Can fish poop limit climate-related ocean acidity?
Posted on January 16th, 2009Fish waste appears to play an important role in regulating the oceans’ delicate chemistry, helping to balance acid levels that can harm sea life, according to research published today in Science.
The news comes at a time of increasing concern about the effects that humans’ carbon dioxide emissions are having on the world’s oceans. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the oceans have absorbed about a third of human-caused CO2 emissions. That has resulted in water 30 percent more acidic than it was before factories, cars, planes and other fossil-fuel burning machines became widespread.
And that’s a problem for shellfish, corals and marine animals that grow hard shells made of a chalky, alkaline mineral called calcium carbonate.
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