Nature - Acidic Seawater (@ 600, 1,000 PPM Equivalent) = Organ Deformity, Death In Embryonic Fish [View all]

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Christopher Gobler, a marine biologist at Stony Brook University in New York, decided to test the effects of rising CO2 levels on the growth and survival of Menidia beryllina, a common schooling fish found in estuaries along the North American coast. He and his colleagues placed the fish embryos into CO2 concentrations comparable to current levels in the seas (about 400 p.p.m.), those expected by mid-century (about 600 p.p.m.) and at levels projected for the end of the century (about 1,000 p.p.m.)1. “Right away, we saw results,” says Gobler. “Survival rates were cut in half or worse with high concentrations of CO2.” When CO2 concentrations reached 1,000 p.p.m., one-week survival rates dropped by 74%.

The other study2, led by Andrea Frommel, a fisheries biologist at the Leibniz-Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany, looked at the effects of acidification on the larvae of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) over a two-and-a-half month period. The team reared the fish larvae under three conditions: present day ( about 380 p.p.m.), year 2200 (about 1,800 p.p.m.) and an extreme coastal upwelling scenario (about 4,200 p.p.m), where winds bring large amount of CO2-rich deep water to the surface. As CO2 levels increased, the cod larvae fared less well, developing severe damage to their liver, pancreas, kidney, eye and gut about a month after hatching.

“We’ve always said fish are such good acid–base regulators that they won’t be affected by increasing ocean acidification. But what we found was that the larvae, which haven’t developed these mechanisms yet, are more vulnerable to CO2 than we thought,” says Frommel. The organ damage was serious enough that it could have lowered the cod’s chance of survival, she said.

“These two studies are part of a growing trend that realizes that the broader effects of ocean acidification are much more than just calcification,” says Donald Potts, a coral-reef biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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http://www.nature.com/news/acidic-oceans-threaten-fish-1.9607