People living along the US Pacific Northwest coast shouldn’t only be scared about the overdue Cascadia earthquake and tsunami, but also about their waters becoming blobby and more acidic. Yes, because, ocean acidification is bad and has nasty consequences on the marine life. It can turn fish into dangerous weapons as shown by last week needlefish attack in Indonesia. And it can have rather more devastating consequences… Right now the Pacific Ocean is becoming so acidic it is starting to dissolve the shells and sensory organs of a key species of crab and to destroy sharks’ denticles.
A new study has determined that the Pacific Ocean’s increasingly acidity dissolves the shells of newly hatched Dungeness crabs.
The team of researchers used a scanning electron microscope to analyze samples of Dungeness crabs collected during a 2016 NOAA research cruise along the Pacific Northwest coast.
The new data show that increased acidity dissolves the shells and destroys sensory organs of young Dungeness crab, making them more vulnerable to predators, limiting shell effectiveness in supporting the growth of muscles and increasing the loss of important sensory and behavioral functions.
The researchers say that aberrant behavioral patterns found across various crustacean species such as slower movement, less tactile, prolonged searching time, as well as impaired swimming is mot probably due to increased acidity.
These new results have surprised more than a few biologists who were thinking that the Dungeness crab were not vulnerable to current levels of ocean acidification.
Another recent study has demonstrated that the acidic water is damaging the tiny scales on sharks’ skin, decreasing the shark habilities to swim and hunt, thus directly impacting on its fragile ecosystem.
The new results show that dentricle damage occur very fast – 9% destroyed after only nine weeks of exposure.
No comments:
Post a Comment