Ocean Acidification Will Also Likely Hammer Reef Algae, Key To Coral Growth & Biomass Production

[hatrack]

The gradual acidification of the oceans, a result of rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, is thought to be bad for coral reefs. The absorption of CO2 by seawater leads to lower saturation levels of carbonate ions, which reduces calcification, the process by which corals make their hard skeletons.

But it takes more than coral to make a coral reef. And a new study shows that ocean acidification may be bad for another important reef builder, crustose coralline algae.

These organisms act like a mortar to help hold reefs together and otherwise aid reef ecology. Like corals, they secrete calcium carbonate. So Ilsa B. Kuffner of the United States Geological Survey in St. Petersburg, Fla., and colleagues set out to see whether lower ocean pH would affect them. They reported their findings in Nature Geoscience.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/science/earth/08obalga.html?em&ex=1199941200&en=67bda5b5face8ceb&ei=5087%0A

BTW, you'll find this depressing. The same article has a correction from a prior article on ocean acidification. The correction notes that the lower the number on the pH scale, it means that the substance being measured is more acidic, not less.

Of course, it is the same newspaper that just hired Bill Kristol, so it figures.

[phantom power]

1. You make it hard for me to forget that we are all in deep shit.

[tex-wyo-dem]

2. Thank you for posting this...

Depressing, it is...kind of makes you realize just how insignificant all this Hill-bamacrap being discussed on DU is really.

[Systematic Chaos]

3. Every time I K&R one of these big posts, I say something to that effect.

In the face of all this, I almost don't even care about the election. Maybe that makes me bad somehow... I dunno. :(