The more CO2 the oceans absorb, the more acidic they become.  A few studies are underway to figure out what this means for ocean life.  A recently reported study has discovered that one of the side affects appears to be thinner shells.

A recent study reported in the journal Nature Geoscience, compares post-industrial plankton with pre-industrial plankton.  Globigerina bulloides plankton were specifically studied.

The study compared the shells of foraminifer Globigerina bulloides with foraminifer plankton shells found in Holocene era sediment in the Southern Ocean.  The shells of the current day plankton were 30-35 percent thinner.  The next step in the study is to determine what exactly this means for ocean ecosystem.

Foraminifer plankton are single cell organisms that secrete calcite and are the primary method of transferring carbon from upper ocean levels to deeper levels and finally to the ocean bottom.  Between 25 and 50 percent of the transfer of carbon to various levels of the ocean, occurs through these plankton.  Much of the sediment on the ocean floor is composed of foraminifer plankton.

Thinner shells may mean that the foraminifer is unable to survive long enough to perform its carbon transfer function.  Acidic ocean conditions reduces the survival rate of this plankton.

Scientists are still unclear how thinner shelled foraminifer may affect the rest of the ocean ecosystem.  Might the shells result in less carbon absorption and sequestration?  Could the reduction in these plankton affect other organisms?

It is still too early to tell what the final consequence of these findings may be, but there will be consequences, more than likely negative ones.

The oceans have been a major food source and an integral part of the food chain.  With ongoing problems with toxic mercury levels found in fish in many parts of the world, rising sea levels, and now changes in one of the most fundamental ocean organisms, climate change may reduce the current and future survival of life in the ocean that we have depended from the start of our existence.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 1:58 pm under Science and technology.

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