Biological responses of sharks to ocean acidification.

ABSTRACT: Sharks play a key role in the structure of marine food webs, but are facing major threats due to overfishing and habitat degradation. Although sharks are also assumed to be at relatively high risk from climate change due to a low intrinsic rate of population growth and slow rates of evolution, ocean acidification (OA) has not, until recently, been considered a direct threat. New studies have been evaluating the potential effects of end-of-century elevated CO₂ levels on sharks and their relatives' early development, physiology and behaviour. Here, we review those findings and use a meta-analysis approach to quantify the overall direction and magnitude of biological responses to OA in the species of sharks that have been investigated to date. While embryo survival and development

SUBMITTER: Rosa R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5377027 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature