Scientists say global warming endangering sea life

Scientists at Canada’s Institute of Ocean Sciences’s department of fisheries and oceans, who have been monitoring the quality of water in the Canada Basin, the largest freshwater reservoir in the world, since the late 1980s, said that the basin is now being diluted with sea water.

Global warming is melting the ice at the Arctic sea and is said to be intruding into the basin and affecting the growth of some species of shellfish which need minerals in the water to form their shells and skeletons.

Research scientist Fiona McLaughlin said, “Organisms that are likely to be affected are from the family of pteropods (minute swimming sea snails), also mussels and clams on the sea floor.”

McLaughlin further revealed that there is ample evidence showing that the concentration of aragonite, a mineral or calcium carbonate that is needed in shell formation has gone down considerably.

“Sea ice is so pure it has very few of these (carbonate) ions. It means that when we are melting this ice, which by its nature more acidic, we are making surface waters more acidic,” said McLaughlin.

“The shells can’t maintain themselves, they are now susceptible to dissolution … Instead of being a source of carbonate for these organisms to use, the surface waters are now corrosive to them,” she added.

[via reuters.com]