NOAA-Funded Study: Acidifying Seawater Weakens Dungeness Crab Shells From Moment Of Hatching

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The survey, first conducted in 2016, examined larval Dungeness crabs along the West Coast and found their exoskeletons had begun to disintegrate … the moment they hatched. Similar findings were observed as far back as 2010, albeit in a different, more obscure family of fauna — phytoplankton and zooplankton, two animals responsible for fundamentally supporting the entire food web in our oceans. “If [the crabs and other ocean life is] affected already, we really need to make sure we start to pay attention to various components of the food chain before it is too late,” said lead author for the study Nina Bednarsek, a senior scientist with the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, to NOAA. She was among thirteen other notable researchers involved in the study.

As defined by the government agency: Ocean acidification refers to a reduction in the pH of ocean water, primarily caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over long time spans. When CO2 is absorbed by seawater — a phenomena occurring in nauseam now, due to increasing amounts of fossil fuels being burned annually — a domino's fall of chemical reactions happen, which results in an increased concentration of hydrogen ions, responsible for that pH reduction.

The observed Dungeness crabs showed signs of carapace (read: shell) breakdown, again particularly among larva. This discovery worries researchers for a multitude of reasons, impart because weakened shells could affect everything from their ability to move and feed, to being able to protect themselves against both the elements and predators. Alas, their odds of maturing into healthy (still alive) reproductive critters is, hypothetically, now hindered.

“If these larval crabs need to divert energy to repair their exoskeletons, and are smaller, as a result, the percentage that makes it to adulthood will be at best variable, and likely go down in the long-term,” added Bednarsek to NOAA. “[...] if the crabs are affected already, we really need to make sure we start to pay much more attention to various components of the food chain before it is too late.”

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https://sfist.com/2020/01/26/ocean-acidification-is-literally-dissolving-the-shells-of-dungeness-crabs/