An experiment carried out at One Tree Island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef offers a stark warning of the growing risks that corals face as the oceans become more acidic with time. Ocean acidification due to the burning of fossil fuels could pose a severe risk to the integrity of these marine structures, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
For the study, marine scientists pumped carbon dioxide - infused seawater across a patch of Australia's Great Barrier Reef to simulate how acidic the oceans will likely be in the next few decades and almost certainly before the end of the century.
The experiment allowed scientists, for the first time, to step outside of their laboratory and directly observe how an acidified ocean can eat away at coral skeletons. In this setting, the research team found that the heightened acidity suppressed coral reef growth by around a third, compared to average.
Source: Mashable
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