Study: CO2 levels may dissolve coral reefs

WASHINGTON, March 10 (UPI) -- A U.S. study suggests the world's coral reefs might begin dissolving if the Earth's atmospheric carbon dioxide content reaches double pre-industrial levels.

Even today, rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the resulting effects on ocean water are making it increasingly difficult for coral reefs to grow, said scientists at the Carnegie Institution in Washington and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The researchers said reefs are being impacted by ocean acidification caused by the absorption of CO2 into seawater and rising water temperatures. Previous studies have shown rising carbon dioxide will slow coral growth, but the researchers said their study is the first to show coral reefs can be expected to start dissolving within only a few decades, unless carbon dioxide emissions are cut deeply and soon.

"Globally, each second, we dump over 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and, each second, about 300 tons of that carbon dioxide is going into the oceans," said study co-author Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution during testimony before a U.S. House subcommittee last month.

The research findings of Caldeira, Jacob Silverman and Long Cao of the Carnegie Institution and Boaz Lazar and Jonathan Erez from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem are to be published online Friday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.