Rising CO2 is also causing trouble for freshwater environment

As the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere increases, more CO2 is absorbed into the seawater. As a result, the world's oceans have produced many acids over a long period of time, causing a range of survival problems for marine animals and marine ecosystems. Now, the researchers report in Current Biology gave some first evidence that similar things also happen in freshwater ecosystems.

Research shows that some freshwater ecosystems have become more acidic with increased pCO2 (CO2 voltage). On the other hand, laboratory studies show that freshwater with high levels of pCO2 may have adverse effects on at least one species, keystone, a small freshwater crustacean, which makes them incapable. awareness and self-defense against predators. The findings suggest that increased levels of CO2 may have a widespread impact on freshwater ecosystems.

Linda Weiss at Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany, said: "Ocean acidification is often referred to as climate change and many current studies describe the tremendous impact of increasing CO2 emissions. However, the freshwater ecosystems have been omitted, our data show another problem of pCO2: acidification in freshwater also depends on pCO2 ".

To investigate, Weiss and colleagues found four freshwater reservoirs in Germany. Analyzing their data for 35 years, from 1981 to 2015, they confirmed the continuous increase of pCO2. Like in the ocean, this increase is related to lowering pH (increasing acidity). In fact, they reported a pH change of about 0.3 within 35 years, suggesting that freshwater may be more acidic at a faster rate than oceans.

"High levels of CO2 reduce Daphnia's ability to detect predators , " Weiss said. "This reduces the ability to defend against predators, making them more vulnerable." She added that such effects on Daphnia may have a wider effect on other freshwater communities.

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