“Some of the fastest rates of ocean acidification currently observed are in the Arctic Ocean, with important physiological and geochemical thresholds already surpassed,” the report says. Arctic seas are more vulnerable than others, because higher runoff from rivers increases carbon flows into those oceans. Ocean water is not yet below neutral on the pH scale used to measure acidity, but it has been declining for decades. “What you’re seeing now in the Arctic is that you have extreme changes in temperature that already stress the species,” Steiner said. But Arctic cod, the main food of beluga whales, seals and Arctic char, seem to grow more slowly.

Source: thestar May 08, 2019 18:33 UTC