September 28, 2018 — Scientists at the University of Virginia and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have created a new model looking at ocean acidification.
According to a release, fishermen harvest more than $500 million worth of Atlantic sea scallops each year off the East Coast, but this model predicts those fisheries may be in danger.
It says, as the levels of carbon dioxide increase in the atmosphere, the oceans become increasingly acidic, which could reduce the sea scallop population by more than 50 percent in the next 100 years, as a worst-case scenario.
The researchers say strong fisheries management and efforts to reduce CO2 emissions might slow or potentially even stop the trend.
“Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels pose a threat to many types of marine life, particularly shellfish,” said Scott Doney, an environmental sciences professor at UVA. “The ocean removes about a quarter of the carbon dioxide humans release to the atmosphere each year from fossil fuel use and deforestation. The resulting acidification of seawater makes it more difficult for shellfish like scallops and clams to build and maintain their shells.”
There are currently no studies that have been published showing the specific effects of ocean acidification on the Atlantic sea scallop, so to estimate the impact, Doney and his colleagues used a range of effects based on studies of related species.
The release says the new models lets scientists explore how plausible impacts of ocean acidification may change the future of the scallop population.
The researchers tested four different levels of impact on each of four different factors in the model, creating 256 different scenario combinations.