A tiny sea snail, sometimes called a sea butterfly because of how it flutters about traveling the ocean currents, is part of the diet for such valuable fish as salmon and cod off the U.S West Coast.
A new study models the journey of this delicate plankton from offshore to nearshore waters, describing how changing ocean chemistry along this journey affects their condition.
A tiny sea snail, sometimes called a sea butterfly because of how it flutters about traveling the ocean currents, is part of the diet for such valuable fish as salmon and cod off the U.S West Coast.
A new study models the journey of this delicate plankton from offshore to nearshore waters, describing how changing ocean chemistry along this journey affects their condition.
During its travels the sea snail, or pteropod, encounters increasingly harmful conditions as it moves into nearshore waters. These waters are more corrosive to the organism due to higher levels of carbon dioxide coming from upwelled deep water. In recent years these upwelled waters have grown increasingly corrosive as a result of ocean acidification (OA) caused by the uptake of rising levels of atmospheric CO2.
To predict the future effects of increasing ocean acidification on the sea snail, NOAA and partner scientists developed a high resolution numerical model to track its movements in the California Current Ecosystem and measure how much exposure to corrosive conditions the tiny snail endures over its journey and how quickly these conditions disrupt it.
Continue reading at NOAA.
Photo via NOAA.
