Witness to ocean acidification

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By R. Mark Leckie, Science. 

Excerpt: Foraminifera inhabit coastal and deep-sea marine environments. These microscopic, single-celled organisms are widely used as proxies for relative age determination and reconstructing past climates. The ratio of calcium isotopes (44Ca/40Ca) in their calcium carbonate shells depends on the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbonate saturation in seawater at the time of the shells’ formation. ...Chen et al. (1) report geochemical evidence that a rise in atmospheric CO2 concentration and ocean acidification at the end of the Aptian Stage [~113 million years ago (Ma)] may have caused the largest extinction of planktic foraminifera of the Cretaceous Period (146 to 66 Ma)..., which is second only to the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous Period (66 Ma).... The findings could be important for understanding potential effects of present-day increases in atmospheric CO2 levels on marine organisms.... 

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