Goodbye, Fish: Rising CO2 Direct Threat to Sea Life
January 19, 2012 New research shows the disastrous consequences the world's rising carbon dioxide levels are having on ocean life.
The Australian Associated Press reports that the new research point to ocean problems beyond acidification. From Professor Phillip Munday, one of the researchers:
''We've now established it isn't simply the acidification of the oceans that is causing disruption, as is the case with shellfish and plankton with chalky skeletons. But the CO2 itself is damaging the fishes' central nervous systems.''
Agence France-Presse reports:
The team began by studying how baby clown and damsel fishes performed alongside their predators in CO2-enriched water.
They found that while the predators were somewhat affected, the baby fish suffered much higher rates of attrition.
"Our early work showed that the sense of smell of baby fish was harmed by higher CO2 in the water, meaning they found it harder to locate a reef to settle on or detect the warning smell of a predator fish," said Munday.
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