Seashells come in various shapes and sizes. And it appears that the seashells from the tropics tend to be larger than those found in the temperate regions.
Far from being just a coincidence, it seems that there is a rational explanation for it. Simply put, this is because the sea snails in the tropics have to devote relatively less energy to shell growth, compared to those in the cold-water regions.
For two years, the researchers from University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science collected water samples along the 200-kilometre (124-mile) stretch of the Florida Reef Tract north of Biscayne National Park to the Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary. The data provide a snapshot on the health of the reefs, and establish a baseline from which future changes can be judged.
Coral reefs are particularly vulnerable to the ocean acidification process, because reef architecture is built by the accretion of calcium carbonate, called calcification, which becomes increasingly difficult as acid concentrations increase and the surrounding water's pH decreases.
Image at the top: Great Barrier Reef, Australia. An intertidal 'micro-atoll'. Photo: Isobel Bennett.
Coral colonies of P. cylindrica have a unique internal solution to the problem of forming their skeletons and building reef structures in the face of rising ocean acidification.
