New Study Reveals Ocean Acidification Effect on Shrimp

In all environments on our beautiful earth, there exist animals that can be seen as the canaries in the coal mine for the effects of global warming on wildlife. Everywhere, ranging from the highest of mountains to the wildest of jungles to the deepest of oceans have creatures that will display changes sooner than others, telling us how we’re affecting the environment and how those changes are affecting the animals who frequent those environments. One popular example is amphibians because of their incredibly porous skin and frailty. For oceans, we frequently rely on shrimp and other crustaceans like them for advanced warning when it comes to changes in the pH balance of the waters.

This sort of warning can now be seen in rock shrimp that have been studied by the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UC San Diego. This new study has shown that more carbon dioxide in the water could lead to more shrimp in the exoskeleton of shrimp, resulting in to a decrease in transparency and making their efforts at camouflage and survival more difficult. Appearing in the June 1 issue of Scientific Reports, it explains how researchers collected rock shrimp from the ocean and compared their shells (and chemical compositions of said shells) to those of shrimp that had been kept in both control and reduced pH conditions.

The study reports that there seems to be a connection between the pH levels of the ocean and the shells of rock shrimp. Shrimp rely on their shells for protection, camouflage, and to support their soft internal bodies. The increased acidification means that the decreased transparency in the shells make it more difficult for shrimp to hide and escape from predators, meaning that more will die with those deaths having a ripple effect throughout the entire ocean ecosystem where the shrimp live. While the report says that more research is needed and there isn’t a definitive link between ocean acidification and the issues in shrimp calcium, it sounds like the canaries are chirping and I only hope we’re listening.

If you’d like to read more, the link is here.

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