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Created with Fabric.js 1.4.5 Rising Acidity of Oceans and its Effect on Squid "Squids are at the center of the ocean ecosystem-- nearly all animals are eating or eaten by squid." - T. Aran Mooney, WHOI biologist Ocean Acidity Rising The oceans around the world have increased inacidity steadily over the past 150 years. This iscaused by a rise in CO2 in the atmosphere. Theoceans absorb CO2 and turn it into carbonic acidand other chemicals. As the CO2 in the atmos-phere rises, so does the acidity of our oceans. The Study Squids raised in a higher CO2 environment took longer todevelop, they were 5% smaller on average, and theirstatoliths were smaller and misshapen. CO2 in atmosphere pH levels The Results Researchers built two tanks to simulate oceans and continuouslypumped in normal air from outside into one tank and pumped airenriched with CO2 to simulate what air will be like in 50 yearsinto the other. They put fertilized squid eggs into both tanks. What This Means If it takes longer for a squid to develop from anegg it is more likely that a fish will come alongand eat it before it is even fully developed. Squidswith misshapen or smaller statoliths will havemore difficulty swimming and therefore escapingpredators. Statoliths are organsthat allow squids to orientthemselves while theyswim Some species of squidare surviving better in the warmer temper-atures caused by globalwarming The Future With all of those disadvantages, thesquid population could be facing a lotof challenges that could have a seriousimpact on the survival rate of squid. Low(or no) amounts of squid will producenegative effects on the ocean ecosystem,the economy, and the environment. In 2011 the USharvested 300million pounds ofsquid worth $100million
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