CO2, is there anything it can’t do? Add it to the list.
Over at WaPo, they call them “supersized”. From Counsel and Heal News (h/t to Gene Doebley):
Carbon To Blame for Oversized Blue Crabs
The use of genetic engineering or steroid enhancements to enlarge certain food products has been popular but highly controversial in the history of the food industry. Based on new research, it seems like certain animals, such as the blue crabs, have found another way of growing that does not require a lab setting. According to research, the side effects of pollution, particularly the emission of carbon dioxide, can lead to oversized blue crabs. Researchers found a link between the growing size of these crustaceans and the growing rate of carbon found in the waters. Although these crabs are growing bigger and faster without the help of scientists, this trend might not be safe for the marine environment.
Hmmm. They seem a little unclear on the giant crab mechanism:
Although carbon dioxide is emitted into the air, it dissolves into the water and saturates the oceans with carbon, which can change how these marine ecosystems work. Saturated waters become acidic, which is detrimental for certain marine animals, such as oysters and corals. These living creatures have calcium carbonate shells, which forms at a much slower rate when the waters become acidic, even if it is only by a small amount. Meanwhile, other creatures, particularly the blue crabs, thrive on the carbon in the water.
…
“Higher levels of carbon in the ocean are causing oysters to grow slower, and their predators – such as blue crabs – to grow faster,” said marine geologist, Justin Baker Ries from the University of North Carolina.
Full story here
Lessee, oysters grow slower, so they won’t reach breeding maturity and replace themselves as fast, and somehow this makes the crabs grow faster?
Maybe this is why it doesn’t make sense, from WaPo, it is recycled news:
The research showing the effects of carbon on marine organisms was published in the journal Geology in 2009. The study, led by Ries and co-authored with Anne L. Cohen and Daniel C. McCorkle, and found that crabs, lobsters and shrimp grew bigger more rapidly as carbon pollution increased. Chesapeake blue crabs grew nearly four times faster in high-carbon tanks than in low-carbon tanks.
Seafood lovers rejoice!
But, ah, another “not in the real world, aka ocean” experiment conducted in tanks. No mention of “giant, oversized, or supersized crabs” in the paper it seems. We’ve been down this road before with “tanked” experiments where they try to extrapolate captive life experiments to the real ocean.
Marine calcifiers exhibit mixed responses to CO2-induced ocean acidification
Abstract
Anthropogenic elevation of atmospheric carbon dioxide (pCO2) is making the oceans more acidic, thereby reducing their degree of saturation with respect to calcium carbonate (CaCO3). There is mounting concern over the impact that future CO2-induced reductions in the CaCO3 saturation state of seawater will have on marine organisms that construct their shells and skeletons from this mineral. Here, we present the results of 60 d laboratory experiments in which we investigated the effects of CO2-induced ocean acidification on calcification in 18 benthic marine organisms. Species were selected to span a broad taxonomic range (crustacea, cnidaria, echinoidea, rhodophyta, chlorophyta, gastropoda, bivalvia, annelida) and included organisms producing aragonite, low-Mg calcite, and high-Mg calcite forms of CaCO3. We show that 10 of the 18 species studied exhibited reduced rates of net calcification and, in some cases, net dissolution under elevated pCO2. However, in seven species, net calcification increased under the intermediate and/or highest levels of pCO2, and one species showed no response at all. These varied responses may reflect differences amongst organisms in their ability to regulate pH at the site of calcification, in the extent to which their outer shell layer is protected by an organic covering, in the solubility of their shell or skeletal mineral, and in the extent to which they utilize photosynthesis. Whatever the specific mechanism(s) involved, our results suggest that the impact of elevated atmospheric pCO2 on marine calcification is more varied than previously thought.
- Received 7 March 2009.
- Revision received 16 July 2009.
- Accepted 21 July 2009.
PDF here: http://www.unc.edu/~jries/Ries_et_al_09_Geology_Mixed_Responses_to_Ocean_Acidification_full.pdf
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Bigger crabs, bigger crops and bigger trees too….Thanks Carbon Dioxide!
But the scary thing is we are getting smaller and turning into Hobbits, so soo we will be on the blue crabs menu ratrher than they being on our! /sarc
Well, it does keep the funding rolling in. What’s next? Weather caused by CO2? Nah, shirley not!
Growing faster, okay, but larger? I always thought that was food supply …. and predation, i.e. fishing/crabbing.
The entire world is “special” these days, not just physics.
“Marine calcifiers exhibit mixed responses…”
Also to consider here is that the genetic variability of many of these creatures is extremely high. Each year produces thousands or millions of offspring, of which only a few survive to breeding age.
