Pteropod health to be evaluated to track ocean acidification

SCCWRP has teamed up with Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans to examine whether pteropods in the Beaufort Sea are showing signs of shell dissolution triggered by ocean acidification.

The four-year study, launched in January, is seeking to document how ocean acidification is affecting the ecological health of coastal waters near the Arctic Circle. The Beaufort Sea is an ecologically productive area north of Alaska and continental Canada.

Pteropods, or sea snails, depend on minerals from seawater to form their soluble calcified shells, making them sensitive to changes in ocean chemistry.

Researchers are using pteropods to track the intensity and speed with which ocean acidification is manifesting in Canadian coastal waters