Researchers design first field experiment to test the effects of ocean acidification on coral reefs
(Phys.org) -- Over the last 150 years, human beings have released hundreds of billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the Earth's atmosphere. About one quarter of this carbon has been absorbed by the world's oceans, causing them to become more acidic. Ocean acidification is especially dangerous to corals and other organisms that build skeletons out of calcium carbonate. Many experiments have documented the effects of ocean acidification in the laboratory, but few have been performed in the natural environment. A recent article in Nature Publishing's Scientific Reports journal describes the first controlled field experiment to test the effects of acidification on coral reefsa multi-institutional effort that involved several MBARI engineers and was based on pioneering work at MBARI.