West Coast Ocean Acidification Rates Among Highest In World

The United States is stepping away from the Paris Climate Agreement, but the consequences of climate change will be more difficult to leave behind. Take ocean acidification, a major emerging threat to West Coast fisheries. Researchers at Oregon State University have recorded some of the highest levels of ocean acidification in the world – and they exist right off the coast of the Pacific Northwest.

A new study in Nature Scientific Reports documents ocean acidification in the California current, which flows southward down the West Coast from British Columbia to the Baja California Peninsula. “We know that the changes that are coming at us are pretty big,” said study lead author Francis Chan, a professor in the department of Integrative Biology at Oregon State. “We’re starting to find out every week, every month about new marine life that are going to be affected. We added Dungeness crab to that list this year.”

When oceans absorb carbon, they become more acidic. And the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more acidic they become, preventing oysters and tiny marine snails at the base of the food chain from forming shells. “What we didn’t […]

Full article: West Coast Ocean Acidification Rates Among Highest In World

More about ocean acidification:

Study: Edible Crabs Won’t Cope With Effects of Climate Change on Seawater

How About That Water Quality? Ocean Acidification

Persistent spatial structuring of coastal ocean acidification in the California Current System

Oceans — Areas of Action

Acidified Ocean Water Widespread Along North American West Coast