One page document summarizing the impact of ocean and coastal acidification on the Massachusetts Shellfish Industry. 

The effects of ocean acidification on living marine resources present serious challenges for managers of these resources. An understanding of the ecosystem consequences of ocean acidification is required to assess tradeoffs among ecosystem components (e.g. fishery yield, protected species conservation, sensitive habitat) and adaptations to this perturbation. We used a ...

Eighteen marine species exposed to ocean acidification conditions for 60 days exhibited a wide range of responses. Ten of the 18 species were affected negatively with lower rates of net calcification and, in some cases, net loss of shell. Those species included temperate corals, pencil urchins, hard clams, conchs, serpulid ...

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.

King scallops in Norway clapped their shells (an escape response) with less force after being exposed to ocean acidification conditions for at least 30 days. The number of claps was unchanged, however. Ocean acidification also narrows the thermal tolerance range of scallops, resulting in elevated vulnerability to temperature extremes. These ...

Ocean acidification conditions and warmer temperatures reduced the survival, development, growth, and lipid synthesis of hard clam and bay scallop larvae. During the juvenile life stages, ocean acidification negatively affected juvenile eastern oysters and bay scallops, but not hard clams. Larvae were substantially more vulnerable to ocean acidication than juveniles ...

In larval scallops,ocean acidification (pH 7.4–7.6) reduced survivorship by more than 50 percent. Low-oxygen water inhibited growth and metamorphosis. When exposed to both low oxygen and ocean acidification at the same time, scallops fared worse than under either one by itself. In early life stage clams, low oxygen led to 30 ...

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 ...

Ocean acidification is a global, long-term problem whose ultimate solution requires carbon dioxide reduction at a scope and scale that will take decades to accomplish successfully. Until that is achieved, feasible and locally relevant adaptation and mitigation measures are needed. To help to prioritize societal responses to ocean acidification, we ...

Ocean acidification, characterized by elevated partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2), generally has negative effects on early life stages of invertebrates. We tested the idea that fertilization is a critical CO2 exposure stage for the bay scallopArgopecten irradians by determining the effects on bay scallops of exposure to high CO2 (pCO2 ~2600 ppm, pH ~7.30) from ...