How does ocean acidification impact marine life?

KAREN DRAKE, CHELMSFORD

There’ll be many losers, and perhaps some winners among marine life as the oceans absorb humanity’s CO2 and pH falls. An eight-year study involving 250 scientists recently revealed a complex picture of changes rippling through food webs. Organisms with carbonate exoskeletons – like starfish, mussels and swimming snails called sea butterflies – tend to suffer because their shells become unstable. Young animals are especially at risk; cod larvae are twice as likely to die at lower pH. Barnacles and a few other robust animals can adapt but may still suffer from the combined impacts of other threats, like plastic pollution and rising temperatures.