Ocean Acidification Creates A Legacy of Stress for Red Abalone
Reducing Exposure at Crucial Stages Can Help Save Red Abalone
Stressful childhoods can affect an individual’s adult years and influence future generations. Scientists at the University of California, Davis, found a similar pattern holds true for red abalone exposed as babies, and again as adults, to the stress of ocean acidification.
Their study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, found that the negative impacts of ocean acidification — a byproduct of carbon dioxide emissions — on red abalone can last within and across generations. Buffering against ocean acidification at crucial life stages can help ease these effects for captive- and commercially raised red abalone, while informing efforts to conserve wild abalone, the study said.