Marine Biology Commons^™

Shell Condition And Survival Of Puget Sound Pteropods Are Impaired By Ocean Acidification Conditions, D. Shallin Busch, Michael Maher, Patricia Thibodeau, Paul Mcelhany

VIMS Articles

We tested whether the thecosome pteropod Limacina helicina from Puget Sound, an urbanized estuary in the northwest continental US, experiences shell dissolution and altered mortality rates when exposed to the high CO₂, low aragonite saturation state (Ω_a) conditions that occur in Puget Sound and the northeast Pacific Ocean. Five, week-long experiments were conducted in which we incubated pteropods collected from Puget Sound in four carbon chemistry conditions: current summer surface (∼460–500 µatm CO₂, Ω_a≈1.59), current deep water or surface conditions during upwelling (∼760 and ∼1600–1700 µatm CO₂, Ω_a≈1.17 …