave their shells as chalk, the clams and molluscs, the foraminifera that float on the surface or coat the rocks and the seafloor, and the corals that are the basis for rich tropical ecosystems, all depend on the right levels of calcite and aragonite to form their exoskeletons.

The oceans are the biggest living space on the planet: the waves cover 70% of all living space and the depth of the deepest trenches is far greater than the highest terrestrial mountain ranges.

Origin of life

The oceans are the crucible in which life first emerged, and the oceans ultimately provided the sediments from which humankind has built its cities.

US and Norwegian scientists chose one species with precise needs in one reach of ocean as an indicator or what climate change driven by ever greater levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide could do to an ocean ecosystem.

They found that what they called the “aragonite saturation horizon” became dramatically shallower as the seas became more acidic.

“These calcifying organisms will struggle to build and maintain their shells as acidification proceeds,” said Nicole Lovenduski, of the University of Colorado at Boulder, one of the researchers.

Inevitable result

“In the future, a pocket of corrosive water will sit just below the surface, making life difficult for these communities of primarily surface-dwelling organisms.”

As the world warms, acidification of the oceans becomes inevitable. Researchers have repeatedly warned that such change can only diminish ocean life, harm the coral reefs and kelp forests that shelter the rich biodiversity of sea creatures, change the behaviour of fish and some kinds of shrimp and threaten the shellfish harvest.

But for the first time, scientists have been able to model the impact of atmospheric change on the ocean chemistry in one zone at precise depths. The message is that right now, the pteropods have plenty of sea space for survival. But the aragonite saturation horizon may have already begun to shift in some places: perhaps as early as 2006, or as late as 2038. Once change begins, it will continue.

“If emissions were curbed tomorrow, this suddenly shallow horizon would still appear, even if possibly delayed,” said Dr Lovenduski. “And that, inevitably, along with lack of time for organisms to adapt, is most concerning.” – Climate News Network



in Climate News Network

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

moerschy / Pixabay
Biodiversity & Habitat

Planetary Weight Study Shows Humans Taking Most of Earth’s Resources

March 19, 2023
29
U.S. Geological Survey/wikimedia commons
Biodiversity & Habitat

Climate Change Amplifies Risk of ‘Insect Apocalypse’

December 1, 2022
48
Alaa Abd El-Fatah/wikimedia commons
COP Conferences

Rights Abuses, Intrusive Conference App Put Egypt Under Spotlight as COP 27 Host

November 14, 2022
27

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

IFRC Intl. Federation:Twitter

Devastating Impacts, Affordable Climate Solutions Drive IPCC’s Urgent Call for Action

March 21, 2023
840
U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement/flickr

Willow Oil Project in Alaska Faces Legal Challenges, Economic Doubts

March 19, 2023
557
Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine/Wikimedia Commons

IPCC Report Charts a Course for Ottawa’s ‘Clean Technology’ Budget

March 23, 2023
159
Kern River Valley Fire Info/Facebook

SPECIAL REPORT: ‘Defuse the Climate Time Bomb’ with Net-Zero by 2040, Guterres Urges G20

March 20, 2023
271
NTSB

Ohio Train Derailment, Toxic Chemical Spill Renews Fears Over Canada-U.S. Rail Safety

March 8, 2023
1.5k
EcoFlight

Historic Deal Reopens B.C. Indigenous Territory to Fracking, Promises Land Restoration

March 19, 2023
462

Recent Posts

EUMETSAT/wikimedia commons

Cyclone Freddy Leaves Over 500 Dead on Africa’s Southeast Coast

March 23, 2023
18
U.S. National Park Service/rawpixel

Window for 1.5°C ‘Rapidly Closing’, IPCC Warns

March 20, 2023
78
FMSC/Flickr

Swift Action, Inclusive Resilience Vital in Face of Overlapping Climate Hazards

March 20, 2023
71
Kenuoene/pixabay

Shift from Fossils to Renewables is Quickest, Cheapest Path to Cut Emissions, IPCC Report Shows

March 20, 2023
222
Kiara Worth, UNClimateChange/flickr

Gap Between IPCC’s Science, National Actions Sets Challenge for COP 28

March 21, 2023
76
Photo by IISD/ENB

IPCC Sees Deeper Risk in Overshooting 1.5°C Warming Threshold

March 20, 2023
50
Next Post

Cocoa fuel combats climate change

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}