Climate change acidifying lakes, rivers

It’s well-known that CO2 emissions cause acidi¿cation in the ocean, which is harmful to wildlife such as shell¿sh. One new study shows that, while it is a different process, CO emissions cause harm in freshwater bodies of water as well.

Earth’s oceans absorb about 40 percent of all the carbon dioxide (CO2) that humans emit into the atmosphere. That CO2 then acidi¿es the water and is known to harm marine wildlife, especially shell¿sh, in a well-documented phenomenon known as ocean acidi¿cation. Yet according to a new study published in Current Biology, ocean waters are not the only bodies of water that are affected by CO emissions, futurism.com wrote.

Researchers showed that, over the course of 35 years, four reservoirs in Germany had both a signi¿cant increase in CO2 and a related decrease in ph, with waters dropping by about 0.3. (ph runs on a scale of one to 14, with one being the most acidic and 14 being the most basic.) They detected these changes from data from the local Ruhr region agency, which monitors drinking water, over the years 1981 to 2015.

Through these records, the team was able to determine that CO2 levels were rising by noting changes in temperature, water density, ph, ion species distribution, and inorganic content.

Freshwater bodies like this pristine mountain lake are affected by CO2 emissions, causing acidi¿cation and negatively affecting animals.

Until now, the study of freshwater acidi¿cation has been dif¿cult at best. This is because showing how the impact of carbon dioxide on ecosystems demands complicated modeling, and results are typically less clear than when studying ocean systems.

It is likely, according to this study, that freshwater systems absorb CO2 in different ways than oceans do. While the details of these processes are not the same between fresh and saltwater bodies, they share an ability to negatively impact aquatic life.

To explore this further, the team documented the effects of this acidi¿cation in freshwater crustaceans — two species of Daphnia, which are known as water Àeas. In ocean studies, acidi¿cation affects animals’ abilities to form shells, but these freshwater species had before not been studied. This team found that these crustaceans, when exposed to higher levels of CO2, were less able to sense predators and defend themselves.

This body of research still needs further exploration, but it is clear that climate change is contributing to acidi¿cation in freshwater bodies of water as well as the oceans.