That sort of strategy means that in cases of environmental change, the population can be replaced quickly with descendants more adapted to the new conditions.
Exactly, how much carbon dioxide does it take to saturate sea water? I suspect far more than we will ever see on our planet Earth.
“According to research….” then it must be true.
They should do these experiments with their personal insects.
Ok, bring em on…. Love a good old fashioned crab boil, bigger crabs means less effort picking the meat out, Where’s the problem ?
Of course this could lead to an unsustainable increase in pot sizes needed to cook em in……
Cheers, Kevin
Giant crabs? I believe global warming also increases butter production. Other than having to re-tool for larger pots, does anyone see a downside?
well, they claim that AGW causes smaller brains too, so they have that going for them as well !!
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2007/03/expect_smaller_brains.html
“Lessee, oysters grow slower, so they won’t reach breeding maturity and replace themselves as fast, and somehow this makes the crabs grow faster?”
Clearly the previously-giant mutant oysters used to beat up and devour the crabs. Thanks to CAAGW (Crab Approved Anthropogenic Global Warming), the [dinner] tables are turned! BWAHAHAHAH!
Sorry. Long day.
So next time you go to your favorite fast food joint and they ask if you want your order “super sized”, you just blow in their face. If they look startled, just say the CO2 you just exhaled should be a sufficient answer.
This is a joke, right?
A-may-zing.
Crustaceans use hemocyanins instead of hemoglobin for oxygen transport. Instead of an iron atom they have to have a pair of copper atoms to bind molecular oxygen.
Basically all their copper goes into hemocyanin, as crabs and lobsters have evolved to use as little copper in all other metabolic systems as they can; for instance the Cu-Zn superoxide dismutases have been replaced by the normally mitochondrially targeted Mn-SOD.
Crabs and Lobsters are mostly copper limited as their growth needs hemocyanin, hence copper, to support aerobic respiration.
Do not forget the very low pO2 where these animals live.
err… correlation / causation confusion – claimed carbon capturing crabs create Carolina crustacean carbon calcifiers conflict – yawn… I’m bored of these people.
Ohhh noes, the ocean is becoming acidic! Wake me when it becomes remotely neutral.
I thought April the 1st had already gone?!
I’m not entirely convinced that most of these climate “scientists” didn’t, at one point in their careers, work for the Enquirer or The Weekly World News. It’s tabloid science. I wonder how big Bat Boys will be in 40 years? That’s the real question. And do they have a fondness for seafood? This may be our only hope — Super Sized Bat Boys.
This is my favorite part of the WaPo article:
“At UNC, marine geologists are analyzing video of the slaughter that took place when they put mud crabs and oysters in tanks they intentionally polluted with carbon over three months for a 2011 study.
It was like watching lions tear apart lambs. The crabs scurried from their side of the tanks, banged on the shells of the traumatized oysters, pried them open with a claw in a way similar to what humans do with a knife at restaurants and gobbled them down.”
——
Just what exactly were they expecting the crabs to do?
Great. Now they’ll turn us all into metrosexuals.
😉
I see the narrative… Now the mutants are not nuclear contamination anymore but Co2 made.
Poor Godzilla if it was invented today it would be cause of Co2…
Newbie question.
Warming oceans emit CO2.
How can oceans become more “acidic” while they are out gassing CO2 due to global warming?
Shouldnt temp and pressure determine solubility ,not higher atmospheric CO2 levels.
Sorry, this is a bit rude but I couldn’t resist.
Three prisoners in a cell. Two of them are having an argument. The third man asks what the fuss is about.
“You know that bit in the paper about crabs getting bigger?” asks the first prisoner.
“Yeah.”
“Well do crabs walk sideways or forwards?”
“Sideways, it’s lobsters that walk forwards.”
“See”, said the first prisoner pointing to the second man’s pants, “they aren’t going to get any bigger, you’ve just got a bad case of lobsters.”
Giant blue crabs are nothing new.
My friend Dr. Mike had a bad case of giant blue crabs when we were back at university.
I told him to stop picking up his dates in the sleazy downtown hotels.
Problem solved.
So, animals which the AGW hype industry claimed were going to be destroyed by OA are now growing larger. And they are doing this growth now, in the absence of any evidence of pH changes. And the authors offer no mechanism to link the alleged cause, CO2, to the allged effect, super sized crabs. And the authors offer no reason why now these animals are faring well (allegedly) while shellfish are diong poorly (allegedly). What a buncha maroons.