"Study Finds Fish Face Double Whammy From Acidification, Low Oxygen"

"Fish in the Chesapeake Bay and other estuaries face a greater risk from climate change than previously suspected, a new study suggests, as they’re more likely to become disoriented and die in water that is both starved of oxygen and has become more acidic.

Scientists with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, MD, found that the acidification of water, which is caused by higher carbon dioxide levels in the air, can make fish more sensitive to the lack of dissolved oxygen, which can kill them directly or force them to the surface where they are more easily caught by predators.

The findings, published in Marine Ecology Progress Series, pose a particular challenge for estuaries like the Chesapeake, where fish are already stressed by nutrient pollution which drives oxygen levels down in the water. Every spring and summer, the Bay experiences a large “dead’’ zone where fish and crabs have a hard time breathing."

Timothy B. Wheeler reports for the Bay Journal May 10, 2016.