Monday, June 16, 2014

June 16, 2014: Cruising for Carbon's Impact on the High Seas: Critters who Supply Half the World's Oxygen at Risk

The US west coast is a living laboratory for studying the effects of chemical changes in the ocean brought on by increased atmospheric carbon dioxide. On a recent month-long 'ocean acidification cruise' supported by the National Science Foundation, scientists found impacts to organisms at the foundation of the food web, phytoplankton, who also supply half the world's oxygen. The findings have yet to be analyzed in the lab but were the first ever to be conducted in the high seas.

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