Gretchen Hofmann an associate professor of biology at the University of California is researching tiny organisms called pteropods. These pteropods play a critical role in marine ecology. Hofmann says that these tiny creatures could be suffering from high levels of carbon dioxide in the oceans. She says that when carbon dioxide dissolves in sea water it increases the acidity by stripping out carbonate ions. Carbonate ions are essential to pteropods to build calcium carbonate shells and an exoskeleton. Hofmann says that if we lose these organisms the impact on the food chain could be catastrophic. It would be a loss to herring cod, salmon, mackerel and many more species. If we lose these organisms it could be disastrous for many marine life.
What can we do? Instead of driving all the time we can start walking. The smoke from your car comes back down as acid rain. Be aware of where your garbage goes. Most of the garbage that was dumped into the ocean in the early 1990’s. is still there. When your cruising around in your boat only turn on your engine when you need it. Every year buy a new or cleaner marine engine for your boats.
Kari this is horrible. We're just finding out about this organism now? It's little things like these that could ruin our planet in the long run. It's so hard for any of us to know everything about the world, but at this point it's so hard for us to keep surviving on this planet without knowing.
ReplyDeleteThere are other types of phytoplankton and zooplankton that the fish can eat. Is this the only type of microorganism that herring and cod can eat? Its definitely an issue for our decreasing fisheries, but how much of an issue?
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing and horrible that without these tiny creatures many marine species would suffer. Without our development in technology, we wouldn't even know these organisms exist! Great job Kari, you focus on a lot of things that my blog talks about.
ReplyDeleteWow, we really need to do something about this. If they become extinct hopefully there is some other organism that could take it's place.
ReplyDeleteHow is it that no one hears about these things but they are such a critical role? What do we do to help these little pteropods, and other sea life? I did my last blog on the garbage in the ocean, it's a huge "garbage island." The fact that we just threw all of our trash into the ocean is nuts, who ever thought it would just go away?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there are any other organisms or animals out there in danger of extinction that we don't even know about. It's scary that we didn't even know about this and that it could effect us so severely.
ReplyDeleteI think the same as katrine. How many others do we just don't know about? This could do so much damage to us and hardly anybody knows.
ReplyDeleteSomething needs to be done about this. There needs to be better regulations and laws about throwing trash in the water so people are scared about the consequences. If we lose those species then our food chain will get very screwed up and it could be horrible.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't the only organism that is having trouble, many organisms that have to make a ekoskeleton are having a really hard time making these shells. They are also important because they capture the Co2 in the air and when they die the Co2 is trapped in the shells forever, but if they can't make their shells then they can't capture the Co2
ReplyDeleteWow! That's really interesting to me. I had no idea that these little tiny animals played such a big role in marine life. The amount of carbon dioxide that we humans are putting into the air is really starting to get out of hand if it's starting to impact marine life to this level.
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