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Ocean acidification is melting crab shells and more

The acidification of the oceans, due to climate change and everything that is dumped into them, is really creating a lot of problems especially for commercial fishing, with many aquatic species now endangered or otherwise disturbed by the contamination of their habitat.

One of the species most affected are crabs, which are seeing their shells melt due to the more acidic water, and this is also causing a progressive loss of their sense of smell.

This condition is causing them a real neural regression, especially in North American waters.

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Ocean acidification is melting crab shells, and more
The acidification of the oceans, due to climate change and everything that is dumped into them, is really creating a lot of problems especially for commercial fishing, with many aquatic species now endangered or otherwise disturbed by the contamination of their habitat. One of the species most affected are crabs, which are seeing their shells melt due to the more acidic water, and this is also causing a progressive loss of their sense of smell.
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An earlier study
A few years ago, research published in the journal Science of the Total Environmen claimed that the more acidic water in the oceans was dissolving the shells of Dungeness crabs (Metacarcinus magister), a species that inhabits the seabed along the west coast of North America. This crab species is particularly important for commercial fishing.
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A new study on the sense of smell
A completely new and separate piece of research, conducted by the University of Toronto and published in Global Change Biology, points out that the acidification of the water is also severely damaging the sense of smell of these creatures, jeopardising their ability to find food, avoid predators and mate, and generally survive.
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The brown crab at the center of research
The new research focused on the study of the brown crab, a specimen that inhabits the Northeast Pacific (although the study is applicable to many other crab species). This specimen has very poor eyesight, and lives its environment by moving its antennae (inside which the neurons responsible for smell are located) in the water.
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What the researchers observed
Cosima Porteus and Andrea Durant, who are the two authors of the study, observed that crabs that come into contact with more acidic waters have a much reduced ability to perceive odorous molecules: for them, the odour has to be ten times more concentrated before an increase in antennae activity occurs.
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A reduction in the number of neurons
Furthermore, what has been noticed is that crabs living in more acidic oceans have reduced, both in number and volume, the neurons responsible for the sense of smell. These are the words of one of the authors of the research: 'These are cells that if they don't work often, they can shrink to save energy. It is like a muscle that atrophies when it is not used'.
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