By Nina Chestney LONDON (Reuters) - The shells of some marine
snails in the seas around Antarctica are dissolving as the water
becomes more acidic, threatening the food chain, a study
published in the journal Nature Geoscience said on Sunday.
Oceans soak up about a quarter of the carbon dioxide released
into the atmosphere each year and as CO2 levels in the
atmosphere increase from burning fossil fuels, so do ocean
levels, making seas more acidic. Ocean acidification is one of
the effects of climate change and threatens coral reefs, marine
ecosystems and wildlife. The shell of the pteropod sea snail in
the Southern Ocean was severely dissolved by more acidic surface
water, the researchers from the British Antarctic Survey, Royal
Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, the U.S. National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other
institutions found. And although the snails did not necessarily
die, it increased their vulnerability to predators and infection
which could affect other parts of the food