Mussels face 'acid threat'

Researchers, who sampled coastal waters off the north-west Pacific coast of the US every half hour for eight years, say carbon dioxide levels are having a marked effect on the health of shellfish such as mussels, the BBC News reported.

The results, published in the journal PNAS, suggest that earlier climate change models may have underestimated the rate of ocean acidification.

Professor Timothy Wootton, from the department of ecology and evolution, University of Chicago, told BBC News that such dramatic results were unexpected as it was thought that the huge ocean systems had the ability to absorb large quantities of CO2.

As well as measuring physical factors, the researchers also tracked the health of marine life, such as Californian mussels. They found that the increase in acidity may be responsible for the decline in mussels noted in the study. Mussels have a calcium carbonate -based shell, which can weaken or even dissolve by exposure to acid. Other species then quickly move into the space previously occupied by the mussels, BBC News wrote.