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Lobster surprise

June 23, 2010

Post-doc Justin Ries—now at UNC—along with WHOI scientists Anne Cohen and Dan McCorkle grew shell-building ocean animals in water under air containing different levels of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that makes seawater more acidic and corrosive to calcium carbonate shells. In a surprising finding, American lobsters and some other crustaceans grown under very high carbon dioxide (at right) grew larger, heavier shells than lobsters (left) grown under levels found in today’s atmosphere. Shells of other organisms, however, were damaged by the higher acidity. (Photo by Justin Ries, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)