Texas A&M team finds Gulf waters becoming harmful to marine life, commercial fishing could be threatened.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased 40 percent since the Industrial Revolution (1760 to 1840) because of human activities. The ocean, including the Gulf of Mexico, has absorbed at least 25 percent of this carbon dioxide, which will almost certainly continue to increase, resulting in harmful conditions to marine life, according to a study co-authored by a team of Texas A&M University professors.
Texas A&M oceanographers Katie Shamberger, Steven DiMarco, Niall Slowey, Robert Hetland, Kristen Thyng; former Texas A&M Ph.D. student and lead author of the study, Andrea Kealoha, now at the University of Hawaii-Maui College; and colleagues from NOAA have had their work published in the current issue of Scientific Reports.
Carbon dioxide is increasing in the open ocean Gulf, the study showed, at rates similar to what has been measured in the open ocean Atlantic and Pacific due to human carbon dioxide emissions.
Continue reading at Texas A&M University
Image via Texas A&M University
