Friday, September 18, 2009

Sea Stars Grow Faster As Water Warms

Purple ocher sea stars prey on mussels. Credit: Dave Cowles

From Live Science:

Climate change will deal clams, mussels, and other marine bivalves a double whammy. Biologists already expect them to have trouble making their shells because elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) levels will acidify seawater. Now it seems they’ll also have to contend with brawnier predatory starfish.

Bivalves are the preferred prey of the purple ocher sea star (Pisaster ochraceus), a familiar denizen of the intertidal zone along the Canadian and American west coast.

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