According to a study coordinated by marine geologist Thomas DeCarlo, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in the USA, the acidification that the oceans are experiencing hinders the development of the coral skeleton and, at the same time, facilitates the erosion that usually they provoke in him different organisms in a natural way.
The seas absorb the excess carbon dioxide generated by the burning of fossil fuels, a phenomenon that reduces their pH (the aforementioned acidification) and eliminates the carbonate ions that corals use to build their skeletons.
DeCarlo has found that the rate of attrition has increased tenfold in areas where corals are exposed to high levels of nutrients. This is how this researcher collects it in an essay published in the journal Geology , in which he also maintains that at the same time that sea level rises, the reefs in which these colonial animals thrive take longer to approach the surface to capture the sunlight they need to survive.
Coral reefs are the habitat of 25% of marine species . For DeCarlo, if we want to guarantee its conservation, it is necessary to reduce the contribution of nutrients that reaches the waters near the coast as a result of human activity, such as the dumping of fertilizers and other organic waste.
