For three ecologically important estuarine fish species—inland silverside, Atlantic silverside, and sheepshead minnow—the early life stages were more sensitive to low oxygen than they were to low pH. The combination of low oxygen and low pH had the biggest effect. The results suggest that ocean acidification and hypoxia may reduce ...

For juvenile hard-shell clams, ocean acidification alone or in combination with low salinity reduced the hardness and fracture toughness of their shells. This may reduce protection against predators. Salinity should be taken into account when predicting the effects of ocean acidification on estuarine bivalves. (Laboratory study)

Ocean acidification increased the rate at which sponges bored into scallop shells. At pH 7.8, sponges bored twice the number of papillar holes and removed two times more shell weight than at pH 8.1. Greater erosion caused by the lower pH weakened the scallop shells. A warmer water temperature had ...

Common sunstar larvae and juveniles in ocean acidification conditions grew faster without apparent effects on survival or body structure. Unlike the larvae of some other sea star species that feed on plankton, larval common sunstars rely on nutrition provided in their egg. This difference in life history may enable some ...

Green sea urchins were able to adjust their internal pH level within 5 days after being placed in ocean acidification conditions, but sea stars (Leptasterias polaris) were not. Internal pH did not appear to be related to immune response. (Laboratory study)

Studies in Italy and in the Chesapeake Bay, USA, found that seagrasses lost phenolics, which protect against grazing and disease, when living in high CO2/low pH conditions. The findings suggest that seagrassses may be vulnerable to higher grazing rates under ocean acidification.

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, ...

Unsustainable fishing simplifies food chains and, as with aquaculture, can result in reliance on a few economically valuable species. This lack of diversity may increase risks of ecological and economic disruptions. Centuries of intense fishing have extirpated most apex predators in the Gulf of Maine (United States and Canada), effectively ...

Anomalously high precipitation and river discharge during the spring of 2005 caused considerable freshening and depletion of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in surface waters along the coastal Gulf of Maine. Surface pCO2 and total alkalinity (TA) were monitored by repeated underway sampling of a cross-shelf transect in the western Gulf of ...