Ocean acidification has happened before sometimes with large consequences for marine ecosystems. But within the last 300 million years, never has the rate of ocean acidification been comparable to the ongoing acidification.
Speaking at the Third International Symposium on the Ocean in a High-CO2 World this week in Monterey, California, Daniela Schmidt, a geologist from the University of Bristol, warned that current rates of ocean acidification are unparalleled in Earth history. Schmidt of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences said: "Ocean acidification has happened before sometimes with large consequences for marine ecosystems. But within the last 300 million years, never has the rate of ocean acidification been comparable to the ongoing acidification. She added that the most comparable event, most likely 10 times slower than the current acidification, was 55 million years ago. "At that time, species responded to the warming, acidification, change in nutrient input and loss of oxygen - the same processes that we now see in our oceans. The geological record shows changes in species distribution, changes in species composition, changes in calcification and growth and in a few cases extinction," she said. "Our current acidification rates are unparalleled in Earth history and lead most ecosystems into unknown territory." That rate of change was echoed by Claudine Hauri, an oceanographer from the University of Alaska Fairbanks: "The waters up and down the coast from our conference site here in Monterey Bay are particularly prone to the effects of ocean acidification.
TO READ THIS ARTICLE, CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT
And extend your reading, free of charge and with no commitment.
