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Freshwater and ocean acidification stunts growth of developing pink salmon
http://news.ubc.ca/2015/06/29/freshwater-and-ocean-acidification-stunts-growth-of-developing-pink-salmon/[font face=Serif][font size=5]Freshwater and ocean acidification stunts growth of developing pink salmon[/font]
Media Release | June 29, 2015
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The study, published in Nature Climate Change, examined how baby salmon respond to fresh and ocean water with the levels of carbon dioxide expected 100 years in the future. Researchers monitored the salmon for ten weeks, from before they hatched to after the time they would migrate to ocean water.
Researchers found that these salmon were smaller and their ability to smell the water was reduced, which is important for returning to their spawning ground at the end of the life cycle and for sensing danger and responding to it. Once the salmon reached the age when they would typically begin their seaward migration, researchers found they were less able to use oxygen to exercise, which is likely to hurt their ability to find food, evade predators, and migrate.
“The increase in carbon dioxide in water is actually quite small from a chemistry perspective so we didn’t expect to see so many effects,” said Michelle Ou, a former master’s student who is the lead author of the study. “The growth, physiology and behavior of these developing pink salmon are very much influenced by these small changes.”
Brauner and Ou worked with pink salmon for their study as it’s the most abundant salmon species on the West Coast and of high economic and ecological importance. Pink salmon enter the ocean at the smallest size of all Pacific salmon and consequently may be the most sensitive to aquatic acidification. Further research is needed to examine the long-term impacts of freshwater and ocean acidification on all salmon species.
...[/font][/font]
Media Release | June 29, 2015
[font size=3]...
The study, published in Nature Climate Change, examined how baby salmon respond to fresh and ocean water with the levels of carbon dioxide expected 100 years in the future. Researchers monitored the salmon for ten weeks, from before they hatched to after the time they would migrate to ocean water.
Researchers found that these salmon were smaller and their ability to smell the water was reduced, which is important for returning to their spawning ground at the end of the life cycle and for sensing danger and responding to it. Once the salmon reached the age when they would typically begin their seaward migration, researchers found they were less able to use oxygen to exercise, which is likely to hurt their ability to find food, evade predators, and migrate.
“The increase in carbon dioxide in water is actually quite small from a chemistry perspective so we didn’t expect to see so many effects,” said Michelle Ou, a former master’s student who is the lead author of the study. “The growth, physiology and behavior of these developing pink salmon are very much influenced by these small changes.”
Brauner and Ou worked with pink salmon for their study as it’s the most abundant salmon species on the West Coast and of high economic and ecological importance. Pink salmon enter the ocean at the smallest size of all Pacific salmon and consequently may be the most sensitive to aquatic acidification. Further research is needed to examine the long-term impacts of freshwater and ocean acidification on all salmon species.
...[/font][/font]