Southern Ocean acidification creates shallower horizon for marine organisms
The living conditions for marine microorganisms in the Southern Ocean may dramatically worsen by the end of the century. More acidic water can make their territories shallower.
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This is shown in听a new modeling听听published in the journal . With a business as usual CO2听emission scenario, the authors found听that the boundary where the shells of听calcifying organisms start to corrode, is raised from around a thousand meters' depth to less than a hundred.听
Microorganisms with calcium carbonate shells will not have time to adjust to the changing conditions. The results from the climate model indicate that such changes can occur as quickly as from one year to the next. This may affect the marine ecosystems significantly.
"In the worst case, such abrupt changes may indirectly affect fisheries", says Siv Lauvset at the , and the Geophysical Institute at the University of Bergen.听
She is one of the researchers behind the study, led from the .听
Read more about the study听.
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Pteropods are particularly vulnerable to ocean acidification. Artistic rendering by Kristen Krumhardt, one of the researchers behind the study.
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Reference
Gabriela Negrete-Garc铆a, Nicole S. Lovenduski, Claudine Hauri, Kristen M. Krumhardt & Siv K. Lauvset:听. Nature Climate Change (2019)
.