RUCOOL on Antarctic Krill
A study by members of RUCOOL (Drs. Grace Saba and Oscar Schofield) and collaborators at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (Dr. Deborah Steinberg) and University of South Florida (Dr. Joseph Torres and Erica Ombres) published recently in PLOS ONE shows that ocean acidification, the decrease in ocean pH associated with the uptake of anthropogenic atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), increases feeding and nutrient excretion rates of the keystone species Euphausia superba (Antarctic krill). The observed shifts in krill metabolism are consistent with increased physiological costs associated with regulating internal acid-base equilibrium at elevated levels of atmospheric CO2. This represents an additional stress that may hamper growth and reproduction, which would negatively impact an already declining krill population along the West Antarctic Peninsula. Read more and download manuscript here: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0052224.