The scaffolds that help hold together the world’s tropical reefs are at risk from acidification due to increased carbon dioxide in the world’s oceans, according to geoscientists at the University of Sydney.
Extensive sampling of the Great Barrier Reef fossil record has shown that the calcified scaffolds that help stabilise and bind its structure become thin and weaker as pH levels fall.
Scientists have seen incidental evidence for this in the past, but a new study led by Zsanett Szilagyi of the Geocoastal Research Group at the University of Sydney has shown that this is a global process, affecting reefs worldwide.
Read more at: The University of Sydney
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