Adapting to ocean acidification
5 January 2009
Around half of the carbon dioxide we've pumped into the atmosphere so far has been absorbed by the oceans. While at first this might sound like good news, one side effect is that sea water is becoming acidic, which is bad news if you live in it.
Science writer and broadcaster Richard Hollingham meets researchers Ian Joint and Jack Gilbert from Plymouth Marine Laboratory to find out more.
Ian tells Richard how rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere means that ocean acidification is accelerating. Over the next 100 years, the oceans are likely to get even more acidic. How this will affect sealife is not well understood.
But new genetic techniques are helping scientists understand more about exactly what life exists in the oceans, as well as what it's doing to adapt to ocean acidification.
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