A new study predicts that juvenile sea urchins will grow to be abnormal and have fewer spines if the ocean continues to warm up due to climate change.
Credit: Wikimedia
SYDNEY: Sea urchins and marine abalone - large sea snails - will not develop skeletons if the ocean continues to warm and acidify as predicted, new research has shown.
The results of a new study show that abalone and sea urchins born into ocean conditions 100 years from now will be unable to calcify their shells or grow their spines – suggesting that key sources of protein will be lost due to climate change in the future.
“We wondered about the impact of climate change on shelled marine animals since ocean acidification reduces the amount of carbonate ions, which they need to make their calcium carbonate skeletons,” said Maria Byrne from the School of Biological Sciences and School of Medical Sciences at Sydney University, Australia.
Focussing on climate change hotspot
In a collaboration with researchers from the University of Wollongong and Southern Cross University in Queensland, Bryne investigated how simultaneous exposure to increased temperature and acidity affects development – from fertilised egg to juvenile stages – of sea urchins and abalone.
Climate change is resulting in oceans that are simultaneously warming, acidifying and increasing in dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2).
“We focussed on two ecologically and commercially important groups of marine invertebrates from South-Eastern Australia, which is a climate change hotspot where the ocean is warming several times faster than the global average,” said Byrne.
Abnormal youth with fewer spines
The researchers reared abalone and sea urchin embryos in ocean conditions projected for the years 2100 and beyond by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These included three temperature (current ambient, plus 2 and 4 degrees Celsius) and three pH (current ambient, pH 7.8, pH 7.6) treatments, which were used in all combinations.
Abalone were particularly sensitive to change and did not do well in even slightly warmer and more acidic conditions (plus 2 degree Celsius/pH 7.8). The sea urchins fared better and some offspring made it to the juvenile stage in these conditions and the interaction between the two stressors indicated that slight warming reduced the negative effect of lower pH.
If the urchins were pushed to conditions projected beyond 2100 (plus 4 degrees Celsius) however, the juveniles produced were abnormal and had fewer spines.
Major food source under threat
“The embryos and larvae of certain marine shelled animals will have a difficult time surviving in tomorrow’s oceans, which will be seriously detrimental to the persistence of those species,” said Bryne.
“It is worrying to see how vulnerable abalone embryos are to near-future levels of warming and acidification, since this species has such commercial significance for fisheries. Similarly sea urchins are ecologically important as they function as grazers that structure habitats."
“Considering that the oceans are on a irreversible track of change for the foreseeable future and are a key source of food and prosperity for humans, it is important to consider how we are going to meet the needs of growing human population. Marine invertebrates are a major food source - some species such as abalone are unlikely to adapt, while others such as some hardy oysters may persist.”
With the University of Sydney
Immediate action that will help
It's always disappointing to read this sort of article which is long on the doom and gloom and short on speaking to the solutions. The problem with CO2 is not the new CO2 being belched into the air; it is the CO2 we've already loosed into our air. Ocean life while being the first to be harmed by CO2 can also be first to remedy this problem. Ocean plant life, as seen by the measure of ocean greeness, over the past 60 years has declined by about 50%. This isn't due to the acidification but rather the denial of terrestrial dust which our high CO2 anthropogenic age causes as terrestrial plants become a bit greener and healthier and thus as better ground cover deny the oceans vital mineral micronutrients. If we return these minerals to the oceans a few million tonnes of iron ore dust will restore the oceans to the state of green they were at 60 years ago and in doing so convert as much CO2 as mankind emits into vital ocean life instead of death.
Of course this story of life over death doesn't stand up to the journalists of the world who only deign to report stories that bleed and lead. The cynical press sees no angle for itself in promoting hope when angst sells so well.
Phytoplankton decline
The 40% phytoplankton decline is believed to be due to less ocean overturning which causes fewer nutrients to be circulated from the bottom. Dust levels have increased over the past century.
http://www.physorg.com/news199471106.html
http://news.discovery.com/earth/dust-atmosphere-earth-ecology-110201.html
Oysters
"...oysters may persist.” Actually wild oysters are in serious trouble world wide for reasons not directly related to climate change.
"Overall, the researchers estimate, 85 percent of Earth's oyster reefs have been lost, mostly from over harvesting, habitat degradation and disease."
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/02/03/Worldwide-decline-of-oysters-studied/UPI-11941296787790/
big solution combining 2 natural processes
I agree with visitor that if there are no serious advers effects of iron ore dust to oceans specially if they are dieing... we should implement that along with......
mimicking natures super volcanoes... which shoot volcanic ash to stratosphere where it stays ... mingling with atmosphere there and creating a volcanic mirror that protects from dflares and reflects heat back to space.....As nature does it it is SO MUCH ash that it induces an ice age......if man himself placed the ash in smaller amounts we could determine exactly how much to set a temp...A volcanic mirror in small amount needed to cool planet would not acid rain , impede cell phones or electronics , darken sky or fall back down on cars etc....Stratosphere is only place ash will actually stay UP....I read that iron ore sprinkled in ocean is a ratio of 1 ton ore = depletion of 200,000 tons c02....and Toba Sumatra SUPER VOLCANO sent approx 35000 tons volcanic ash to stratosphere, dropping global temps 21 degrees...a ice age....IF we combine the 2 ideas using these instances as a scientific graph we could do both at once if both are safe *I KNOW THE ASH IS AS I STUDIED THAT AND HEARD ABOUT ORE AFTER * and viably clean oceans, air , and cool planet while also protecting it... all naturally...And it only needs be done once every 25 years or so...cheap easy natural effective...and only used in the event that the alternative is revelations end of the world by global warming where the earth incinerates,,,I do not want that...God Bless
Then we juss need stop over population pollution deforestation and the other man made disasters..I also have written and phoned news over last 6 years with this
TY Judith Woolworth Donahue