Roberto Iglesias Prieto, a coral ecophysiologist at the National Autonomous University of México in Cancún, praises the study for including coral samples from high latitudes, where the effects of acidification are expected to be stronger.
Finally, global warming and ocean acidification are expected to affect calcification in all marine organisms that have calcium carbonate skeletons, including larval and adult and free-living and sessile animals, shelled protozoans, and calcareous algae.
Normally, growth retardation of cells is expected to delay the acidification of the medium because of the decreased glucose consumption and lactate production and secretion.
There is significant intraspecific variation in plastic responses, so that lineage sorting is expected to occur under ocean acidification.
The acidification of the ocean by the same greenhouse gas emissions is expected to dissolve the coral skeletons that create reefs in the first place.
As increasing anthropogenic CO2 emissions are absorbed by the oceans, a decrease in seawater pH is expected to occur, causing what is now termed ocean acidification (OA).
Sea temperatures are on the rise and this trend is expected to continue, leading to an increased risk of mass coral bleaching; gradual ocean acidification will increasingly restrict coral growth and survival; and there are likely to be more intense weather events".
Rising atmospheric CO2 is expected to increase global temperatures and partial pressure of CO2 in surface waters, causing ocean warming and acidification.
