Scientists at NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center recently found that some life history parameters of walleye pollock seem to be only minimally affected by high CO₂ waters. Dr. Thomas Hurst and University of Alaska colleagues Elena Fernandez and Dr. Jeremy Mathis conducted multiple experiments in conditions mimicking both present day CO₂ levels in high latitude waters and those predicted to occur over the next century (280-2100µatm, pH= 7.4- 8.16).

 

On June 18th, 2013, Dr. Libby Jewett, director of the NOAA Ocean Acidification program spoke as one of the panelists at the fourteenth meeting of the UN Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea.  This year’s topic focused on the impact of ocean acidification on the marine environment.

A new study co-authored by Prof. Roger Mann of 's Virginia Institute of Marine Science adds a new item to the list of oyster reef benefits — the ability to buffer increasing acidity of ocean waters.

Concerns about increasing acidity in Chesapeake Bay and the global ocean stem from human inputs of carbon dioxide to seawater, either through burning of fossil fuels or runoff of excess nutrients from land. The latter over-fertilizes marine plants and ultimately leads to increased respiration by plankton-filtering oysters and bacteria. In either case, adding carbon dioxide to water produces carbonic acid, a process that has increased ocean acidity by more than 30 percent since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Coral reefs are in trouble worldwide, from a host of threats, including warming ocean temperatures, nutrient runoff and increasing ocean acidity. A noted climate scientist from California has been conducting an experiment on Australia's Great Barrier Reef to see whether antacid could boost coral growth.

Scientists have been worried about coral reefs for years, since realizing that rising temperatures and rising ocean acidity are hard on organisms that build their skeletons from calcium carbonate. Researchers on Australia's Great Barrier Reef are conducting an experiment that demonstrates just how much corals could suffer in the coming decades.