Evaluation for the effects of increased atmospheric CO2 on marine calcifiers

预计大气CO2的增加会降低海水pH值和碳酸钙饱和状态，使海洋海水酸化。最近的研究表明，海洋酸化导致海胆和双壳类等海洋钙化动物的壳和针状畸形。然而，这些影响的机制尚不清楚。在本研究中，我们对不同pH条件下培养的海胆幼体骨形成相关基因的表达进行了研究。结果表明，已知与Ca2+运输相关的基因的表达随着pH的降低而降低。研究结果首次表明，海洋酸化可以在分子生物学水平上影响海洋生物的钙化过程。

Increasing atmospheric CO2 is predicted to decrease the seawater pH and calcium carbonate saturation state and acidify the oceanic seawater. Recent studies revealed that ocean acidification cause malformed shells and spicules on marine calcifiers including sea urchins and bivalves. However, the mechanism of these effects is still unclear. In this present study, we evaluated the expression of skeletogenesis related genes on sea urchins larvae cultured under different pH conditions. As a result we cleared that the expression of the gene known to be related on Ca2+ transportation decreased with pH decrease. There results first demonstrated that ocean acidification can affect the calcification process of marine organisms at a molecular biological level.