Some species tolerate ocean acidification

Abstract

Increasing carbon dioxide levels lead to rising ocean acidity, which can harm corals and many other species of ocean life. Acidification causes calcium carbonate, which corals usually need to build skeletons, to dissolve. “Every day, ocean acidification is taking up the weight of 6 million midsize cars' worth of carbon, said Nina Keul, a graduate student at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany during a 7 December press conference at the AGU Fall Meeting. Somewhat surprising, though, is that some species are more tolerant of acidic conditions than scientists had expected. For instance, Keul exposed a species of foraminifera, Ammonia tepida, to seawater with varying acidity and varying carbonate ion concentrations. Previous studies had found that foraminifera growth declined with decreasing carbonate levels, but Keul's foraminifera continued to grow in the acidic conditions. She said that the mechanism that allows this species to tolerate the low carbonate conditions is as yet unknown.