Shells Dissolve in Acidified Ocean Water

Figure 2.31

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Nina Bednarsek

This figure appears in chapter 2 of the Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment report.

http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/regions/oceans/graphics/shells-dissolve-acidified-ocean-water

Pteropods, or “sea butterflies,” are free-swimming sea snails about the size of a small pea. Pteropods are eaten by marine species ranging in size from tiny krill to whales and are an important source of food for North Pacific juvenile salmon. The photos above show what happens to a pteropod’s shell in seawater that is too acidic. The left panel shows a shell collected from a live pteropod from a region in the Southern Ocean where acidity is not too high. The shell on the right is from a pteropod collected in a region where the water is more acidic (Photo credits: (left) Bednaršek et al. 2012;f5ea3c8e-a727-47a1-981c-4db49a0b6d33 (right) Nina Bednaršek).

When citing this figure, please reference (left) Bednaršek et al. 2012;f5ea3c8e-a727-47a1-981c-4db49a0b6d33 (right) Nina Bednaršek.

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Other figures containing images in this figure : 34.21: Ocean Acidification and the Food Web, 1.: Shells Dissolve in Acidifed Ocean Water

This figure was created on July 12, 2013.

References :

• Extensive dissolution of live pteropods in the Southern Ocean (f5ea3c8e)

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