This article provides an overview of how rivers, which tend to be acidic compared to the ocean, affect shellfish, with a focus on the Gulf of Maine.

After six months exposure, warmer temperatures, but not ocean acidification, significantly reduced the shell strength of blue mussels, which were fed for a limited period of only 4-6 hours per day. The rising temperatures seemed to affect shell strength indirectly, as the mussels apparently re-allocated energy from shell formation to ...

Ocean acidification conditions reduced the amount of dissolved iron taken up by diatoms and coccolithophores. Iron is a limiting nutrient in large oceanic regions, and the ongoing acidification of seawater is likely to increase the iron stress of phytoplankton populations in some areas of the ocean. (Laboratory study)

Blue mussels grew and calcified 7 times faster in the Kiel Fjord (Baltic Sea), where low pH (ocean acidification) conditions prevailed, than at an outer fjord site where pH levels were higher In addition, the mussels were able to outcompete barnacles at the inner fjord, low pH site. Thus, blue ...

Corals collected in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, exhibited a complex set of responses when exposed to ocean acidification conditions, different nutrient levels, and two different temperatures. For example, female corals were more sensitive than males to elevated CO2 levels. Considering gender and spawning may be important when considering how populations of ...

Based on experiments with corals collected in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, this paper presents a conceptual model of how changes in nutrients and ocean acidification may interact to produce the range of effects that have been observed in different coral studies. (Laboratory study)

Carbon dioxide partial pressure and vitamin B12 interactively influenced growth, carbon fixation, trace metal requirements, and trace metal net use efficiencies of the subarctic diatom Attheya sp. (Laboratory study)

Atmospheric nitrogen and sulfur from human activities have substantial impacts on coastal waters, where ocean acidification could have the most severe implications for humans.

Increased nutrient loading into estuaries causes the accumulation of algal biomass, and microbial degradation of this organic matter decreases oxygen levels and contributes towards hypoxia. A second, often overlooked consequence of microbial degradation of organic matter is the production of carbon dioxide (CO2) and a lowering of seawater pH. To ...

Nutrient loading to estuaries with heavily populated watersheds can have profound ecological consequences. In evaluating policy options for managing nitrogen (N), it is helpful to understand current and historic spatial loading patterns to the system. We modeled N inputs to Narragansett Bay from 1850 to 2000, using data on population, ...