Increased acidification of the world’s oceans is breaking down the relationship between microbial life and larger plants and animals, a new study suggests.
The research used the example of the mud shrimp, which is forced to spend more time beating its legs in order to increase its oxygen supply, impacting on sea microbes that live in sediment burrows.
Changes in the relationship between microbes and bigger plants and animals that live in ocean floor sediment may have wider effects which could reduce the productivity of the ocean floor.
Increased acidification is caused by larger concentrations of dissolved carbon dioxide.
Read more at The University of Western Australia