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Shells at Risk

For years WHOI researchers have been studying ocean acidification and its impacts on marine life. In 2009, WHOI postdoctoral scholar Justin Ries (now at Northeastern University) with WHOI scientists Anne Cohen and Dan McCorkle grew 18 species of shell-building marine animals in tanks under air containing different concentrations of carbon dioxide—from the level in today’s atmosphere, to higher levels predicted for the future, to extremely high levels. Species responded differently to higher levels in seawater and the higher acidity it generates. Shelled mollusks, such as these conchs (Strombus alatus), deteriorated under elevated carbon dioxide, but, surprisingly, some species thrived.(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)